Well - New York City – a place of Riots gangs, muggings and looting – oh no actually that's Croydon isn't it. I have to say I really did not expect that my holiday to the Big Apple this year would actually take me further away from police shootings and gang violence – but maybe that is a lesson in preconceived ideas.

But coming back in the wake of a tumultuous week in Britain – one question seems to be everywhere. Why did these things happen and, in that very British way – who can we blame for it. Before long we are going to need a public inquiry into the number of public inquiries we have going on. Maybe that's too cynical, maybe we should want to understand the things that happen and learn lessons for the future. Either way, asking where this behaviour came from is a natural part of the response.

Now Hainsworth in his pulpit is not likely to be able to answer that question and nor should he particularly try. And yet I was struck by the connection between that question and the gospel reading and its debate about the source and origins of all sorts of evil - murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander – sounds like a night out in Manchester at the moment doesn't it.

Of course I would never wish to suggest that any complex social issue can be addressed on the basis of one short gospel story. Nor is Jesus addressing such questions directly or completely.

What he is doing is contradicting the Pharisees belief that purity is a ritual matter – that it is about washing in certain ways at certain times and obeying certain ritual expressions of outward purity – rather than focussing on an inner purity - a purity of heart.

Its probably worth clarifying that Jesus probably had nothing against personal hygiene and nor is his assertion that what enters the mouth has no bearing on the heart an excuse to go back to bread and dripping and ditch the Flora pro-active spread. Other spreads are of course available.

But at the heart of his reasoning is the claim that evil is not an external pollutant that is out there somewhere threatening to invade us. Rather more worryingly, he suggests that evil is already resident in the heart. Not, you will note the heart of any particular group or class or section of society. Just in the human heart. And therefore potentially your and mind as well as 'theirs' whoever the bogey man group of the week might be.

Contrast that with some of the explanations given in the press in recent days. Some of which are somewhat predictable. In fact we could play a game this morning of match the editorial to the newspaper, but I'll spare you.

The Daily Mail placed the blame at the door of the quote 'underclass' and the benefits culture.

The Independent blamed racism.

The Daily Telegraph pointed the finger at absent fathers.

Ken Livingstone cited the cuts in local services.

The Sun blamed the lack of weapons available to the police, presumably feeling that the best answer to violence in the streets is more violence in the streets. Because that worked so well in Belfast and the mining communities I suppose.

The Daily Mirror blamed it on the boogie – citing the malign influence of Gansta Rap.

The Guardian, most entertainingly described them as “shopping riots” characterised by 'consumer choices'. Which must leave advertising executives at Comet wondering if they should consider it a good thing that looters chose to do over their shop rather than the branch of Currys across town.

Meanwhile the Daily Express stated that none of this would have happened if Diana was still alive. Or I might have made that last one up.

Anyway as a liberal Anglican of course I'm going to say that all of these people may have a point and that certain degrees of truth are probably in the middle of all that somewhere. Although I do think that none of these are based on any sort of research into who was actually committing these acts.

And each of these explanations appears to be raising issues that do not seem to directly explain the desire to loot your local branch of Nando's. There are relatively few social evils that can be alleviated by some stolen roast chicken, even with some of that excellent lime sauce that they do. Other sources of roast chicken are of course available.

You do get the sense of a certain amount of agenda pushing going on all round. And there is another common thread. In all of these cases, evil is held to be an external force. They are all theories of pollution. Pollution by culture, by music, by economic or family circumstance or political correctness or politics in-correctness or whichever bogeyman or philosophy is your preferred scapegoat of choice. In each case people are held to be blank slates, formless clay ready to be moulded. And in each case there is an enemy that can be identified and fought off. And most importantly, an enemy that is not me. Not someone like me. Not my community, not my way of life. Its them. Whatever I opposed before this happened, - that is what made this happen. And having diagnosed for you the problem, I can now sell you the cure to the ills of our time. This seems to connect with Jesus' warning about blind guides.

Maybe after all this the answer is in fact no more profound than a load of people realising that they fancied a few pairs of trainers and a new mobile phone and going and so they helped themselves while they thought they could get away with it. If its is true that out of the human heart comes all manner of evil intentions, we should be wary of those who claim that a quick ideological or political wash will lead us to purity.

Now I do want to speculate a little on what Jesus might have had to say on the subject if he had been one of those commentators or editors. But a caveat applies. It is just as important that Christians don't fall into the same trap and use events like these to push our own agenda, as if we uniquely can identify the problem and sell people the solution. It is not wrong to want to connect our faith to what we see on the news. Its just that it is easy to end up in the ditch with the other blind guides.

That said, Jesus did have a tendency to turn the question back on the one who asked it, so perhaps we might imagine that he would have taken a similar line to the rather brave MP who pointed out firstly that the poorest in society were more likely to be the victims of the violence than the perpetrators, and secondly that that if we think that a smash and grab, I'll take what I can and forget about everyone else culture is limited to the so called underclass, we have forgotten pretty quickly about bankers, reporters, stock traders and his fellow politicians and MPs. In other words, before you look for the bogeyman out there, have a quick check to make sure its not you.

Maybe the problem is not out there at all. Not political or cultural or sociological but biological Maybe its in here. In the heart.

In case this is all too depressing and seemingly fatalistic however, we might also imagine that He would go on to remind us that it is out of the same human heart that love and service, self-sacrifice and compassion flow. The same human heart that beats in Him and in us....and in them. Whoever they might be this week.

Or perhaps he might simply have written with his finger in the dirt, before like so many people in their local communities of whom we can be justly proud, picked up a broom and started sweeping up the mess.

Other responses are of course available.