Thought for the Week: It's important not to tread against the innocent

Michael Connolly, reckoned to be one of America's finest crime writers, dedicated one of his books thus: "This is for the librarian who gave me 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. This book, authored by Harper Lee, was first published in 1960, reflecting racial attitudes in Alabama and has never been out of print.

Harper Lee has not published anything since and has refused all media interviews.

The book's title is taken from advice the hero of the story gave to his children. Atticus Finch, a lawyer when talking to his daughter Scout, a tomboyish six-year-old, and his son Gem, a reflective 10-year-old, said: "Mockingbirds don't do anything but sing and make music for you to enjoy. They don't cut up peoples' gardens; don't nest in corncribs; they don't do one thing, but sing their hearts out. That's why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird".

The novel is a story about innocence abused and Gem detects as much. Attticus defends in court an innocent black man against a charge of raping a white woman. The residual prejudice in the community is unperturbed about such a situation and the local newspaper editor Mr Underwood likens this charge to "the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children".

The betrayal of innocence makes it appeal with some force and highlights an issue always with us. St Paul in the New Testament urged Timothy (chapter 5, verse 2) - "do not share in the sins of others".

Jesus Christ was severe on those who corrupted the innocent (St Luke 17, verses 1-2) - "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but to that person through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than for them to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves".

It is easy to think of those who have betrayed the innocence of the young and the judgment due to them will come even though it seems to tarry by our reckoning.