Do you agree with those who say the Church should stay out of politics?

When faced with criticism from the Bishops, Mrs Thatcher was in no doubt about this as can be seen in her speech "sermon on the mound' to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May 1988.

It was one of the most arrogant speeches she ever gave, basically telling the church to stick to preaching about sexual morality and to stay out of politics (social reform).

Tory MP, Nadine Dorries has recently echoed this view in the Daily Telegraph that the Church should concentrate on saving souls they say.

Saving souls was what Jesus came to do but he also said “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”.

He called his disciples to be ‘salt and light’, metaphors for being agents for change, stopping decay and pushing back the frontiers of darkness.

That can mean different things for individual Christians and the Church.

There are four important contributions the Church can bring to the political world. The first is exercise a prophetic ministry in society.

As Kenneth Kaunda, the former Zambian President, suggested “what a nation needs more than anything else is not a Christian ruler in the palace but a Christian prophet within earshot.” Isaiah and the other prophets in the Bible demonstrate the wisdom of this.

The Church can also serve as an agent of reconciliation in a politically divided society so long as it avoids becoming partisan.

Jesus not only reconciled people to God but also people like Matthew the tax collector to Simon the Zealot and this can be important in an adversarial political system like ours.

The Church has an obvious duty to spearhead prayer for the nation. 

Apostles Peter and Paul both called for Christians to pray for those in government and the need for this continues to be obvious.

Finally the Church has a prime responsibility to teach believers to relate our faith to our duties as citizens of the nation as well as of the Kingdom of God.

If churches pay limited attention to this aspect of discipleship it is no surprise that we have little influence in politics and society is becoming increasingly secularised.

We are all the voice of the Church, not just the Bishops.

With that in mind “Who is my neighbour? A Letter from the House of Bishops to the People and Parishes of the Church of England for the General Election 2015” is an important document.

It calls for “a new kind of politics” and explores the kind of society and culture they think we should seek.

It is non-partisan and rejects the old left-right divide without succumbing to Blair’s ‘third way’ and politics should focus on seeking the common good rather than serving sectional interests.

Whilst the State and the market have important roles, neither has given us a more humane society.

Predictably the letter has been attacked by politicians and the press.

The former unfairly accuse the Bishops of naked partisanship and the latter described the letter as an election manifesto.

It is neither.

We may disagree with some of its thinking and its omissions but we should welcome this attempt to think in a ‘Christian’ way about politics and government.

How does your faith influence your politics?

 

Perhaps it leads you to support a particular party or, at the very least, to do your civic duty and vote in elections.

For some Christians the answer is that politics has no place in how they live their faith, for a host of reasons.

These include the argument that politics and religion are a toxic combination and should be kept in separate compartments.

They point to what the Islamic State is doing in Syria and Iraq in the name of their religion or the ‘troubles’ in Northern Ireland is another example.

They are shocking examples but how reasonable are they as grounds for opting out in a stable democracy?

Nor is the argument genuinely Christian as it is more of a secular humanist point of view.

Christians who opt out of politics leave the major direction of our country to people who are ignorant of and indifferent to biblical Christian values, that is the route to making Britain a secular society.

Another objection to political involvement is that politics is a dirty business.

The MPs expenses scandal is cited as an example, politicians never give a straight answer to media questions and they are only interested in winning power, it is claimed.

Specific policies and legislation such as the Same Sex Marriage Act are cited as evidence of their bad influence and they rightly recognise that compromise is inevitable in politics and that is incompatible with their Christian worldview.

Many issues facing Government are complex and people disagree about them.

Some want immigrant labour whilst others experience the effects of this on school class sizes and NHS waiting times.

Some want a generous benefit system whilst others want to restrict public expenditure and encourage all who can do so to find a job.

Dictators impose their will; democrats compromise.

A more persuasive objection to political involvement is that Christians have other priorities – evangelism, pastoring and teaching, for example.

These are important responsibilities but they are not incompatible with prayer for our governors and voting once a year.

This prayer should include how we vote so that God’s will is more likely to be done here as it is in heaven.

Britain is becoming increasingly secular and the evidence can be seen in some of the legislation before Parliament.

Religious freedom is better respected here than in in some other countries but there is no room for complacency.

On Tuesday 3rd February 2015, MPs voted to legalise medical techniques that make possible designer babies despite opposition from the Church of England, CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) and other Christian organisations

The 0.7% of GDP given in overseas aid also needs defending from those who say charity begins at home.

Churches are doing excellent compassionate work in food banks, street pastors and debt counselling but we need to try to influence social policy so that these initiatives become less necessary.

So what are you and I going to do about all this?

As citizens of the UK and the Kingdom of God we should be praying about what God would have us do with our dual citizenship.