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Editorial
Alwyn Thomson
Comment:
Politics: serving God and doing good!
Ethel White
From
the Director: Cultivating the common ground
David W Porter
ECONI
Statement: Confidence in God
October 2002
Postbag: Letters to the Editor
Why
vote?
Alison Laird
Communities
of hope
Lord Alderdice
Transformation 2003: Killing for God?
View
from the south
Patrick Mitchel
Church
& state
Esmond
Birnie MLA
Taking
the plunge
John Kyle
Faith
in politics
Interview: Rt Hon Paul Murphy MP
Your
kingdom come
Heather Morrow
ECONI
Statement: Forum for Peace & Reconciliation
January 2003
Bible
study series: Faith in the future
David
W Porter
Through
a glass, darkly
Changing Women, Changing Worlds Conference
Review:
A night in November by Marie Jones
Noel
McCune
Book
Reviews
Alwyn Thomson
For
God and His Glory Alone:
Study 3: Reconciliation
For
God and His Glory Alone:
Study 4: Peace
COMMENT
POLITICS: SERVING GOD AND DOING GOOD!
THE WORLD OF THE
EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH – an empire, a confident occupying power,
local dynasties, established interests, at best not welcoming the birth
and spread of a radical group (in the view of others) who lived by different
values and did not conform culturally or religiously. With the benefit
of hindsight we can see
how the early Church were on a collision course with their parent religion
and with the totalitarian empire. They were pioneers and therefore had
little idea of where they were going and what they might encounter. So
how should they approach politics?
It seems, on reading the New Testament, that it wasn’t a major concern. It hardly gets a mention. They didn’t vote, there wasn’t a choice of parties representing their or anyone else’s interests. They were stuck with what they had and didn’t expect or aspire to anything different. So perhaps it is not surprising that the leaders of the church had so little to say about politics. This context affects how we interpret what they did say in comparison with our own situation living in the privilege of a democracy where those in power are there because we have voted for them.
Paul in Romans 13:1-7 isn’t calling the authorities to account, telling us, and them, what they are to do, what they have to live up to. Rather he is telling his readers what their responsibilities are: to submit, not to rebel, to do right, to pay taxes, revenue and respect, all this despite corruption and self-interest on the part of the authorities. We so often use Paul’s words wrongly to hold our politicians to account, to evaluate what they do and more often than not to condemn them for not meeting the standards we set for them.
Peter argues along similar lines in his letter (1 Peter 2:13-25). Although Paul’s and Peter’s readers had no power, their attitude was not one of thinking ‘what are they doing for us?’ but rather one of concern that the authorities should fulfil their God-given task, even if they, i.e. the authorities, weren’t aware of it.
Across the world
today there are many Christians living in
states where they are persecuted for their faith and where they have no
opportunity to contribute significantly to choosing who governs them.
Choice of governing party or state of which they are citizens is just
not possible. We know of many of these situations through missionary organisations
and many of us pray for persecuted Christians. Yet our approach to politics
in Northern Ireland is usually either tinged with self-interest for our
particular community or else dismissal because of the fallen nature
of how politics is done and who politicians are and how they live their
lives. Some also refuse to get involved out of biblical principle.
Like all human endeavour
politics is affected by the fallen
nature of the cosmos: we should not expect anything else. Like all humanity
politicians too are in need of God’s transforming love. We, in our
fallenness, judge and condemn rather than showing mercy and seeking good.
The adversarial nature of western democracy and the media appetite for
new news has created an environment where politicians are continually
on the defensive, living on a knife-edge where the least little misdemeanour
in either word or action could spell doom.
Politics is about
serving God and doing good. ‘The one in
authority… is God’s servant to do you good’ (Romans
13:3-4). What further reason do we need for getting involved in politics,
either by becoming politicians or by engaging with them? In this country,
as in most Western countries, we are free to get involved ourselves, to
meet and engage with any and all of our politicians and avail of the opportunity
of influencing their perspective if not their policy. Will we find ourselves
condemned because of failing to take this responsibility seriously?
Recently I attended
some meetings where politicians from all parties were addressing and listening
to ‘the other community’. My preconceptions were challenged
by those with whom I would traditionally have had the greatest differences
of opinion. However, what was equally disturbing was the poor turnout
to engage with the politicians. On the way home from one such engagement
I passed a church where people were meeting – it was a week night.
It struck me that so often we have prayed
fervently for transformation of our politics, yet we fail to realise that
we could be the answer to our own prayers
by getting out there and influencing our politicians on behalf of the
Kingdom.
DR ETHEL WHITE is a research scientist in the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland and a lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast. She is a member of Orangefield Presbyterian Church and is the new Chair of ECONI.
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