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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
YOUR KINGDOM COME
Considering Christian Citizenship &
Political Engagement
A TYPICALLY BLACK-HUMOURED Belfast anecdote tells of a local man being informed by his cardiac consultant that, unfortunately, he’s going to have to have a heart transplant. The man is understandably distraught, but the doctor reassures him. “You’re lucky,” says the consultant, “we’ve just had two hearts in today that match your needs. One is of a fifty-five year old career politician who died from years of alcoholism, chain-smoking and rich food. The other belonged to a twentyfive year old vegetarian exercise fanatic who keeled over unexpectedly while on his daily jog – I suppose that’ll be the one you want?” “No it is not,” said the patient, “give me the politician’s heart for sure, I want the one that’s had the least use!”
Jokes like that echo sentiments felt the world over about politics and politicians – the rolled eyes, the cynicism, the “wouldn’t put it past them” attitude. In my Public Affairs role for the Evangelical Alliance, I often come across such negative sentiments, but not as frequently as I encounter a general indifference to all facets of public life and decision-making. That indifference, specifically as it is found within the church, can be stimulated to become a positive response to politics, by influence of a Christian spiritual and practical framework.
The theological mandate for Christians to become politically involved is one of our greatest strengths. The Bible implores us to be the ones that provide a vision of how society ought to function and it gives us example after example of engagement, from Joseph to Nehemiah to Esther. This leaves us with a difficult precedent to ignore. Also difficult to ignore is the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray – those who consider Christianity too other-worldly to be of earthly use should consider this key text. “Our father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come…” Right at the start of this Christian prayer politics creeps in. “Your kingdom come” is a value judgement about whose reign is better, and when we pray it, we’re in a power struggle with the kingdoms of the world. As if this wasn’t political enough, it gets even more mundane, moving from kingdom to earth to bread. In an age of enthusiasm for “spirituality”, it’s interesting to see Christianity presented here so practically and with such political potential.
The potential of this resource is made all the more significant because it has something real to offer society. We don’t just want to be involved for the sake of it – we want to be involved because we believe that the Bible is the guidebook for man’s relationship with God, and that it also has the blueprints for our relationships with each other. Whether the issue is asylum seekers or the health service or homelessness or integrity in government, as Christians we believe that the Bible is the manufacturer’s instructions, and that it will serve society well.
We are convinced also that we have some position of strength when we note the past successes of faith-based citizenship and political intervention. From William Wilberforce in the 19th century to the recent coalition effort of the Jubilee 2000 campaign, history is peppered with those who acted politically not in spite of their faith, but rather because of it. Their legacy and example continue to inform our perspective. In making our own response, though, we must be aware of those apparently faith-based interventions in politics that have hampered rather than helped. Northern Ireland knows all too well the potential disaster that is the marriage of faith and politics – we have only to look at the murals in Belfast of ‘For God and Ulster’ to see how our case for offering solutions is weakened. Going back further to the Inquisition in Europe and Prohibition in the United States, attempts to impose belief and behaviour through government policy are clearly discredited.
Christians should also be aware of society’s fear that we are only interested in helping out materially in order to influence people spiritually. We are certainly weakened, though to different extents, by suspicion of a proselytising agenda – we all know of faith-based groups who have failed to get government funding because they felt unable to exclude evangelism from their project plans. Perhaps as Christians we prefer to focus on dealing with personal sin rather than the sin that exists in the structures of society; for example, we might prioritise bringing a prostitute into relationship with Christ over trying to affect the social systems that caused her to originally consider that lifestyle. It is possible that by doing the latter, we earn for ourselves the right to comment with more authority on the former.
Faith-based engagement is weakened when it fails to achieve balance. The tendency of Christian groups to focus on single-issue politics is often evidence of that imbalance, as seen with crusades on abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality. No one denies the importance of those issues, but those issues alone do not make a rounded political or biblical agenda. Perhaps more importantly, those issues are divisive, even amongst believers and lead to infighting amongst the people of God that means the message is overlooked and a powerful constituency is polarised. Those divisive issues are often also perceived to be issues of self-interest, like when the church frets over equality legislation that may force it to employ non-believers, or over new charity law that requires it to prove its social benefit. Every other lobby group operates from a position of self-interest; surely the unique voice of the church is that it shouts for the good of others besides itself.
They say politics is the art of compromise. As people of faith, it can be our assumption that compromise and the gospel are uneasy bedfellows. Politics is negotiation, about winning some and losing others, but whether that requires a faith that is mature or just corrupt is still hotly debated. Quite often it may be that choosing between the lesser of two evils is the price of living in a fallen world – we limit ourselves and His glory when we make decisions as though His kingdom had already come.
There are without doubt positive opportunities that exist for Christian political engagement today. Governments across the British Isles as well as in the USA are asking for input from faith-based groups because they recognise their dependence upon our services and the value of our experience. Labour and Conservative manifestos at the last UK General Election acknowledged churches as partners in community renewal, and in Northern Ireland we are blessed with the sometimes poisoned chalice of Section 75. We should remember we are privileged to have a system of government that is so accessible and representative.
It is strange then, that one of the threats facing Christian involvement in politics is our penchant for working outside that accessible system rather than inside. We are happy to join campaign groups and charities that exert pressure on politicians, but consider the party system itself too flawed, too corrupt. It is flawed and it is corrupt, but it is still how government works and we ignore it at our peril. I worked previously with the Conservative party in the north west of England, advising local councils who had millions of pounds to spend every year and an unquantifiable amount of influence to distribute. Not once did any faith group approach us asking for partnership or with ideas how to help their community. But other groups did, which is the nub – political vacuums are always filled, and if we’re not participating, someone else will.
There is a fear that if religious projects become mainstream government-backed projects, they risk losing their independence and ethos, that thing which stimulated them to act in the first place. We may be co-opted, and our prophetic voice silenced because we have become too much of the world, leant on by government to relieve it of its own responsibilities. We should be aware that as a faith community, we are partners not substitutes, a prophetic voice not a partisan one.
That prophetic voice returns us to our earlier consideration of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus knew better than anyone the potential for compromise and corruption, but he still spent his time on earth healing the sick, helping the weak, comforting prisoners and challenging rulers. Today, we have delegated a great deal of that role to government through politics and as soon as a Christian community thinks seriously about its contribution to society, we are confronted by the need to become involved in government. We have examined the weaknesses and threats latent in our involvement, just as we have seen there exists a strong framework of opportunity as we work towards reflecting His kingdom on earth.
We do not wait for His kingdom by gazing up to the heavens, awaiting that future day. We work towards it by being an active people of God in a fallen world, involved not in spite of our faith but because of it. The cynicism of our friend requiring the heart transplant denies the reality of the majority of politicians, with faith or without, for whom their chosen profession is as much a vocation as medicine or education. Those politicians, and society at large, require us not to be tacit supporters of cynicism or apathy. The system only works if everyone plays their part, and while indifference is certainly one response, it does little justice to the potential of the Christian vision.
HEATHER MORROW is Public Affairs Officer for the Evangelical Alliance in Northern Ireland.
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