Langsung ke konten utama

Faith and Politics


I read a comment on Facebook the other day that annoyed me.  (I know - Facebook is not the place for reasoned comment in the first place!)

The writer was lamenting that there should ever be a link between faith and politics and believed that where there was, disaster followed.

I believe the opposite is true. Especially as regards the UK.
.
Take a look at our last four Prime Ministers. Three have a faith. One does not. Three managed our nation with reference to our past, our heritage and our beliefs. One did not. Three tried to hold us together as a nation. One destroyed our nation.

Two of the four Prime Ministers are children of the manse. One is the son of a Presbyterian Minister. One is the daughter of an Anglican Vicar. The third has a clear Christian belief which includes reading the Bible every night.

The other has no such belief system. In two short terms of office, he destroyed our concept of Christian marriage and sent the nation into an isolationist and economic spiral that will take decades to recover from.

In attempting to deal with an unruly right wing in his party, he played politics with our future. He took an inappropriate referendum to an ill-informed people and with little fact and considerable rhetoric, the vote was for isolationism. More seriously, it opened us up to extreme right wing views and made them appear acceptable - something we are seeing in a number of nations.

The Prime Minsters that had a Christian faith kept us within the bounds of decency and applied their faith (knowingly or not) to the decisions they took. The Prime Minster without a faith played politics with the nation.  And we all lost.

Label:

Komentar

Posting Komentar

Postingan populer dari blog ini

Nontando and the Merit Shop

The first time Miss Turner noticed her, she stood quietly at the back of a group of girls. She and her brother were fairly new arrivals at Bulembu, their parents having died of AIDS. Nontando was a shy girl, Miss Turner thought. The girls were there to spend their merits. All the 400 rescued children were in school in Bulembu and merits were given for good work and good behaviour; rewards to spend. Miss Turner was particularly pleased to land the job of running the merit shop. She saw many of the children she cared for in the trauma unit- those that had been most deeply affected by their loss. And she saw Nontando. Each term, when the shop opened, Nontando came. And each term she stood with her friends, looking on as they spent their merits on sweets, books, toys and comics. But not Nontando. She just stood, quietly watching. ‘Hi Nontando, don’t you have any merits to spend?’ ‘Yes Miss.’ ‘So where are they? Where are your merits? What would you like? Sweets? A book maybe?’ ‘No Miss. I...
Posting Komentar
Baca selengkapnya

Two Giant Steps

Most of our journey through life is made in small steps. What the writer Eugene Peterson calls ‘A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.’ A coffee here, a meal there. A conversation one day, a car journey the next. Small integral parts of life’s direction. Occasionally, a giant step comes along. For us two have come at once. The first is the start of KingsGate Community Church Leicester . Our first (amazing!) meeting was last night. As someone who had spoken often of the possibility of KingsGate planting a new church into Leicester, it is the realisation of a dream. And a giant step. The other giant step comes as we drop our youngest child, Lois, off at Heathrow later today, as she starts her long obedience in the same direction. She is travelling out to Bulembu in Swaziland to serve as a long term missionary. For us, it means an empty house for the first time, with the other three children having already moved away. Two giant steps. Two key moments in our lives. And fuel for the j...
Posting Komentar
Baca selengkapnya

A Real Church Welcome

The welcome poster is from Coventry Cathedral. I put it up as a Facebook post originally and it gained a lot of comment and interest- so here it is on the blog. I hope and pray our church is like this. We probably need to improve, but I hope we're on the way. I love the welcoming language. I love the categories of people mentioned. And I love it that on Facebook, a couple of friends who admit they no longer have their Christian faith of old, both said they'd go to a church like that!
Posting Komentar
Baca selengkapnya