Who'd have thought....?

Well, so there was an (admittedly failed) attempt at theological discussion at the Treasury Select Committee yesterday, initiated by an MP to the Chief Executive of Barclays, who appeared seriously out of his depth....then continued after a fashion on the website of the Guardian newspaper. Click here for more. Strange days indeed.

Matters of government...

Had a fascinating morning today. Along with 14 0r 15 other local church leaders I went to visit our local MP, Gareth Johnson, at the Houses of Parliament. Visiting Parliament was an experience in itself; so much history in the building, so many good stories. Truly it is an amazing heritage - with the twist that we don't often remember, that it all belongs to us, the British people. And we have the right to visit, to be part of it because it is our parliament.

Having said that, the heritage and the surroundings I think can be a mixed blessing, creating an illusion of significance for the UK which is maybe just not appropriate in the 21st century; and becoming a "bubble" for the politicians at Westminster, remote from everyday life in towns like Dartford.

But the point of the morning today was that our MP wanted to open lines of communication with church leaders - and that has to be a good thing. It will be interesting to see how things develop.

Back to the election build-up...

Just thought I'd highlight a couple of useful links to go with the post last week about the forthcoming election....The Jubilee Centre always has useful stuff on social and political issues, and they have here a video quiz to help you to vote ethically! And Care have launched a special election website, with what looks like it will be a series of responses from Christian leaders as to what the key issues will be from their point of view in the election campaign.

X marks the spot

Well, there's going to be a general election this year, and already I've found myself willing the politicians to just announce the date and get on with it. Interesting post from Simon, another Pastor in SE England, about some of the issue for Christians as they consider who to vote for.


At the moment, I honestly don't know who I'll vote for when the time comes, and the process of trying to work it out doesn't seem straightforward either. Maybe things will become clearer as time goes on. It struck me though that there are all sorts of reasons why people vote in the way they do, including Christians. But many of them seem increasingly inadequate as the pace of change in society continues:

• Family/personal history: we've always voted Conservative/Labour/whatever and to do anything else is a betrayal of some kind.
• Ideological commitment: only trouble with this is that the gap between the parties ideologically is hardly huge at the moment. There are differences but, on the whole, they seem to be about how we develop a certain kind of society, not what kind of society we want.
• Issues perceived as "fundamental": Could be pro-life issues (abortion, euthanasia, embryo experimentation); or maybe family and morality issues; or indeed issues of justice and poverty. Two problems here it seems - first, no mainstream party seems to tick all the boxes for many Christians on these issues, and second, how do you prioritise among them?
• Personality: There are various twists on this - so and so seems a good bloke, hasn't been caught with his trousers down or fiddled his expenses too much - to the more "spiritual" one where you vote for a Christian even if they're not from a party you'd normally support.
• Working through policies: This sounds like it should be the right answer, and does have a lot to commend it. Reality is, however, that most of us don't have the time or the expertise properly to compare manifestoes, check alleged costings etc
• Self-interest: For many, including I suspect many Christians, it maybe comes down to this, crass though it is. But even then, of course, our choices might backfire in any case...

Any thoughts on how we work our way through all this? One thing I am sure of is that easy answers are likely to be wrong ones. I'm guessing we'll need to pray, think, discuss, argue even. Then make our choice and trust God with the outcome.

Swiss rules...

Reaction to the referendum result in Switzerland yesterday, banning the building of minarets on mosques has predictably been mixed (see here for the story on the BBC). It all seems a bit unlikely in Switzerland of all places, but, then, I've never been there and wouldn't know. What is interesting is how quick some have been to condemn the Swiss decision who you don't hear saying anything very much about regimes which actively discriminate against and persecute Christians (or if they do say anything it's not reported). On the other hand I fear that there are some Christians in the UK who could be alarmingly envious of what has happened in Switzerland, who seem to live in almost perpetual fear of Islam, and regret that we as Christians aren't accorded more special treatment from the powers that be by virtue of the church's role in Britain's heritage. The question such good folk are asking it seems to me is, "What kind of country we want to live in?". And it's a fair question. But I'm not sure it should be the first question we should ask if we're serious about living as followers of Jesus. Maybe that should be something more like, "What kind of church do we want to be part of?". And the answer, for me at least, would include something about being part of a church that's sufficiently confident in the message of God becoming human with all the vulnerability of a baby - a baby, who grew up to die in a uniquely sacrificial way and ultimately defy death itself; sufficiently confident in this message and its intrinsic power that we don't need state support, aren't always after the government fighting our corner and aren't unduly threatened by any other belief system, however belligerent some of its adherents might be. In other words, we shouldn't be after anyone legislating against other beliefs or even in favour of Christian beliefs, as if that somehow proved something - either about us as believers or about the rest of the society in which we live.

One final thought: can you believe they actually had a referendum on this in Switzerland, when we didn't even get one on the EU constitution? Maybe not much else happens in Swiss politics or something...