"So which party should Christians vote for? Each of the three main
parties has strong Christian roots. Christian socialism, the Tory party
at prayer and the free-church conscience are all important parts of our
political history."Today there are convinced Christians in all the parties; the parliamentary prayer meetings at Westminster are well attended by all sides, and Christians are present in all the special political interest groups. That is hardly surprising because Christianity is an "incarnational" faith; Jesus was God who became human in one place at one time.
"That means that whichever part of the country you look at you will find Christians getting stuck into local life in a quite practical way. So you often find Christians representing rural interests or urban interests, business interests or workers' interests. At first sight it looks as if this might be because Christianity has nothing to say about our political life and that Christians blindly vote for their own interests.
A bit more thought, though, shows that in fact it is a proper thing that people of good-will identify with their community to such an extent that they feel the pressures under which that community labours and can be advocates for them.
"The same thing applies to many of the great debates of our time; you can usually find Christians on both sides. But as a generalization it is true to say that Christians are likely to lean a little to the left on social and community politics - to be concerned for trade justice and for the prisoner, the environment, the asylum seeker and refugee - and to lean to the right on more personal and individual questions - to be a little more conservative on euthanasia, abortion, sexual ethics and family life than the average citizen.
"The result is that for most Christians none of the parties quite fits with our conscience. Equally all the political parties find it difficult to go after the Christian vote; because they all know that the churches are critical friends, encouraging them to be much more adventurous in releasing third world debt and much less careless about the undermining of family life. There is some evidence that the local Christian voice is being heard in some places at least and that would-be governments are starting to listen more carefully.
"The Conservatives are right to point out that in public life personal honesty and politics cannot be separated; but they are wrong to cheapen the campaign by calling Mr Blair a liar. I am glad to have met and talked with almost all the MPs who represented this area in the last parliament; I was impressed by their integrity and genuine desire to serve their constituency. They do not deserve the constant mockery of the sketch writers. We need to value all politicians who seek to serve their communities, regardless of the particular views they hold; and Christians should pray for all the candidates and for those who are eventually elected.
"The least we can do as critical friends who value democracy is to cast our votes next Thursday and to pray for a good team to be chosen to govern our country. It is a Christian duty to vote; and I want to encourage members of our congregations and all people of good will to turn out next Thursday to play their vital part in our democratic process."
Jonathan Gledhill
Bishop of Lichfield
29th April 2005