In my last post, I wrote about some kind feedback I had received about my writing and went on to talk about the dangers of getting too political. I had expected the post to take a different direction, but space limitations made it develop differently, so this month, I want to honour my promise to my conversation partners by writing about the thing we discussed.
That thing is the place of “religion” or “faith” in politics. I disagree with those who think that the voice of faith communities should be excluded from the public sphere. The idea that people who are guided by their faith should not be allowed to raise objections to some proposals (or even, conceivably, to suggest them!) has been promoted by atheists for many years, but it is founded on a false assumption – that a “non-religious” worldview is “neutral” or “objective.” The truth of the matter is well articulated by Tim Farron, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, who wrote, “Everyone’s views are shaped by a complicated mixture of their background, beliefs and assumptions. Nobody operates in a morality-free vacuum.” Indeed, many of the most fundamental values of western societies today are often called “common sense” or, to borrow a phrase from the US Declaration of Independence, “self-evident,” but in truth, they have emerged from Christian teaching. And as I said last time, I would like to see the politics of God’s Kingdom shaping our kingdom because I believe God’s values are for our flourishing.
What interested my conversation partners most was the fact that 26 bishops sit in the House of Lords. There, right at the heart of the machinery of our national government, we find senior representatives of the Church of England – people who are undoubtedly guided by their faith. Much is made of this by critics who remind us that the only other states with religious leaders in their government are Vatican City and Iran!
Should we be worried about this? I don’t think so. For a start, and helpfully, the bishops sit in the House of Lords as independents (not as supporters of the government or as its opposition). Moreover, they only represent about 3% of all the Lords and they rarely all attend at once, so their votes are unlikely to swing any but the most divisive of decisions. They come from a variety of backgrounds and bring with them a wide range of expertise and experience from their academic and professional lives. From their daily work, they also have a keen understanding of the concerns of the people from the villages, towns and cities in their dioceses. And they leave the Lords when they retire! On balance, I think we should be far less worried about them than about the ever-increasing number of party-political Lords who are appointed for life by outgoing Prime Ministers.
May you know the blessings of Jesus’ kingdom.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash