DON'T LEAVE YOUR FAITH AT THE DOOR
Our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, released a video this week in which he accepted that Christian values cannot be kept out of the public arena. This represents a small change in approach from the Government. The argument has been regularly expressed by Cabinet Ministers that “faith matters” are for the private arena only. In other words it is perfectly acceptable to hold whatever religious views you like privately so long as you don’t express those ideas when speaking about public issues. That view was expressed very forcibly by Polly Toynbee, a prominent journalist and a leading member of the British Humanist Society, on Any Questions on Friday evening (8th January 2010). She said that one of the lessons to be learnt from the incident with the Christmas Day bomber in America was to reinforce the fact that religious ideas should be kept merely for the private sphere and excluded completely from the public discourse. Her non-religious views are, of course, perfectly acceptable in the public sphere. But isn’t a philosophy based on a rejection of God a religious statement and philosophy in itself?
Mr. Brown has now made a contrary statement to what many of his cabinet colleagues have been saying. He has departed from the Alistair Campbell dictum that “we do not do God.” Mr. Brown is now saying, “I don’t subscribe to the view that religion should somehow be tolerated but not encouraged in public life, that you can somehow ask people to leave their faith at the door when they enter a town hall or a Commons chamber.” He went on to say, “If Christians engage with politics then all of us together can build a society where wealth helps more than the wealthy, good fortune serves more than the fortunate, riches enrich not just some of us but all.”
These statements are to be welcomed although with some caution. Michael Foster MP who is a minister in Harriet Harman’s Equalities Office recently accepted that the proposed Equalities Bill will lead to legal action between churches and atheists. He said both parties “need to be lining up (their lawyers) by now.” This Bill has been described by George Pitcher who writes for the Daily Telegraph as an attempt to “drive religion from the public sphere.” So the sincerity and validity of the Prime Minister’s recent utterances have to be very strongly questioned. The list of specifically anti-Christian laws passed in recent years is too long for us simply to accept what is said in one video.
The reality of the strong anti-Christian current within our nation has provoked the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, to call on the Christians to be much tougher in defence of what they believe. He said on BBC Radio 5 last week, “We have to be more outspoken.” That is most welcome. I recently heard a leading Evangelical teacher express the view that Christians will need to be much more careful about what they say. If by that he merely meant that we need to make sure we express ourselves more clearly and intelligibly then I agree with him. But as I listened to him I felt he was saying that we need to hold back on what we say and avoid being outspoken. He was wrong!
One of the most eloquent spokesmen for Christian truth in our nation is Rt. Revd. Dr. Michael Ali, former Bishop of Rochester. He has spoken out very clearly about the threat of Islam to the values that underpin British society and culture. He is constantly drawing attention to the glorious contribution the Bible and its teachings have made in the history of Britain. He has also warned that the loss of those values based on the Bible will be utterly destructive to the nation. So he argues, “We, and the generations to follow, will have to live with the consequences of this dissolution of a moral and spiritual framework for our common life.” He said this as part of an article dealing with the clear threat to Christianity posed by the proposed Equalities Bill.
Mr Brown’s video of this week demonstrates that there is a major battle of ideas raging within our society. The question really is whether Christians, or people from other religious backgrounds, can be expected to put their faith to one side when dealing with or discussing public issues. Can we understand the recent financial crisis without dealing with the issues of greed and selfishness? The fact that these matters have not been discussed thoroughly enough is seen in the Prime Minister’s other assertions in his video where the pursuit of wealth is still being maintained as the primary goal of a society - for good ends of course! The determination of Bankers to proceed with massive bonus payments and to absorb the tax penalty the Government has instituted shows that the real lessons have not been learnt.
The reality is that anyone who has had an encounter with God and who has come to faith in Jesus Christ is a new person with new values and new ways of thinking (2 Corinthians 5:17). To ask such a person to put their new values to one side when they engage in their duty as citizens is actually to deny them the right to participate at all. They cannot relate to anything without reference to their Lord and Saviour and what He has taught. That some Christians do put their faith to one side and advocate that for others is one of the great disgraces of our present age. The fact that Christian ministers would even contemplate being silent, or at least not stating forcefully, some Biblical truths because they might go against some law established by the Government is unbelievably treacherous to Christ. The horrifying approach that some Preachers adopt of playing down certain Biblical concepts (like sin, repentance, and hell) because they are offensive to some hearers is shocking in its cowardliness and inadequate understanding. How can anyone, who knows Christ and remembers His willingness to sacrifice Himself for them and the vindication of God’s Truth, contemplate anything less than total commitment to Him? There must surely be in any true believer a determination to be bold in proclaiming His truth in every forum they are able.
The Early Christians believed that obedience to God and faithfulness to His Truth was more important than personal liberty or comfort (Acts 4:19-20 & 5:29). The question for Christians at the beginning of 2010 is whether we will have the same devotion to our Lord and whether we will stand up and be counted for Him whatever the cost!