The other day a parishioner said to me, “With a General Election coming soon, I’m looking forward to reading your Marston Times articles over the next couple of months.” I made a wry face and said something like, “I don’t think so. I’m thinking of giving up politics for Lent.”
Then I thought that, probably, that’s what we’d all like to do right now. Or maybe what we would like better, is for the politicians to give up politics for Lent. Wouldn’t that make a better world, for all of us?
Well, no, actually. It’s true that this seems a pretty desperate time in the political life of the country, about the worst I can remember. There is widespread disgust with politicians, across the whole of society. Many of us feel disillusioned or betrayed by hopes unfulfilled, promises broken. A Labour Government, which promised so much, took the country into controversial wars which have cost a terrible toll in human lives and billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money - and for what? It failed to regulate the financial sector, riding on the popularity that accompanied the “good years”, and has left us and our children with trillions of pounds of debt. It promised to focus on “Education, education, education”, yet crippled the schools with a programme of worthless tests, rather than real teaching and learning; while higher education, which was already underfunded, now faces further stringent cuts in funding. Worst of all, we read that the gap between rich and poor in British society is now greater than it has been for 40 years. Is this what we voted for?
But it’s not just Labour that has disappointed. The Opposition leaders talk a lot but fail to inspire confidence. They may all put on a friendly face, and seem like jolly good chaps; but it’s easy enough to make promises, when you’re not having to deliver. It’s not clear that enough people trust the Conservatives, still, or believe they really understand ordinary people; while the Liberal Democrats may command a lot of respect, but many people feel a vote for them would be a wasted vote.
And all the time the scandal over MPs’ expenses casts a shadow over Westminster, leaving a general suspicion that the people we are trusting to make decisions that will affect all our lives, are venal and self-seeking, chiefly interested in feathering their own nests. No wonder so many of us are left undecided about how to vote, or even whether to vote.
And yet, we can’t give up politics - not even for Lent. Politics is about how we order the life of our society, so that it functions for the good of all citizens, especially to protect the most weak and vulnerable. It is far too important to leave to the politicians. Generations of our forebears campaigned and sometimes even died for the right to vote. In many other countries of the world people are still doing that, and long for the rights and privileges we take for granted. The Christian view is that we have not merely an option about whether to vote, and how. We have a Christian duty to vote, and we have a duty to cast our vote not on the basis of what will benefit us personally, but on the basis of what God wants.
What does God want for human society? The Bible suggests that the most important task of Government would be to deal with that inequality between rich and poor. Economic inequality has been shown to be the chief cause of most social problems: crime, ill health, depression, addiction, social unrest. For the rich, this will mean a tax regime which makes them pay a fairer share of the costs of society, and reduces their inordinate wealth. For the poor, it means helping to lift them out of poverty. Of course, throwing money at a problem like poverty is not the solution: the real poverty is not financial, but a poverty of spirit, a lack of hope, opportunity, imagination, meaningful work, the sense of contributing anything valuable to society. The only remedy for these ills, will come from a return to Christian faith, morality and practice. We need a Government which will assist this, rather than continuing to marginalize the Church and Christianity.
The next few months will be a critical time for our society. We need to care, and then to pray. Pray for our nation, for those who carry out our political decisions - it is, after all, a pretty poisoned chalice they will be picking up. To vote as we have prayed. And then to go on, and on, praying.
Published in the Marston Times, March 2010