In case you’d missed it, many of us can vote for the London Mayor and members of the London assembly this coming Thursday. This is an opportunity to influence how our city is run for the next four years.
As Christians who’ve understood the gospel promise of the future Kingdom of God we know that whoever ends up as the Mayor or in the London Assembly is not the answer to our deepest problems. Governments are not our saviours, God is. But being our saviour, God has ordained Governments for our good. Therefore, God requires us to be good citizens, to care for our society and therefore to participate in the process of governing our country. In short, like so many other created things, politics is important but it’s not all important. We might think we’re better off just ignoring political involvement and concentrating on gospel ministry. But that’s naive and unbiblical. Admittedly, the Bible helps us put politics into perspective. We mustn’t idolize it but neither must we dishonour it. We mustn’t be fanatical about politics and think that life and death depends on whether Boris or Ken get in. But neither must we be disengaged, frustrated and scorn the political system and simply opt out. Therefore we’re to vote but not get our hopes up.
If we’re to live in a successful democracy then this requires a literate and knowledgeable electorate.
[Therein lies a significant problem, but that’s for another time. Those who suspect my inclination towards a beign military dictatorship can relax. I’m not about to argue for the dismantling of our liberal democracy. As long as you’re prepared to accept that neither is it anywhere biblically mandated].
We can play our part by investigating the policies of the candidates, forming an opinion and having something to say. One of the easiest ways to do this is through the BBC London web site. I want to help provide some principles for a Christian approach to voting. I’m not going to tell you whom to vote for.
Of course, the first thing that we ought to be doing is praying for the election. We ought to ask God for wisdom to make sensible decisions, for the candidates who are seeking to be elected and for God’s will to be done in the election. But here are three principles that’ll help inform our vote. I think they were gleaned from the Christian Institute web site prior to the last General Election mixed in with some recent reflections from reading John Frame.
1. Vote for the benefit of others
Philippians 2 says, ‘In humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but to the interests of others.’
It’s fundamental to the Christian world view that as followers of Jesus Christ we’re devoted to the good of others. He gave himself up for us and therefore his followers will endeavour to put their private interests aside and seek instead to serve the wider community. That’s a hugely different approach to many who will be voting with their own concerns in mind.
Psalm 82 says, ‘Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’
And so when we read the manifestos we need to think through the impact on others and in particular the marginalised, the disadvantaged and the vulnerable. So the others we especially ought to be thinking about are the poor, the unborn, the elderly and the immigrant. And so we’ll need to think about the environmental issues like congestion charging, airport expansion and emission charging, medical ethical issues like euthanasia and abortion and social issues like poverty, youth crime, immigration and asylum.
2. Vote for the moral health of the country
Proverbs 14 says, ‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people’.
Most political manifestos try to appeal to aspirational motivations. But we’re Christians and so we ought to be relatively disinterested in aspiring to a better material life in this world. What we ought to be concerned for is moral righteousness. We’ll need to think through how policies will impact family life and marriage, homosexuality, poverty, corruption and so on. I’d love to belong to a country that was a credit to the gospel and not a disgrace in God’s eyes. It may be that we’re unlikely to find a party who have a consistently Christian approach to Government who can get elected. We’re fortunate enough to have a Christian candidate in Alan Craig who is prepared to argue a Christian view. If he achieves 5% of the vote will gain a seat on the London Assembly. But we should only vote for him if he’s good at governing not simply because he’s a Christian. We’ll need to read his manifesto and look at his web site to come to an opinion. If we decide that we’re going to look at alternatives, we ought to vote for parties whose policies approximate to God’s will expressed in scripture. God’s ways are right and therefore they ought to be obeyed. God’s ways are also wise and therefore pragmatically they’re the best way to govern.
3. Vote for the good of the gospel
1 Timothy 2 says, ‘I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases God our saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth’.
Good government enables Christians to get on with being godly and enables God’s missionary ambitions to be fulfilled. Therefore, there’ll be some policies that hinder gospel proclamation in this city and others that promote it. For example the position on religious education, religious broadcasting or the incitement to religious hatred will impact our freedom to talk about God, Jesus and the Bible. In addition, the construction of the East London Mega Mosque and how the candidates handle that issue will say much about their attitudes to the Christian faith and Islam.
Conclusion
My hope is that these 3 principles will help us vote as a Christian on 1st May. In church I’m not allowed to tell you who to vote for but I can tell you who I’m encouraging my wife to vote for! I’ve encouraged her to vote first for Alan Craig and then for another candidate. Alan is unlikely to become the Mayor but the percentage of the vote he receives will indicate how influential the Christian constituency has become. He may well gain a seat on the London Assembly and so if we vote for The Christian Choice as the London Wide Assembly Member and that party achieve 5% of the vote he’ll get a seat. He is worth considering not simply because he’s a Christian but because he’s a Christian with proven ability in local government.
