I enjoyed the switching on of the Christmas lights in Stafford market place this year. It must be the child in me but the sparkling coloured lights and the smell of roasting chestnuts stirs up a sense of wonder and delight.
Stafford Council bravely purchased some new crib figures this year, rather going against the trend of multi-faith everything. But then only a tiny minority among us wants either a mish-mash of beliefs or an empty manger. Most of our Muslim, Sikh or Jewish neighbours are glad to be in a Christian country where they respect our faith and we respect theirs, and they seem to wish we Christians were a bit more up-front about our beliefs.So the crib-set in Stafford set me thinking about the market place in our secular society. Originally the king granted a licence for a town to hold a market and the sheriff guaranteed law and order. A market where you could freely and safely buy and sell was a big step-up from robber barons taking half your produce. But there were problems if one of the stall holders bought up the market and made life difficult for rival traders. So in today's world there may be problems with monopolies or if private firms are allowed to purchase the stock-exchange, unless the government is very careful to provide regulators, the modern equivalent of the sheriff.
What about the market place in ideas? When St Paul visited Athens he was able, as a foreigner, to bring his ideas freely to the Athenian Market place and to argue with the locals, both sceptics and followers of various faiths. The whole point of Christmas is that Love is offered by God in the form of a gift than can be accepted or ignored. It is the amazing mystery of Christmas that we are free to respond as we will.
It is because of this that freedom of speech and allowing people to present the truth as they see it is such an important feature of modern Christian democracy. It is part of the role of government to provide open spaces - a kind of secular market place if you like - for people to test out the rival truth claims and ideologies of our time.
In that sense a Christian country is also a secular one. But that does not mean that a free country must be one where religion is only a private matter and the public square remains empty of the baby Jesus. An empty square is impossible anyway. All governance rests on values and values are in the end a matter of faith. Different religions have different values and teachings and these need evaluating, not mixing up. England became a nation because the missionaries long ago persuaded our pagan chieftains and kings that the rule of the Prince of Peace was preferable to constant war and banditry. The Christian faith became "by law established" because it was through the teachings of Christ that we got our rule of law.
So it is good to have a debate and a market place of ideas but the market place cannot be left empty for the whole year. If we don't put the very best of our spiritual values in the centre of public life, less good values will find their way in. Nature abhors a vacuum. My prayer is that, just as Stafford Council has decided to invest in a new crib-set in its market place at the centre of things, so the people of this country will make room in their hearts for the gift of Love come down at Christmas.
"And the government shall be upon his shoulder."
A very merry Christmas!
Jonathan Gledhill
Bishop of Lichfield
