How should Christians vote? A guide to #GE2017

In the highly unlikely event you are signed up to the mailing lists of all major Christian charities, you will have been inundated with general election guides, 'our priorities' emails and suggested questions for your local candidates.

For the rest of you, I have saved you the bother.

Below is a summary of what the main Christian groups are urging voters to think about with less than a month to #GE2017.

Strict rules bar any direct support for a political party and charities must be careful to remain independent during the election campaign.

But that does not stop some, as you will see, steering pretty close to the mark.

Joint Public Issues Team

A network of the Baptist Union, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church, JPIT is  asking voters not to have election fatigue and make sure they register to vote.

Perhaps offering a direct challenge to Theresa May's justification for the election that she needed a strong mandate, the team at JPIT say that 'strong government' and 'strong leadership' are not necessarily good things.

In what comes close to a political intervention they argue for restraining any large parliamentary majority: 'In modern democratic systems overwhelming Parliamentary majorities reduce the need for Government to listen and respond to other opinions.'

The Evangelical Alliance

Focusing on the theme of love, truth, justice and freedom, the EA asks voters to think 'What kind of society do we want?'

Careful to be seen as not leaning to the left or right politically, it has a helpful list of pressing questions to ask your local candidate under each theme.

CARE

The Christian lobbying group CARE has an equally comprehensive election website entitled Engage.

Looking at family, life and justice, the Westminster-based charity has expertise in different policy areas that is in-depth and superior to most others.

Quakers

Known for its historic political activism, QuakerVote has put together an in-depth briefing on the movement's four key topics of concern – climate change, nuclear weapons, forced migration and economic inequality.

It also has a particularly useful guide for how to run a hustings if that is something you are considering.

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is calling for a priority towards the most vulnerable with a particular focus on supported housing, residential care of older people and areas of high deprivation in the UK.

In a dig at the Tory's current plans for housing the denomination warns that 'many supported housing services, including our own residential centres for people experiencing homelessness, may be forced to close, with residents left to find alternative accommodation in an increasingly competitive rental market and without the additional support their needs require'.

It calls on the next government to provide 'stability for residents' in supported housing.

Christian Aid

Quoting its chair Rowan Williams' words about this election being a choice over 'the soul and future of our nation', Christian Aid has four key focus points for this election.

The commitment to our foreign aid budget looks settled, but the charity also asks for the UK to play a leading role on climate change, to make tax more transparent, particularly in developing countries and to support the 65million refugees and people displaced within their own country.

Children's Society

The Children's Society is unsurprisingly rather more focused in its remarks, asking parties address concerns about young people's mental health and make counseling provision compulsory in schools.

In particular it also focuses on a legally binding 'breathing space' to give families time and space to repay their debts, with no rising fees or visits from intimidating bailiffs.

Know an organisation that isn't on here but should be? Contact Harry Farley on hfarley@christiantoday.co.uk or on Twitter @harryfarls

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