Party political identity and Christianity: The conference season

In the British political calendar there is an odd season just before Parliament comes back for the “long” push towards Christmas. It’s the conference season. Members of political parties in the UK congregate in chosen cities blessed with the windfall of a populous gathering and the accompanying bar bill payments that go along with such a jamboree.

There are main events. Ministers speak about their plans for the future. Party leaders do some rabble rousing. Meanwhile political lobbyists sponsor fringe events to promote industry tax breaks. The church, and faith groups within the parties, will put on meetings.

But what does it mean to be a Christian and a member of a political party? The spirit of belonging to a party can be just like a faith. What if Christians start taking their party identity more seriously than loving their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?

This week it came to pass that in his speech Tim Farron MP, a Christian and the current President of the Liberal Democratic Party took a sarcastic snipe at Nadine Dorries MP, Conservative Home and the Daily Mail, claiming they think that Nick Clegg leads the country. According to other reports , he also called Tories “brutal”, “appalling” and “evil”. Those are fighting words. In due course Dorries, Tim Montgomerie (a Christian and founder of the grassroots conservative blog ConHome) and Tim Shipman of the Mail responded. Dorries claimed that Farron’s political ambition has outflanked his commitment to God. Montgomerie challenged Farron to a debate via twitter. Shipman’s article is broader though Farron is quoted extensively.

Some of this is conjured-up political antagonism. Each of these people has different audiences. Farron’s comments (at least in his speech) were meant to be taken with good humour. However there is a little truth to the tale that because of his position and possible ambition within the party, he has to distance himself from social conservatism (with a little c) which can still be found in segments, though not the majority of his party.

But readers will be glad to hear that such exchanges are the exception amongst Christians in politics. Rather we should be encouraged to think about joining a political party and influencing it for the common good, whatever political colour we tend toward.

Just before the last election, Krish Kandiah of the Evangelical Alliance asked a number of politically minded people to contribute to a book which would promote political involvement to Christians. It’s a bit dated now but worth a read if you’re interested. It’s entitled Just Politics and includes forwards by the then three party leaders who faced off before the ballot box in May. It also includes interviews with thee Christians from the main political parties. One lost his seat. One is the current head of the all party group Christians in Politics, while the third is now a Minister of State for pensions in the coalition government. Such is the fate of folk in politics.

The interviewed politicians are members of diverse political parties. They don’t all share the same backgrounds, but they are all Christians and have fascinating stories to tell. They pray together in special monthly services. They jointly share the desire to feed the hungry, protect the weak and see the Gospel message spread. They have different views about how to fulfil those goals. Just as iron sharpens iron, healthy disagreement is allowed and should be encouraged. But it is also the case that our political identity becomes so important that we tend to forget our final allegiance is to loving God and our neighbour. In daily life we counter this by letting comments slip and biting our own tongue while giving someone the benefit of the doubt. The same is true in politics.

Another good resource is the Susa website currently run by the Bible society. For a deeper look into the role of faith in public life, why not check out Theos, the public theology think tank.