Just one day to go! One day until all the campaigning stops and Britain goes to the polls to elect a new national government and vote in local elections as well. For the last weeks and months politicians have been plastered over newspapers and TV screens. The electioneering seems to have been going on forever.
As I reflect on the campaigning I see claims and counterclaims being made; opinions about who should get into bed with whom and personal attacks getting more nasty. In a situation where the country faces big challenges, numbers have been thrown about, blinding us with science, with each party seeking to persuade the electorate that they have the answer that will solve probably unsolvable problems.
As someone who has been on media training courses, I'm amused to see how questions are evaded and how they engage with the interviewer. The full force of the specialist makeover has been apparent. Hairstyles are changed, clothes updated – even the shoes of female party leaders and prospective candidates changed to appeal more to voters.
I have travelled the country and have met with Christians who really want to engage, but just do not know how they are going to cast their votes. I have met those who are so disillusioned that they have given up. Sadly many of these got involved in making their voices heard at the time of the same-sex marriage debate only to see their involvement totally disregarded. Last time I wrote about the danger of a ghetto mentality emerging. That is still a real danger and we must all be on our guard, lest our despair cripples our desire to engage and show up.
The veteran political watcher Adam Boulton wrote this weekend of the "wearing down" of the election campaign on politicians and journalists alike. He lamented the lack of passion in the campaign and that voting will be done merely out of a sense of duty.
All quite cynical stuff, yet there is another perspective which we lose at our peril.
The Church is stepping up to the plate. Hustings events presented a unique opportunity to find out where local candidates stand. This is intelligent democracy at work and it is the churches across the land who are holding these events, over 350 at my last count, even more than at the 2010 General Election. What a witness and an amazing way to build relationships.
We need a biblical perspective on what is happening. It is true that the world will not be put right by politics, but it is right to have hope for politics, but hope for politics as politics. It is not true that Jesus said nothing about politics. He lived in a highly politically charged environment, an occupied country, yet taking the coin He told His followers to give to Caesar what was his and to God what was rightfully His. Among His closest friends were a freedom fighter and a collaborator.
It is of course true that the Bible does not prescribe for a good transport policy, or whether health care should be privately funded or provided by the State. There is no suggestion of the best way to set interest rates either, but politics has been described as the "art of living together in community" and the Bible's teaching is precisely about what it means to be God's people living in His world. Politics and the exercise of political authority in our world is an extension of God's stewardship mandate. We need to think prayerfully and carefully about the representatives we elect. Our choices are an opportunity to reflect God's agenda for society.
Moreover, we need to have a longer term perspective. Firstly, because the battles we fight will not end with the election results on May 8. There will be other elections and governments, if God allows, and we must not just think we have engaged and then stop. Relationships begun must be nurtured and built on. The changing face of our political landscape moving from a three-party to a five-party system creates opportunities to seize. Secondly, of course, the bigger picture is that this is God's world and the authorities of this world are established by Him "to do us good."
So I have the faith to believe that in a changing political scene, as at the last election, there will be men and women of God standing and elected because they see the call of God on their lives to serve their country and uphold His truth and justice in an alien world. Let us support and pray for them in this often lonely and precarious calling where the temptations and stresses are so great. Above all let us thank God for them and the fact that the God of history is using His people to bring about His ends and purposes.
Nola Leach is the CEO of CARE.
