The church and the re-moralisation of Britain

2011 could mark the beginning of UK Christianity becoming socially desirable again.

Even the most complacent secularists would be hard pushed to deny the moral black hole that is engulfing our young people. The recent death of a 79-year-old lady from head injuries sustained whilst trying to prevent teenage muggers from snatching the bag containing her husband’s ashes has in some ways been more troubling for the denizens of the permissive society than the August riots.

It could have been their mum.

This year even saw one of the evangelists of 1960s’ permissiveness, broadcaster Joan Bakewell, harking back to the morals she learned at Sunday school.

Christianity could find itself back in demand from the political and media establishment to provide the spiritual and moral bedrock for the re-moralisation of Britain.

Christians re-beckoned into the corridors of power should not let it go to their heads though, for such requisitioning of Christianity to the cause of morality for the sake of social stability is an old European power game.

It is utterly Napoleonic and the Corsican bandit, whose power-crazed ego ravaged Europe, played the game par excellence. He wanted the Church to become respectable again after the hammering it received during the French Revolution but only for his own ends. Napoleon “thought that the clergy made admirable schoolteachers, at least in primary schools, instilling in their young pupils simple morals and a respect for duly constituted authority” (see Paul Johnson, Napoleon, Phoenix, 2003, p48).

But truthful Christianity is a lion when it is unleashed onto a society, not a mule that can be pressed into service by opinion-formers worried about social stability. Christianity does bring good order and stability and responsible freedom and many other blessings to societies, but it does so when it proves the prevailing value systems to be utterly inferior.

Christianity, when it is true to itself, captures the morality, customs and laws of nations, not with military might, but with the truth of God’s Word.

Because Christianity is a worldview that confronts fallen humanity with the exclusive claims and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ over the whole of life, it is intrinsically in conflict with the idolatrous worldviews sinners substitute for the true God.

Two examples show this, one from the New Testament, one from 18th century British history. When the Apostle Paul preached Christ’s gospel in Ephesus, as recorded in Acts 19, there was a riot because what he was teaching clashed with the cult of Artemis, the goddess of the Ephesians, whose worship enveloped even the local economy. Christianity divided the city.

In the 18th century, Britain was nominally a Christian country but when the evangelical revival burst onto the scene it caused conflict. Wesley, Whitefield and other evangelical preachers faced hostile crowds and were ridiculed as ‘enthusiasts’ by the establishment. The decadent status quo in 18th century society had a stake in moribund Christianity. Vital Christianity challenged that status quo and social division resulted.

This social division arises not because of those preaching the truth - provided they are humble and faithful in the way they proclaim and live it - but because of the sinful human tendency to resist the truth of the gospel. Christianity may yet become socially desirable again, but we must beware the pitfalls: the inevitable opposition to our message and a concern for community cohesion must not lead us to muzzle the truth.