Manifestos, pledges and promises

OIKOS is a fantastic ecumenical initiative in Brigg, that run a Christian shop, a Food Bank, a Community Pantry and more! I was asked to write some short 'thoughts to start your week' for July 2024 for their Facebook page. This is an expanded version of the thought for 28th July.

As the dust settles on another General Election, the hard work of governing begins, not just for the government but for the rest of parliament too in their various rôles. Part of that work will be to enact the promises made during the election campaign and especially in the party manifestos. This is obviously the case for the new government, but the other parties too will likely continue to argue for their policies. However, in our cynical age a YouGov survey this year found that just one in five (20%) people believe that winning parties generally keep to all or most of their manifesto promises. Fully half of Britons (53%) think that parties go back on most of their promises, and 22% believe they go back on all or almost all of their pledges. This may account for why 308 people voted for Count Binface in the Richmond and Northallerton constituency this year: number 10 on his list of promises was “I pledge to build at least one affordable house.” That's a pledge which has a chance of being kept!

But as the saying goes, when we point a finger at someone else, three point back at us! Politicians will come up with reasons/excuses for why they can't keep their pledges - the financial situation was worse than they thought; the issue was more complex; vested interests prevented them etc. - but we often make promises with little or no intention of keeping them. We'll promise to do something or go somewhere, knowing that we're going to make a 'subsequent appointment' that will prevent us fulfilling our promise, or that we'll 'forget' and 'sincerely apologise' later. We make these promises to 'keep the peace' or stop someone nagging us, or we do it to make ourselves look good. No wonder the Bible says that “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9 New Living Translation). We think the worst of others because we know how bad we ourselves can be.

So when it comes to God's promises, we can cynical about those too, judging him by our own standards. This is particularly so when we feel that he is not listening to or answering our prayers. The topic of 'unanswered prayer' is a huge one, but for now a couple of comments will have to do: firstly, we are to pray “your will be done” (Matthew 6:10 and 26:39) – we can tell God what we'd like to happen but we should leave it to him to answer our prayers “as may be most expedient for us” (Prayer of Chrysostom). Secondly, the Bible tells us bluntly “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:2-3). Our hearts can often deceive us into thinking that we're asking with pure motives, but our prayers are often selfish and self-promoting.

Returning to the theme of God's promises, the Bible assures us “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19) and “The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does” (Psalm 145:13). So God keeps his promises, even if we don't. According to researchers, the Bible contains more than 7,000 promises from God to his people. Studying them gives us assurance that he loves us, he is in control, and he will never leave us. I'm not going to list all 7,000 but here's two really important promises: Jesus said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28) and “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).