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).

Lies, damned lies, statistics and the importance of truth

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 14th July.

Picture by Carolyn Dyk – Wycliffe Bible Translators

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics – so goes the famous proverbial saying; 

Mark Twain attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli, but it has not been found in his writings, and in any case the saying, or some form of it has been found earlier than Disraeli.  But it sprang to mind listening to the pre-election debates where all the parties made various statistical claims about their own policies and disputing the statistics of their opponents.  And even in the aftermath of the General Election statistics are still flying about, again utilised by various people to shore up their viewpoint. There are arguments over vote share, seats won, voter turnout and other issues, which all show that statistics, though often true, are not 'the whole truth and nothing but the truth.'

Even the church is not immune from this: the Church of England recently trumpeted that the most recent church attendance figures has gone up for the second year running – which is true; however, what they didn't say as loudly was that attendance still hasn't returned to pre-pandemic levels.

It's easy to be cynical and despair at politicians and other public figures who use statistics, shall we say, 'creatively' or 'selectively' but we should perhaps consider their use of statistics and use it as a mirror to hold up to ourselves. Because all of us curate an image of ourselves that may be true, but is not the whole truth. Social media is probably the most obvious example of this, where we show the world our 'best' selves, and the 'best' parts of our life (and food!).  But we often do this too in the non-digital world: we tell the best stories about ourselves; we brag (in a humble way) about our achievements; and we impart our superior intelligence, knowledge and wisdom.  The way we look and dress; the things we put in our homes or gardens; the cars we drive (or don't drive); the places we go to and the people we are seen with all contribute to the way we present ourselves and project the image of ourselves that we want others to see.  These images and presentations are often true, though in being perhaps exaggerations of the truth, and only selective truths, they cannot be said to be the whole truth.

It seems to me that we do this because we are afraid that if people knew the whole truth about us, they would not want to be around us.  It is telling that in the Genesis account of the fall of humanity, after grasping for the 'knowledge of good and evil' (i.e. wanting the ability to decide for themselves what is right and wrong rather than trusting God), the first thing Adam and Eve do is cover themselves and hide (Genesis 3:7-8).  In wanting the power to judge they end up judging themselves and wanting to present a different version of themselves than the literal naked truth.  

But although we may be able to fool others, we cannot fool God: he is the one "to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hidden" (Prayer of Preparation from the Holy Communion service) and the BCP Morning Prayer Service says we should "acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloke them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father."  Psalm 139 reminds us that God knows everything about us, including our sins – and the amazing thing is that he still loves us!   Chris Tomlin has written a worship song called 'Indescribable' that ends with these great lyrics, addressed to God: "You see the depths of my hart and you love me the same, you are amazing God!"  He wants us to change and turn away from our sin, but our sin doesn't stop him loving us.  He sees the whole truth about us, but we don't need to hide, instead he says to us:

  ‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’

    says the Lord.

‘Though your sins are like scarlet,

    they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

    they shall be like wool.' (Isaiah 1:18)

 

Elections, Euros and almost certain disappointment!

Here's an extended version of my article for July:

This month there will be two competitions: the General Election and the football European Championships – I'll leave you to decide which is the more important!  One thing both competitions have in common is that the majority of people will be disappointed with the result.  Obviously only one country's team can win the Euros, leading to heartbreak for the other finalist, and the other teams who don't even get that far.  However it's easy to forget this truth with the General Election because we live in a democracy and so assume that the outcome of the election is the 'will of the people.' So it comes as a bit of a shock to realise that since the end of WWII no party has won the General Election with over 50% of the vote (and of course not everyone who's eligible to vote does vote). So although the question of who we vote for is really important, we might also want to ask ourselves how we will respond when statistically we are more likely to be disappointed with the result.

Christianity, unlike Islam and pre-exilic Judaism, has no codes for government as it is not meant to be a 'state religion': Jesus calls his followers into the Kingdom of God, which he says “is not of this world” (John 18:36). The New Testament gives no guidance on what a Christian government would look like, what laws it should enact, nor by what mechanism that government should get its power.  Nor does it tell us, if we have a say in choosing the government, what questions or issues should take priority in our choice, nor what the character of those governing should be.  However, it does tell us that we should pray for the coming of God's Kingdom where his will is done on earth (Matthew 6:9-10); and it does tell us the character traits of those who belong to the Kingdom (e.g. 1 Corinthians 13:1-7) and the sorts of values they should hold (e.g. Colossians 1:9-14.)  But as it is very rare that candidates for election are members of God's Kingdom, and no political party fully reflects the values of the Kingdom - even if the candidate we vote for and their party wins, we are still likely to be disappointed!!

The realisation that we will be disappointed is a great corrective to the inflated sense of the importance of our own views that democracy gives us. We should always have freedom to hold and express our views, but we should also have the humility to listen to other people's views, being open to changing our minds and having the grace to let others change their minds too.  Most importantly though we should read God's word in the Bible so that we are shaped by his thoughts and not “conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind” (Romans 12:2) “then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14).

The New Testament is also more concerned with our attitude towards those in power, however they got it.  Paul and Peter tell us to submit to the governing authorities (Romans 13:1; 1 Peter 2:13), which is even more shocking since the Roman Emperor was the supreme governing authority, and Paul also calls us to pray for the authorities (1 Timothy 2:1-2).  However, we shouldn't obey the authorities if they are telling us to do something that goes against God's commands (Acts 5:29).  If Paul expects the churches to honour an Emperor who was clearly against God's Kingdom, “to slander no one [including the authorities], to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone” (Titus 3:2), how much more should we honour all those who work in public office, regardless of whether we completely agree with them?

So let's not allow our inevitable disappointment (either with politics or football!) to express itself in cynicism, insults and derogatory comment, but instead let's pray for all in authority, that through them God's Kingdom may come and his will be done.

Left image by John Mounsey from Pixabay 

Right image by Prawny from Pixabay 

Brenda, elections and the Archbishops

Here's my article for the June magazines:

You may agree with Brenda from Bristol, and when thinking about the forthcoming General Election exclaim “Not another one!” But whether we like it or not we are having another election. Brenda's reaction perhaps reflects a more widely held weariness about yet another chance to 'have our say'. That is why the Archbishops of Canterbury and York wrote in their recent letter to the Parishes and Chaplaincies of the Church of England that one of their obligations “at these times is to set aside apathy and cynicism and to participate, and encourage others to do the same.”

It is easy to take for granted the privilege we have to vote in democratic elections but the example of the Suffragettes and the Chartists to name just a couple should remind us that the right to vote was one that had to be fought for. And we only have to look around the world to see places where free and fair elections are not possible. However, that doesn't mean that we can be so naïve as to think that democracy is a perfect system nor as arrogant as to think that we should impose Western style democracy on other nations. But here in this country we do have the right to vote and we should use it.

The Archbishops also say that Christians have the higher obligation to pray for those standing for office, and to continue to pray for those who are elected. They encourage us “to engage prayerfully with the candidates and issues in this election” and to “recognise the enormous responsibilities and the vast complexity of the issues that our political leaders face. We are constantly reminded of the personal costs and burdens carried by those in political life and by their families.” This will involve the criticising of policies for their logical, economic and moral flaws and perhaps holding these policies up for ridicule but in our examination of the issues and policies we should not forget that the politicians are all human beings.

However, importantly, the Archbishops say that “Contemporary politics needs to re-evaluate the importance of religious belief.” This might seem an obvious thing for them to say but their further statements show that this is deeper than saying that religious belief should be respected. They say “Religious belief is the well-spring for the virtues and practices that make for good individuals, strong relationships and flourishing communities” and “The assumptions of secularism are not a reliable guide to the way the world works.” They are reminding us that none of us are neutral or impartial in our outlook, all of our actions and thoughts stem from particular worldviews; some religious, some non-religious. A point of view should not be dismissed merely because it is a religious view. In fact, only religious viewpoints make sense because without a belief in God, concepts like good and bad, and right and wrong cease to have any objective meaning: they simply describe whether we like something or not (see the video "Can you be good without God?" by Andy Bannister).

However you decide to vote, and whatever the result, the Christian prayer to God remains the same “thy kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven.”