David Chillingworth: Both politics and faith must look beyond the confines of the nation

Published on Wednesday 10 March 2010 19:56

KEEP OFF! It is the classic response of politicians to church leaders who comment on political issues.

"You stick to your preaching and we'll deal with the important stuff!" So Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy's recent Progress Lecture on faith and politics broke a mould.

On one level, I welcome that. Indeed, the Scottish Government has been making welcome attempts to consult with faith groups.

But this initiative looks like a fairly blatant attempt to align the Labour Party with a "faith" vote. Members of churches and faith groups support many political parties. What concerns me most is the way in which his picture of faith diminishes it – it feels as if he is "shrink-wrapping" it to fit a political manifesto.

Faith group leaders do an equal disservice to faith by identifying a specific "faith agenda" – a shopping list of social and moral issues which becomes a currency in which political support might be traded.

There are of course key issues for faith groups – "end of life" issues is an obvious example. Faith groups must continue their dialogue with government and politicians about these and other similar questions.

But Mr Murphy's lecture cries out for a grander vision of what faith means and the true contribution of faith to national life.

Mr Murphy believes that fairness is a key component of faith. I believe that faith is more than fairness. Fairness says that, "I'll allow you to have your due if I have mine".

But faith is about justice – in particular justice for the poor. Faith says: "I cannot rest while the poor and the weak suffer." Faith is about love and sacrifice – not about splitting the difference in the interests of fairness.

I have to confess that I was simply astonished by the five key areas which Jim Murphy identified as being of concern to people.

They were: their worries about antisocial behaviour; the challenge posed to the welfare state by a minority who can work but won't work; the importance of patriotism; the need for a firm but fair immigration policy; the benefits of shifting from a "something for nothing" society to a "something for something" society.

Those are seductive suggestions – but, in my view, they are a particularly flat-footed expression of fairness. They are the politics of the supermarket check-out.

They are regressive because they invite us to think nationally rather than globally, to pursue those whom we deem to be workshy, and to close our borders to the poor of the world on the basis of a "firm and fair" immigration policy.

People of faith – and politicians too – should have bigger visions: a new vision of how peace can be built, how creation can be honoured, how the poor can be fed, how the weak can be protected, how an inclusive and tolerant society can be built.

Politicians may say that those are not the stuff of practical politics. But I believe that politics should be aspirational. I believe that people should be encouraged to rise above the appeal to self-interest which is the reality of much political campaigning today.

I believe that we have to find ways in which the big global issues can find a viable expression in our national political discourse.

To engage in serious dialogue with politicians is what churches and faith groups must do. If that is what Mr Murphy is hoping for, I shall be delighted and honoured to join in that debate.

But I hope he will understand that I feel that my faith has been diminished – shrink-wrapped – by his picture of it.

&#149 The Most Rev David Chillingworth, is Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church