How should politicians talk to faith groups?

May 24, 2010 – 8:44 pm

I’ve been wondering recently how politicians should relate to churches and other faith groups. What sparked it was a service at Coventry Cathedral this Sunday. The event was basically a get-together of several different churches in the city, and had a short slot where a leading local councillor was asked about how the city as a whole is doing, and what major things we could all pray about.

What struck me was that he was basically talking in political language, talking about how he hopes everybody in the city can get along with each other. There wasn’t really a hint in what he said or how he said it that he was talking to an audience of Christians. Read More »

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Post-Election Thoughts

May 14, 2010 – 8:42 pm

Whilst it wasn’t the most exciting election of recent times, it certainly proved to be the most interesting. Here’s some brief thoughts on how it went.

Nationally, the big three parties all lost. Labour lost a lot of seats, the Lib Dem surge lost them seats, and the Tories frittered away what had been a massive poll lead, and didn’t get enough seats for a majority. The only parties who won in terms of the voting were us Greens, getting our first MP, the Northern Ireland Alliance Party, who also got their first MP, and Plaid Cymru, who picked up a seat.

In the local elections, Labour were the big winners.The big three parties all benefited from the locals being held alongside the general, and Labour was the party which, as a result, gained seats. In fact, in some wards in London, this led to paper candidates tripling their vote, and shooting past parties who campaigned hard to double theirs.

For some good analysis of the national picture, take a look at Jim Jepps’ blog

Anyway, we now have a Lib-Con coalition. On the upside there are some signs that the deal has reigned in some of the Tories’ pro-rich policies, and we’ve got nice-looking things like the new Freedom Bill, which will revoke most, if not all, of Labour’s attacks on civil liberties. On the downside, are the savage cuts they’ll be making to public services. If you’re a Lib Dem member or voter who is unhappy about this new alliance, The Greens will happily offer you a new political home.

One more piece of post-election analysis that’s worth pointing to is from The Jubilee Centre, who reminds Christians why we’ve no need to panic about how bad the new government might turn out,
and that we still have a duty to pray for the the new government.

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Election Goodness

April 26, 2010 – 1:18 pm

I’ve not had time to write anything here for a while, mostly due to a combination of real life busyness, but also due to having had an emergency operation a couple of months back, which I’m recovering from quite well. So here’s a few things related to the upcoming election that I would have shared earlier.

Firstly, there’s the Vote for Policies site, which allows you to find out which party reflects your views on a range of policy issues. The Green Party is the most popular party on this measure (at 26.47% as I write this), so it’s a shame that the actual election result is very unlikely to reflect that.

Then there’s the Green Party’s make your own election video, based on our party election broadcast:

If you’re a Christian wondering whether or not you should bother with the election, then here’s 10 reasons for Christians to vote and a whole host of resources aimed at Catholics explaining why bother to vote.

There are a whole host of websites offering summaries and analysis of the different parties’ policies on various issues. However, I really don’t have the time to try to compile a useful list of them, so you’ll just have to go hunting.

And, finally, something amusing I stumbled across this morning is that, according to this article, the Tories apparently think that promising to give us “the power to plant trees” gives them some kind of credibility on environmental issues.

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Do cars cause snow chaos?

January 13, 2010 – 10:44 pm

As readers in the UK will know, we’re currently undergoing the annual panic about how a few inches of snow are bringing our country to a standstill. I’ve been wondering whether one of the reasons this happens is that our society is built around travel by car.

The reason I’ve been wondering this is that, as somebody who travels everywhere by foot or by bus, I’ve barely had any trouble. My bus journey to work is almost entirely unaffected. It’s been a little bit slower, allowing me the time to finish the Metro (the free paper they give out on public transport) by the time I get to my stop, but still on time. On foot, the main difference is that I’ve had an excuse to wear my walking boots. When I have slipped, it’s mostly been on water in a subway – the exceptions being when I’ve been out late in the evening, it’s been dark enough that I have trouble watching my footing, and the snow is in the process of freezing. Meanwhile, my colleagues who drive to work have had all sorts of complaints.

Now, obviously it is possible to have a car culture in a permanently snowy place – that’s what snow tyres and snow chains exist for. But such adaptations aren’t worth it where snow only happens for a week or two each year. Also, the snow and ice does cause problems getting around on foot for the disabled and elderly. But for those of us who are able-bodied, I think we’d suffer far less disruption from the snow if we were less dependent on our cars to get us around.

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What’s Wrong with Capitalism? 2: The Love of Money

November 8, 2009 – 4:48 pm

dollarsignThis is the second in my series on what’s wrong with Capitalism. I started with some Definitions, to help any readers who aren’t familiar with Capitalism and the ideas surrounding it.

The Bible talks a lot about money, and the main thrust of what it says is that, although money and possessions are good things, loving either is both sinful and bad for us. Hebrews 13:5 says this:

Keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.

Loving money gets in the way of our relationship with God and our ability to enjoy the good things in life.

So what does this have to do with Capitalism? Well, one of the most fundamental problems I have with Capitalism is that it both encourages and depends on this particular form of idol worship. Read More »

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Why Nutt is probably in the right

November 4, 2009 – 8:22 pm

Professor David NuttBefore continuing with my critique of Capitalism, I thought I’d comment on the Professor Nutt story. If you’ve not been following the story, David Nutt was, until last week, the head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He was then sacked by Home Secretary Alan Johnson because of a lecture he delivered where he essentially said that government drugs policy was not in line with the scientific evidence. Alan Johnson believes that Professor Nutt had “crossed a line” into politics, whilst Professor Nutt doesn’t believe that he has done so.

Whilst I sympathise with Mr Johnson – having your advisers criticise your policy in public does make it a lot harder to work with them – I think firstly that Mr Johnson appears to have handled this situation very badly (sacking Professor Nutt has simply highlighted that drugs policy is not based on scientific evidence), and secondly that Professor Nutt is, on balance, in the right. Here are two reasons why. Read More »

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What’s Wrong With Capitalism? 1: Definitions

October 31, 2009 – 8:46 pm

dollarsignLast week I did a short talk outlining some of what the Bible has to say about money for an evening about managing your money well. That, and a number of other things I’ve spotted over the last month or so have made me particularly aware of the moral issues involved in the way we as a society handle our money. So I thought I’d offer a Christian critique of the system.

Capitalism (which, for the uninformed, is the economic system in which we live) has recently been described as “anti-Jesus” by campaigner Michael Moore. Whilst I wouldn’t go so far as to say that living in and contributing to a Capitalist economy is incompatible with Christianity, I do think that the system itself has some serious flaws, that it actively encourages some sins, and that Capitalism – at least as currently set up – has some “institutional sin” – it embeds certain sinful activity into the way our economy works.

But before we launch into this series of critiques, I want to start by offering some definitions, because before discussing the problems with a system, it is vital to ensure that you actually understand the basic nature of what you are criticising. Read More »

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Why GM Crops will not feed the world

October 26, 2009 – 8:06 pm

GM Crop cartoon
There’s been a couple of news stories recently concerning genetically modified crops. It seems that there are those advocating that GM crops could be an important element in feeding the world’s population. Of particular note is a report by the Royal Society saying that we should research GM technology and the Government’s chief scientist arguing that GM crops should be grown in Britain.

My response is that GM crops are highly unlikely to be a useful tool in fighting hunger, even in a world with a growing population and a changing climate. Here are a few reasons why.
Read More »

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Tory Conference: Thatcherism is back

October 8, 2009 – 7:52 pm

Following the media and blogosphere coverage of the Conservative Party Conference, I’m left with the impression that the Tory Party has abandoned all attempts to paint itself as anything other than the party that the country was desperate to see the back of back in 1997. Gone are attempts to spin the party as offering “Compassionate Conservatism” or as being eco-friendly. Instead, we have a party that is clearly looking to the interests of the rich and powerful rather than the interests of the poor, weak, and excluded. Like some other commentators, the Tory conference has left me very glad that I don’t support them.

I’m going to pull together a number of the policy announcements (yes, the Tories have policies for the first time since the last election) they made that show that the failed economics of the Thatcher/Major years are back at the heart of Tory thought. This post is intended as an overview of the whole thing, with links to more specific commentary elsewhere.

Read More »

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Creation and Environment 5: Restoration

October 4, 2009 – 4:43 pm

This is the final instalment in our series on how a Christian doctrine of creation should prompt Christians to care for the environment.

Part 1: Environment: Who Cares?
Part 2: Environment: Who Owns it?
Part 3: Environment: It is Good
Part 4:Environment: The Ball’s in Our Court

Today, we deal with two doctrines that are absolutely at the core of Christianity – the doctrines of the fall and the end times – and show that a good understanding of how these two doctrines interact can be a spur to care of creation.

Read More »

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