As this most intriguing adventure in national politics continues to unfold I have started wondering about the votes cast for 'Christian' parties.
The Christian Party has polled around fifteen thousand of the votes cast across the country. Considering that the BNP has polled over half a million votes this would suggest that that the BNP is over fifty times more popular than the Christians. Of course this is not the case but it does raise a few questions, namely:
Should we have 'Christian' parties or should we be encouraging Christians to be active in the main political parties and influence them and their policies?
Can we ever expect to have agreement over what is a 'Christian' issue? Put five Christians in a room and you'll have seven different vies and that's just theology - how much worse will the situation be over politics?
Just a couple of thoughts to start with. Will let you have a think . . .
Another thought. Does anyone have a mandate to govern? I would have to say that a hung parliament would provide a resounding 'No' to that question. If this is the case do we need to return to the ballot box to have a clear mandate or is some form of coalition acceptable considering the financial situation globally, locally (Europe) and at home?
4 comments:
Vic,
In terms of a Christian Party - I think that it needs to be both credible and to have popular support. The problem is the perception of a large perception of the people will see Christian Policies as 'Hard to Live with' or 'Extreme'. Given that we would be asking them to give more to fix the real problems in the country and the world.
I think that Christians need to be active in Parliament, but in the way that Frank Field is - a man of principle, but one who was side-lined by Tony Blair, who thought his policies and views were to extreme.
I welcome the opportunity for a Balanced Parliament as we need to get some reform of the electoral system, perhaps Proportional Representation, with 1st and 2nd preference votes being used to give a truly representative view of the electorates wishes.
So, whoever forms a government needs to take the bit between their teeth and get on with the job of solving the credit crisis and social justice issues which surround us and which we ignore at our peril.
I hope and Pray that the politicians have the moral courage to take this opportunity to fix things once and for all.
Not sure about PR as what I have seen it bring to other nations has little to commend it. Mind you, we'd see a BNP MP which might liven up things a little.
The problem as I see it is that Christians might never be the 'king maker' but could aid the election of a fool into government.
Agree about what we need from a government though - think that this is where a hung parliament will hamper things.
I'm afraid that I feel having a Christian Party just muddles the issue and dilutes the vote. Not to mention that there is so little chance of such a party being elected in our ethnically diverse nation: many professing Christians would not even vote for them, not to mention nominals and people of other or no faith. What you end up with is a small group of isolated Christians with no influence on policies. I'd rather see us involved in the main parties so that they all have a stronger moral and ethical stance.
christians dont seem to welcome in the political parties these days, not if they want to defend there faith, such as in the case of, Philipa stroud, whos case has just caused uproar in the media as revelation of her praying for deliverance of homosexuals has leaked. also theS ,Philip Lardner, who was standing as a tory candidate , . David cameron sacked him for stating homosexuality was not normal. seems that if we want to be involved in polotics we are the ones who must dilute our faith but as i remember from the Bible we are told not to be luke warm ,else we risk being spat out.so dilute the vote maybe , better to do that than our Faith.
Post a Comment