Displaying items by tag: Politics

Lord Farmer, a committed Christian, has called for the appointment creation of a ‘minister for family breakdown’ to tackle the huge problems facing the nation. He grew up in a chaotic family with alcoholic parents but became a successful businessman. In a newspaper article he refers to the ‘devastating effect of family breakdown upon the lives of young people that affect their ability to succeed in life.’ He said that all government departments experience the cost of family breakdown, and all political parties are guilty of causing the current problems. Some people say there is nothing wrong with the family; it has just changed to first marriages, remarriages, cohabiting couples, lone-mother families, lone-father families, stepfamilies, multi-parent families and multi-sibling families. Lord Farmer said these ‘reconstituted’ families not only place a stress on the adults involved, but have strongly negative effects upon the children, in terms of health, education, peer group relationships and life chances.

Lunchtime services are held every Tuesday in a chapel at the Houses of Parliament. These are times created to give our politicians an opportunity for Christian reflection in the midst of a challenging and busy parliamentary life. We can pray for a powerful outpouring of God's Holy Spirit to envelop all who attend these meetings. May the guest speakers deliver timely, inspired encouragement in these days of political change and challenges. The next meeting, on 16 January, will have as its theme, ‘Who is welcome in the Kingdom of God?’ May many who are with or without faith hear this message and perceive God’s personal call on their lives. The theme on 23 January is ‘What is the key to intimacy with God?’ Pray for our parliamentarians to be freed up and enabled to create space to hear God’s whisper designed exclusively for them.

The Government is reconsidering a proposed new law which would allow adults to choose to change their gender without consulting a doctor. Reports suggest that education secretary and equalities minister Justine Greening now has cold feet on the proposals, which would affect all of the UK other than Scotland. A public consultation will now take place only after civil servants have completed analysis of a separate diversity survey. This is good news with which to start the New Year. Last year the Coalition for Marriage met MPs and worked with several other campaign groups to oppose these proposals. It argued that they would undermine traditional marriage and put women and children at risk.

Research commissioned by the government suggests that migrants may be responsible for most of Germany's rise in violent crime. Researchers say the findings are not surprising because many migrants are single males aged 14-30. This group is most likely to commit crime, irrespective of nationality. Migrants are twice as likely to be reported to police for alleged violent crimes as German nationals, and a third of all victims of violent crimes by migrants are other migrants. The report comes as Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right CDU/CSU, after its poor showing in the recent election, prepares for coalition talks with the centre-left SPD. Over a million migrants and refugees, fleeing war and abuses, have entered Germany through the open-door policy, which has led to tensions at home.

The Eurosceptic German right claims that the Alternative for Germany party is the only really Christian political group in Germany, as the ruling CDU has failed to defend the nation’s religious and cultural heritage. In England Malcolm Pearson of UKIP has denounced the political establishment for giving in to politically correct definitions of equality and hate speech, saying he fears it could soon become illegal to assert Jesus’ divinity. Italy’s Northern League are objecting to a prime location in the Florence region being made available for the construction of a mosque. Across Europe, parties on the political right and far-right are talking the language of Christian heritage. In many cases their strongest adversaries include the clergy and bishops of Europe’s Christian churches, with political pronouncements on welfare and migration.

In a few days protests spread across Iran, with demonstrations different in size, leadership and objectives from those in 2009. The protests started in Mashhad, when religious hardliners voiced legitimate economic grievances to score points against the Rouhani government. They lost control of events when corruption and falling living standards prompted political slogans against the Islamic Republic. Next, there were demonstrations praising Rouhani, but the core demonstrators chanted uncompromisingly anti-regime slogans. Many believe these protests are powered by people who tend not to vote, believing the system cannot be reformed. A spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards said that anti-government protests were over, but offered no evidence of how they had been defeated beyond arrests. His comments appeared to be a warning against more rallies. The BBC and Al Jazeera say that protests are still happening.

Ever since former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq said he would run in the 2018 presidential election, many are speculating about his ability to win. Egypt’s religious institutions influence presidential candidates, and journalists supporting President al-Sisi have focused on the ties that Shafiq has with the Salafist Dawa Party and its political arm. The Salafi movement is ultra-conservative Sunni Islam. If Shafiq mobilises the only remaining influential religious blocs of Salafist Dawa and the Copts, his candidacy in the upcoming election might produce a repeat of 2012, when two strong candidates, Shafiq and Morsi, competed against each other. In those elections the Copts supported Shafiq out of fear that Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood would win. It is difficult for the largest Coptic bloc not to vote for al-Sisi, who they believe has protected them by overthrowing the Muslim Brotherhood.

Justin Welby called for a Christmas truce in the increasingly bitter Brexit row. He called for a ‘ceasefire’ on insults and personalised attacks as the process of leaving the EU continues. His intervention came after Dominic Grieve was accused of ‘treachery’ after the Government was defeated in a Brexit legislation vote. Conservative rebels have been subjected to intense criticism from newspapers as the EU Withdrawal Bill goes through the Commons. He said, ‘In Christmas 1914 there was a ceasefire. It would be very good to have a ceasefire from insult and the use of pejorative terms about people at this time. As a country, we have a future ahead of us, we have made a clear decision about Brexit. How we do it is a question for robust political argument, but personalised attacks have to be avoided.’ See also next article, ‘Spiritual Brexit battle’.

Theresa May, David Davis, and the negotiating team showed tenacity and skill to achieve breakthrough in the Brexit negotiations, despite derogatory comments by political opponents and anti-Brexiteers. This significant step recognised that Britain will leave the EU in 15 months’ time, with or without a trade agreement. Then on 13 December an amendment was thrown out, meaning an even more compressed timescale to pass secondary legislations to implement Brexit. The next day Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer demanded assurance that government will not overturn that decision. The battle goes on. But the God of Creation holds the nations in his hands. The Brexit battle is primarily a spiritual battle, and evidence of this has been seen as powerful personalities and media conspire to undermine this agreement. See also

Twenty-six C of E bishops have reserved seats in the House of Lords, with the right to debate and vote on changes to the law. Recently the Archbishop of Canterbury led a debate on education, in which three other bishops spoke about values, schools, early years, further education, and skills. Bishops also spoke in debates on the autumn budget, and in response to Government statements on Zimbabwe, the social mobility commission, and terrorism. They asked questions about social housing in rural areas, and rough sleeping. In the House of Commons the second church estates commissioner answered questions from MPs on her bill to enable mothers to have equal status on marriage certificates, and on religious minorities in Egypt. Our bishops’ words have an influence on Westminster, so pray for God's Spirit to fill each one of them and spill out in all that they say and do.