Things must change in British politics and public life. But why are Christians incapable of doing it? During the Evangelical Revival they ended slavery, provided education for the nation’s children – largely from scratch, tackled gross overwork, provided housing, extended the vote, ended most alcoholism and child labour, sorted sewers, addressed mental ill-health and reformed much of British life with principles of justice and human care. Why are British Christians largely incapable of doing anything coherent today? Surely, we should be examining our Christian attitudes with some urgency. Here’s my list of why we do not move. Of course, there are exceptions, but few of us are not dressed in these
- WE ARE REACTIONARY. Some conservative Christians are busy defending their Christianity against other Christians fighting battles of the past as though God needs defending. Their categories are culturally dead.
- WE MARGINALISE FAITH. Most Christians imbibe 40-90% of contemporary culture (usually from mass and social media and education) and leave their faith peripheral.
- WE ARE SACRED/SECULAR. Most Christians have bought into the Sacred-Secular distinction which limits their faith to cultic activities and excludes it from life. The Secularists in the BBC, Politics, media and Capitalism encourage this.
- MOST CHRISTIANS ARE CHURCHY. Their faith is ecclesiastical. It hangs around church events, vicars, bishops and the ecclesiastical year and is evacuated from life. New Testament Christianity is obviously life, not ecclesiastical. We do not see faith in work, education, family, city, community, markets, education and more much of the time.
- ESTABLISHMENT RULES. Anglican Christians are, on the whole, establishment, the more so the higher up. They will not stand against Government policies or for reform, because it is not nice and rocks the boat. We have no nonconformist backbone. Most nonconformists, (except Ron and some others) have no nonconformist backbone.
- THEOLOGY IS UP A CREEK. Theology became a small discipline in public thinking. It sits outside science. It edges the physical and human sciences. Its language is rationalist, often academicized and introverted. It has lost the big picture. It has departed the public stage, except perhaps in Scotland.
- CHRISTIANITY STRAINS AT GNATS AND SWALLOWS CAMELS. We fit exactly Christ’s warning. We swallow Individualism, Consumerism, Populism, Capitalism and the Selfish Society and choke on whether women should be bishops, gay relationships should be recognised in church services and what the liturgy for lockdown should be. We do not see the Big Picture.
- WE HAVE NO CULTURAL CRITIQUE. That the Individualism/Ego culture, Consumer Capitalism, State Power Systems, self-contained understandings of Science and Technology might be wrong are not considered by Christians. We are shallow enough to be taken in by charlatans. We are still on the train of Progress waving out of the window shortly before it crashes. Time for radical critique.
- WE ARE UNEDUCATED IN THE CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW. The Christian understanding of Creation, human stewardship, the norms of life together, the centrality of God for all of life, the forms of sin and human evil, the Christian science of the natural world, the evils of political power, militarism, mammon, self-righteousness, human tribalism, the character of the gentle Kingdom of God and God’s victory over the cross and human sin and evil and the calling of Christians is lost to many Christians. We have the world’s greatest teacher, but are uneducated.
- WE DO NOT ACT TOGETHER. Christians are a body headed by Christ. We act like ants attacked by an anteater – incoherently and in suppressed panic. We do not see what we could do together. Two billion plus around the world can move quite a few mountains at once, but we do not even see the possibility. A thousand people, really working together, are formidable.
- WE DO NOT LIVE BY FAITH. We are so entrenched in our present lifestyles, especially in the “west”, that we do not see that we are not living the lives and the way of Christ with any integrity. We, almost all of us, are deeply compromised.
- WE DO NOT WORK OUT HOW TO MOVE MOUNTAINS. Jesus said it. If you are fighting a war, plan it. He did not mean a military war – different kit, different end, but you have to know where you are going. I’ve spent twenty years on this one, and you can’t do two until you’ve done one. Good honest non-individualist Christian strategy is needed.
We can, with some changes of heart and mind, address these issues. They have been around much of our lives and God might be asking us to take them on…