Snapd
ragon
THE P RTAL
May 2015
Page 5
The Election
Snapdragon has also been thinking about the Election
It is easy to forget, amid all the mudslinging and eleventh-hour promises,
that who we vote for in next week’s
General Election ought to be based
on what each of the parties actually
stands for. Entertaining though the
mud-slinging is, and tantalizing the
promises, what ought to move us in
the voting booth is policy.
Where our X goes should also
be informed by our theology, because our theology
should always be the motivation, the ‘why’, of what
we do. As Christians, we are presented with the same
hotchpotch of political parties and policies as the rest
of the electorate. We have to try our very best to weigh
them against each other just like them, but we have
the additional responsibility of testing them all against
what we believe.
There are many outside the Church who believe that
individualism - the personal aspiration to survive and
succeed - has become unhealthily overemphasised in
our society, and social responsibility weakened. But,
as Christians, we have a distinctive sense of social
responsibility and awareness of how we should play
our part in society, informed by our theology.
Similarly, one doesn’t need to be a Christian to
acknowledge that people are dependent on each
other. We have developed an understanding that we
cannot exist as a nation in which some live happily and
prosperously while others lack life’s basic necessities.
We have grasped that no country, not even the richest
and strongest, can stand alone. We need each other.
Additionally as Christians we have an understanding
of God that provides a model for human relationships
between individuals and communities and nations.
The doctrine of the Trinity shows us how we are to
live and relate to each other in the most Godlike way.
The relationships within the Trinity do not support
any human structures in which those at the bottom
are dominated or oppressed by those at the top, but
point us to structures and relationships of mutual
interdependence and support.
A Christian sense of social responsibility goes
beyond recognising that people matter most and
depend on each other to live well, to an understanding
that we should demonstrate an active concern for the
welfare of others.
Our concern for those on our doorstep or half the
world away is based on a sense of justice and fairness
which we have in common with many who don’t share
That people, not money and power, are most our faith, but also on our experience of the love of God
important is a belief held by Christians and many non- in Jesus Christ. We have a concern for others because
Christians alike. We have only to observe the response we have experienced the love of God for ourselves and
to a disaster at home or overseas to see that people are don’t want to keep that love to ourselves.
generally regarded as the most important thing in the
world. As Christians though, we know that people are
Whether this policy is better than that policy, this
important because God created them in his image and party preferable to that party, we can’t as Christians
likeness, and when later his handiwork was spoiled judge solely on the strength of the statistical data that
by sin, he redeemed them. A basic element in our is thrown at us. I’m not sure yet how I’ll vote on May
Christian sense of social responsibility is that people 7, to be honest, but I’ll endeavour to put my X where
are precious in the sight of God, and therefore in ours. my theology is.
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