Politics: Putting God Back Into Politics

Just when you thought Christianity was waning as a force in British public life! On Monday a major survey found that for the first time most people in the UK have described themselves as having no religion, with just 3% of young adults saying they were Anglican and 5% calling themselves Catholic. But within days both of the major Christian denominations were in the political spotlight, as the Archbishop of Canterbury called for radical economic reform and prominent Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said he deferred to the Catholic Church’s authority on issues such as abortion and gay marriage.  .

Justin Welby

Archbishop Justin Welby said the UK economic model was “broken” because of the expanding gap between rich and poor.

His call for reform came in a report he co-authored for the centre-left Institute for Public Policy Research. “The British economic model needs fundamental reform,” the report said.

“It is no longer generating rising earnings for a majority of the population, and young people today are set to be poorer than their parents. Beneath its headlines figures, the economy is suffering from deep and longstanding weaknesses, which make it unfit to face the challenges of the 2020s.”

“Fundamental reform has happened before, in the 1940s and 1980s. The persistent economic problems we have experienced since the 2008 global financial crash demand change of the same magnitude now. This should be guided by a new vision for the economy, where long-term prosperity is joined with justice for all.”

An oil industry executive before he joined the church, the Archbishop issued a powerful call for rapid change to help the most vulnerable in society. “Our economic model is broken. Britain stands at a watershed moment where we need to make fundamental choices about the sort of economy we need. We are failing those who will grow up into a world where the gap between the richest and poorest parts of the country is significant and destabilising,” he said.

Jacob Rees-Mogg

At the same time Jacob Rees-Mogg cited his Christian faith as a font of traditional values and a bulwark against progressive social reforms.

He said he was completely opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest, calling it “morally indefensible” and insisting that “life is sacrosanct and begins at the point of conception.”

Often derided as “the Honourable Member for the 18th Century”, Rees-Mogg used an ITV interview to espouse stanchly conservative and traditional values.

“I am a Catholic and I take the teachings of the Catholic Church seriously,” he said. “Marriage is a sacrament and the decision of what is a sacrament lies with the Church not with Parliament.”

Monday’s British Social Attitudes survey found that 53% of British adults described themselves as having no religious affiliation, up from 48% in 2015, suggesting that Christianity is waning in both its popularity and its mandate on political matters. The irony is that while polls of Conservative activists were putting forward the suited and Brylcreemed MP as a new hope for the party leadership, it was the Church of England that was speaking up for new thinking more in touch with modern Britain.

The Social Attitudes Survey found a growing generation gap, with just 8% of adults under 24 describing themselves as Anglican or Catholic, the lowest rates since the survey began in 1983.

by Stewart Vickers

The post Politics: Putting God Back Into Politics appeared first on Felix Magazine.