Faith demands Christians speak out against unfairness

It took very little time after the Archbishop of Canterbury made his comments for the predictable reactions to reach your pages (Yorkshire Post, June 10).

They range from the reasonable question about the possibilities of coalition policy through personal insults about his appearance to utter ignorance about the nature of Christian faith.

Those who seek to separate religion from politics simply demonstrate that they have understood neither. The great prophets of Israel were very political in their message about the justice by which God’s people should live, and they attacked the rich and powerful whose greed did not live up to that justice.

The heart of Jesus’s teaching was his summary of the whole of the Jewish Law in the two great commands to love God and love our neighbour. Loving our neighbours must have political applications: how can I love my neighbour if I engage in economic policies which keep him in abject poverty? Or deprive him of medical care? Or segregate him on the basis of his colour or language?

John Wesley said “There is no holiness but social holiness” – our faith is lived out in community, and is therefore political. It was the churches who provided education for the poor through the Sunday School movement. It was the monasteries who first provided hospices and medical care for the poor. How can anyone argue that faith cannot be political? The idea is nonsense.

The problems faced by the coalition Government are huge. The policies by which they seek to address those problems will have a disproportionate effect on the poor and vulnerable.

At the same time, the banks which were saved from collapse are now using that same public money to award huge bonuses to directors, bonuses which are many multiples of the wages most taxpayers are taking home.

It is obvious to anyone with the slightest understanding of what is going on that this is unfair and unethical: yet again, the rich are cushioned while the poor bear the load.

This is wrong, and exactly the sort of issue on which the Archbishop and all church leaders should be speaking out.

The Government needs to hear the prophetic voice calling them to develop policies which are just and fair, and protect those who need it. It is the job of the Christian community through our leaders to raise that voice, and make it heard.

From: John Holland, Lindeth Road, Silverdale, Carnforth.

WHILE I defend and support the Archbishop’s right and duty to engage in political debate, it is important for him to get his facts straight before writing what amounts to a party political article.

As a lifelong Conservative, I was well aware of what I was voting for with regard to education and the benefits system and I supported the idea that the NHS must change as it falls further and further behind the provision in neighbouring continental countries. Millions of us voted for the changes outlined in the Conservative manifesto.

As a lifelong Anglican, I feel that it ill behoves him to attack politicians for not sticking to their word when the Church under his leadership cannot honour the promise to protect the position in the Church of those who cannot accept the unilateral move to women priests and bishops.