St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

Hope not hate

The Church of England is very committed to democracy. As another local election draws near, we are asking you once again to make sure you use your vote positively this time round.

We believe in democracy for our church appointments. We have an elected General Synod to look after our affairs nationally, and each church has an elected Church Council to run it. The views of locals are taken into account in appointing bishops and vicars: both in drawing up specifications for jobs and in electing people to do the interviews. And we’ve been like that for many years.

And we also believe in democracy for our politicians, in both local and national government.

It was C S Lewis who wrote that democracy is a very poor form of government, and the only thing that could be said in its favour was that it was less bad than any of the other forms of government which had ever been tried. If we seriously believe that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), then it follows that all our politicians will be imperfect people, and their politics will come out tainted by their own sin. No form of government can insure us against the misuse of power by those who are in control. At least democracy gives us the chance to choose the policies we want, and if they aren’t helping, express our dissatisfaction and vote someone else in the next time round.

It’s very hard to assess whether any particular politician is doing a good job or not. The council may pass resolutions which our local councillors argued against, and our local councillors may still get the blame. Conversely, a good policy may have been widely supported across the political parties, and it may have been brought in anyway no matter who was in control.

It’s not the church’s job to tell you who to vote for (not even when one of the candidates is a church member and ex-churchwarden!), but we can tell you what we think you should look for in a political party. We think parties should be:

compassionate (i.e. concerned about everyone, not just the people who vote for them),
peaceful and against violence,
inclusive and open to all,
realistic and including people who have experience in making councils work.

We think there’s room for argument about policies, but not for racism, hatred or criminality.

Please use your vote positively in these elections. It will make a difference.

John Hartley

	*St Luke's Church, Eccleshill - The Link* magazine** The Link is published monthly at 40p (Senior Citizens 35p), and we deliver free within the parish and post copies (at the reader's expense) to those who request it. Please contact us if you would like a free copy for a trial period. May 2007, Page 1.
Home Page. Index of articles: by subject, by date. In this issue: (May 2007) Hope not hate, Dark Moon, From Egypt, Finances, Hymn, History. Other articles on democracy.	Hope not hate The Church of England is very committed to democracy. As another local election draws near, we are asking you once again to make sure you use your vote positively this time round. We believe in democracy for our church appointments. We have an elected General Synod to look after our affairs nationally, and each church has an elected Church Council to run it. The views of locals are taken into account in appointing bishops and vicars: both in drawing up specifications for jobs and in electing people to do the interviews. And we’ve been like that for many years. And we also believe in democracy for our politicians, in both local and national government. It was C S Lewis who wrote that democracy is a very poor form of government, and the only thing that could be said in its favour was that it was less bad than any of the other forms of government which had ever been tried. If we seriously believe that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), then it follows that all our politicians will be imperfect people, and their politics will come out tainted by their own sin. No form of government can insure us against the misuse of power by those who are in control. At least democracy gives us the chance to choose the policies we want, and if they aren’t helping, express our dissatisfaction and vote someone else in the next time round. It’s very hard to assess whether any particular politician is doing a good job or not. The council may pass resolutions which our local councillors argued against, and our local councillors may still get the blame. Conversely, a good policy may have been widely supported across the political parties, and it may have been brought in anyway no matter who was in control. It’s not the church’s job to tell you who to vote for (not even when one of the candidates is a church member and ex-churchwarden!), but we can tell you what we think you should look for in a political party. We think parties should be: compassionate (i.e. concerned about everyone, not just the people who vote for them), peaceful and against violence, inclusive and open to all, realistic and including people who have experience in making councils work. We think there’s room for argument about policies, but not for racism, hatred or criminality. Please use your vote positively in these elections. It will make a difference. John Hartley
Top of page.	This web page was last updated on 1st August 2007.