Raising a Standard

‘When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a 

standard against him.’ Isaiah 59: 19

There are many who will argue that Christians should keep out of politics for any one of a number of reasons, for example that it is a distraction from the serious business of saving souls from hell or perhaps that we can expect to achieve nothing before Christ returns to wind up this present age.  That was not the position taken by our fathers in the faith, who from the earliest times engaged in political acts in order to move culture and society in a Christward direction. Orphanages, hospitals and welfare programmes for widows, condemning gladiatorial combat, buying people out of slavery – all these were done in Roman times.  Here in Britain, from the sixteenth century Puritans onwards, Christians have been heavily involved in government and social reform.  It is an outworking of Christ’s call that we should be salt and light in the world, the leaven in the lump of culture.  Indeed, Christ said, if the salt loses its saltiness it is no good for anything other than to be thrown onto the rubbish heap – it is to our own peril if we do not engage with society at all levels.  Our government and society which was, within living memory, one based upon strong Christian foundations, with roots going back 1200 years to the time of Alfred the Great and beyond, has undergone radical change over the last 60 years.  A great apostasy has overtaken the nation with people not only personally disavowing the faith but institutional changes embedded into our society.  Various strains of Marxist and socialist thinking now dominate all the main political parties (with the possible exception of the Democratic Unionists of Northern Ireland), with numerous legal and practical outcomes, for example that the nature of Justice has been changed from equality under the Law to ‘rights based’ egalitarianism, ancient freedoms of conscience, speech, association and even thought are being whittled away.  Similarly the notion of the nuclear family is under constant attack, as is what it means to be male or female; the list goes on and on. Without a philosophy to counter these movements, an intellectual standard around which like-minded people can rally, and from which coherent policies can be promulgated, there is no hope of standing against the secular atheistic tide that is carrying all before it.  In an attempt to provide such a framework for thinking, I offer the following:

10 Principles of Christian Democratic Government

‘To love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself.’

1. Christian democratic government acknowledges the centrality of God, incarnated in the Person of Jesus Christ, as the sole source of life, the sole source of authority, foundational to a true understanding of the universe and essential for the flourishing of human life in peace, freedom, justice and prosperity.

2. The purpose of Christian democratic government is not to rule over the people but to enable and empower the people to maintain government over themselves in peace, freedom, justice and prosperity.

3. Christian democratic government requires the active involvement of politically and financially empowered and responsible citizens.

4. Christian democratic government seeks to place as much power as possible as close to the people as possible.  It is therefore necessarily republican, devolved and local.

5. Christian democratic government recognises the family as the foundational unit of society, necessary for the pro-creation and flourishing of children and the primary vehicle of expression of the love and care that all individuals require.

6. Christian democratic government maintains that education; spiritual, moral, intellectual and practical, which builds up and enables the individual to achieve his or her greatest potential, is the best tool for the creation of an empowered citizenry.

7. Christian democratic government requires the administration of justice by the people on the basis of equality under the law.  The law of the land to be based upon the principles embodied in the law of Moses as interpreted in a spirit of love, mercy and compassion with an intention of correction, compensation and reconciliation. 

8. Christian democratic government recognises the principle of tolerance, as expressed by liberty of conscience and freedom of speech as essential for the building of an open, liberal and dynamic society.

9. Christian democratic government places private property and wealth creation at the heart of economic policy, as a bulwark of freedom and the engine of prosperity. That wealth to be pro-actively managed, by the people, for the mutual uplift of society. Taxation to be minimised and philanthropy maximised.

10. Christian democratic government recognises mankind as being stewards of the whole of creation, responsible for promoting the well-being and flourishing of all life as created and treasured by God.

I would be delighted to receive feedback in the comment boxes below.

To read more: Building Jerusalem