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Conservatism & Christianity

Gareth Knight, former chair of the campus Tories, suggests some connections.

It is very wrong of politics and religion to become dependent on each other, but political people can learn a great deal from people who have a religious faith, just as religious people can learn a great deal from people with political standpoints.

What the Conservatives have done for Christianity in this country can only be answered by looking at what Christianity has done for the Conservatives.

• Christians believe in freedom and self-reliance.
• Christians believe in helping those who cannot help themselves.
• Christians believe in giving all people opportunities.
• Christians believe in being proud of your beliefs.

These same principles are true in the Conservative Party; not that I am claiming that anyone with a Christian faith should instantly become a Thatcherite.

Many socialists (admittedly, not all) invariably claim that religion is irrelevant, that Christians are nothing more than a “bunch of loonies who do not live in the real world”. If the Pope, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, or any church figurehead says one thing, then these socialists will assume that they have to believe the opposite. In reality of course, it is these people who are the intolerant bigots. By refusing to even acknowledge that someone who believes in God may be right, they are restricting the opportunity to find out more for themselves. But then again, what would be the point in socialism if you listen to others and accept that you might be wrong?

Since losing the 1997 General Election, the Conservative Party has teamed up with all the major Christian churches in Britain in an exercise titled: “Listening to Britain's Churches”. Last summer, this huge programme of consultation with church leaders and parishioners resulted in the "Stronger Families for Everyone" report. This report examined the government's strategy on many issues and recommended some policy options which would strengthen family life in a variety of ways.

The very idea that an exercise like this would take place in the Labour Party is absurd. A quick look at just three of the Conservative front bench would tell you why this party was willing to listen.

William Hague

Launched Listening to Britain's Churches on the basis that Christians have more experience of the “real world” than almost any focus group and naturally have an insight into what is right and wrong in society.

Ann Widdecombe

A devout Catholic who is the epitome of strong, charismatic and principled politicians.

Gary Streeter

The Shadow Secretary of State for Overseas Development, who has fought very long battles with Clare Short over crisis aid and third world debt relief.

The Labour Party have done nothing more than patronise anyone with a faith. Tony Blair's article before the General Election that “because I'm a Christian I could never become a Conservative” was met with outrage from not just politicians, but also from church leaders for what was nothing more than an unashamed attempt to win over the regular church attendees. Have you suddenly noticed that Labour now no longer mention religion? At one point Tony Blair's conversion to Catholicism was a major story emanating from Millbank Tower — now it is never even mentioned.

It is all very well and good having “ethical” foreign policies (ie write a memo regretting the millions of tonnes of arms you have just sold to a dictatorship so that the dictator can bomb his own people). It is all very well and good trying to create a more “fair” society (ie punishing those who actually want to achieve something such as the great crime of using a car to get to work). And it is all very well and good promoting the “family” (ie introducing tuition fees which punish parents who have brought their children up well enough for that child to be able to attend university), but without even the consideration that someone who has thought about their life enough to be committed to a faith will have something worth listening to is a throwback to all the Christians who voted Labour in the hope that they would deliver on their promises.

On the evening of Monday Week 7, the very controversial Express columnist and York alumnus Peter Hitchens will be visiting campus. In one article he recently wrote he states:

Lord Hailsham once said, quite rightly in my view, that it was absurd for any faction or party to claim it was closer to the gospel than any other. The Holy Ghost, as he put it, moves some men to be socialists and others to be Tories, some even to be Trotskyists. I would go further. It would be absurd for any of us to imagine that politics, in its current form, is anything other than a threat and a rival to religion. We should go into it, and affect it, only to reduce its influence and return to people the choice between good and evil that they alone can make. We should never justify immoral action by allegedly pious objectives.

Perhaps the government should heed that advice, and start listening to those who have so much to say, but are turned off by the pompous nature of the Millbank machine.

Gareth Knight

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Last modified: 25th November 2005