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March 09, 2006

Christianity and Politics

The role of Christianity in UK politics has been in the news a lot lately. This is partly because of Blair's acknowledgement that he prayed to God when deciding whether to send UK troops to war in Iraq, and expects God to judge him for his decision. Also, Channel 4 broadcast a Dispatches documentary this week which argued that Christian Fundamentalists pose a significant threat to the UK. As a good Jewish atheist, I was expecting to enjoy both these controversities; however, I was surprised to find myself in the novel situation of feeling sympathetic towards the believers.

The Dispatches documentary made a number of valid points - for example, it was right to be critical of the use of public funds to run evangelical Christian schools (three of which are here in the North-East of England) that allegedly steer pupils towards incorrect beliefs, such as the Creationist account of how life emerged on Earth. However, at times it seemed to be arguing that the problem with the views of these fundamentalists was simply that they deviate from a supposed liberal consensus in UK politics; if liberalism becomes this intolerant of critique than it can become almost as closed as the views of the fundamentalist bigots to which it is often opposed. Religious bigotry should certainly be challenged, but on much stronger grounds than simply claiming that it is non-liberal - for example, one might want to challenge the massive damage done by the type of homophobia spread by evangelical preachers.

Blair of course is not, so far anyone knows, a believer in the same kind of Christian fundamentalism. However, he is a Christian, should be perfectly entitled to pray to his (dead) God if he feels inclined to do so. Frankly, given the massive bloodshed caused in Iraq - the Iraq Body Count currently stands at 33,489-37,589 civilian deaths - whether he went to war with what he thought was God's blessing, or 'just' because he thought it was the right thing to do, or because the fairies at the bottom of the garden told him to does not seem overly important. Regardless of whether he prayed or not, and whether or not Blair will be judged after he dies, those of us here on earth have an opportunity to judge him now; we should take advantage of this and not get sidetracked, even if he does have a few quirky beliefs.

Posted by jon_mendel at March 9, 2006 05:22 PM