As we interview members of Public and Community organisations on Cross Rhythms, we are hearing more and more of the effects of the recession. Citizen's Advice Bureau was threatened with funding cuts regarding debt counselling (thankfully they've had a last minute reprieve on that); the Police have to lose hundreds of jobs; and community organisations such as the Soup Run and the Food Bank, which help people in crisis, are seeing an increase in the need for their services. As I wrote last month, this is really the time for the Church to rise up and shine, for the good of our communities and Plymouth as a whole. She certainly has in the past.
Throughout history, Christian men and women, and Christian values, have been the motivating force in some of society's best social reforms; William Wilberforce and the struggle against slavery (not to Mention Dr Martin Luther King Jr who fought racism and oppression in the USA); Florence Nightingale who laid the foundations of modern nursing; and Wilberforce's successor in social reformation, Antony Ashley Cooper, (Lord Shaftesbury), who is quoted as saying, "Creed and colour, latitude and longitude, make no difference in the essential nature of man," and "What is morally right can never be politically wrong, and what is morally wrong can never be politically right."
Those two statements from Lord Shaftesbury typify what is so good about the Christian foundations of our democracy and legal system in the UK: equality in law of all people regardless of creed or colour, (and may I add, any other differences) and justice and fairness for all as well. Yet the faith which inspired these values seems nowadays to be turned against by those who have benefited most from them. In Shaftesbury's thinking, what we now call 'political correctness' should be deeply aligned to 'moral correctness'. Those Christian moral values are the bedrock of the movements that have brought democratic freedom to our land for all to enjoy. Yet, if one looks at some areas of legislation, Christianity and the expression of the Christian faith looks like it is slowly being marginalised.
I realise these sentiments may be open to misunderstanding in some quarters. This is not a politically correct article in the way the term is used nowadays. It is not 'correct' in our post-modern era to adhere to any absolute moral values. Yet I have to say that it is my belief that without traditional Christian values, we lose a very important part of our social fabric, from which people of all faiths, or no faith, equally benefit.
Lord Shaftesbury believed that God had called him "to devote whatever advantages he might have bestowed … in the cause of the weak, the helpless, both man and beast, and those who had none to help them." He had a deep Christian faith, and that motivated his life in the cause of helping others. It is so often the case, even nowadays. The Faith Action Audit which was presented to the City Council and Faith Leaders last year proves just how much good work is being done in our own city by faith groups, on behalf of the weak, the marginalised and the needy.
I appreciate it is not just Christian men and women who help others. We are all made in the image of God and as such we all have the ability to shine. But as a Christian, I believe the only sustaining force for continued compassionate action in the face of difficulty and even opposition, is the love of God through a relationship with His Son Jesus Christ. That love just keeps on coming, and has been variously described as a fountain, or a river – a very apt description and one which encourages me and many others.
The Christian faith, when put into loving action, is a major force for good in our land. It has been so for many centuries. Christians in Plymouth are being invited to a day of prayer in June to pray for the welfare of our city, and to see those prayers turned into acts of compassion for the good of us all. It is good to appreciate the reality all the positive action that goes on as a result of Christian faith, and to balance the often negative media-stereotypes of Christianity with that. There's a line in the '90's movie 'The Abyss' which says 'you need to see with better eyes' – I pray that we all can in the days ahead.
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