“From the very outset”, says Archbishop William Temple, “Christian faith has intimately affected social as well as personal conduct, and the main Christian tradition carries with it a massive body of social teaching”.[1]
This report is an attempt to recover and restate this perennial intimacy as it seeks to bring a Christian understanding and an evangelical commitment to tackling some of the social, cultural and political challenges of contemporary society. It also provides an opportunity and some tools (what follows is by no means exhaustive) to reengage the Church and Christian leaders in the big conversation about active citizenship and social responsibility as central to the mandate to be “salt and light” and stewards of God’s creation.
Over the last five years, our global village has radically changed. September 11, 2001, and its aftermath altered our consciousness; it changed many of our ideas about “national security” and “international stability”. In light of this, the question often asked is whether faith is a friend or a foe in the public sphere. Of course, the Church, along with other faith leaders, is a critical partner in this on-going dialogue for peace, reconciliation and community cohesion.
In commissioning this report, the Evangelical Alliance Council not only wanted to evaluate the contribution of Evangelicals to society, but it also wanted to inform its strategic thinking by understanding the place of religion in the socio-political life of 21st century Britain. In order to navigate a course through the rich diversity of life in Britain, we have to bring our Christian vision and values to bear upon the problems and new challenges of public policy and contemporary culture, working for peace, justice, social and spiritual transformation. In biblical language, this means becoming like the men and women of Issachar who “understand the times” (1 Ch 12.32) and know what to do. In a modest way, this is what the Commission have attempted to do. It represents one of the most comprehensive studies ever carried out by the EA; and it has done so not just from a benign Evangelical curiosity, but from a commitment to serve and engage with contemporary Britain in ways which are relevant.
The report engages with many of the challenges facing contemporary society, including human rights and religious freedom, constitutional reform and disestablishment, education and faith schools, terrorism and debt-relief. In its challenging conclusions and recommendations, the report confirms a Christian mandate for active citizenship and social engagement in favour of peace, justice and the relief of poverty and suffering.
In arriving at its recommendations the Commission did not set out to establish easy consensus and so its approach has been exploratory rather than prescriptive in the wide range of cultural, constitutional and political issues it highlights. The detailed work offers Christians, people of other faiths and people of no faith, resources for constructive engagement and dialogue on a range of critical social and political in the months and years ahead.
On behalf on the Evangelical Alliance, I want to acknowledge our indebtedness to the Commissioners for their sterling work.
We hope that some of the issues raised will help us anticipate and intelligently respond to new developments which our multifaceted society will inevitably throw up in our own lifetime. But we also want the material to inform a prophetic response to politicians, policy makers and the wider public as we wrestle together with what faith means to our nation.
Joel Edwards
General Director of the Evangelical Alliance
[1] See his Christianity and the Social Order (London: SCM Press, 1950), 32. (Originally printed in 1942).
