Elizabeth Berridge comments

Elizabeth Berridge
Elizabeth Berridge

Recent news was dominated by the BBC's decision to invite Nick Griffin, Leader of the British National Party to be a member of the 'Question Time' panel. Sitting at my desk in Conservative Campaign Headquarters with the news constantly streaming in, I thought, I do hope it is wrong that "any publicity is good publicity."

Much of the commentary was indicative of our current "blame culture". We want someone else to blame for the shocking state of affairs that the leader of a party, whose constitution is defined along racial lines, is on prime time BBC. I know that they have been asked to alter their constitution but when you need a court to tell you to do that, forgive me for doubting the sincerity of your intentions. Also the BNP's campaigning focus around Christianity raises particular issues for the UK Christian Community.

Let's deal with who could be to blame. Could it be the BBC? I must confess I am a huge fan of the BBC World Service (if you have lived abroad pre-internet, you will identify) but a sceptic of the domestic BBC. I believe they should have broadcasted the Gaza appeal, object strongly to their liberal bias and I don't think they can justify paying many of their staff more than the Prime Minister earns. But on this one, I think they were right. We ask them to be impartial and to report rather than judge our views. Over a million UK citizens voted BNP, giving them 2 MEPs; so is it really up to the BBC to say their views should not be debated? A controversial decision, yes, but surely we were making the BBC a convenient scapegoat.

If not the BBC, what about the MPs, whose expenses scandal contaminated the 2009 European Elections? It cannot be denied that trust in our politicians was brought to an all time low, but many good MPs have been unjustifiably "tarred with the same brush". However, the number of MPs involved and the cross party nature of the problem led many people to question the values of the institution of parliament. The scandal gave credence to the often suspected view that our politicians are not primarily governing for the good of the people, but for their own self advancement. So yes, there is responsibility to be laid at the door of many MPs as the scandal contributed to voters deciding not to turn out. But is that the whole picture? And, in turn, this raises the question: is it ever acceptable for Christians not to vote?

Before considering that question, let's finish looking at who else we thought to blame. Next up, was the mainstream political parties for not engaging with the issues that concern people such as immigration. Helpfully, this was conceded on 'Question Time' by Baroness Warsi, Conservative Shadow Minster for Community Cohesion. It was a brave admission and was I believe grown up politics; accepting the blame without entering into the "Punch and Judy" pettiness that often turns off the public from party politics.

So the expenses scandal is to blame as is the detachment of political parties, but does that exonerate the people who stayed at home? We cannot escape the raw arithmetical data. In North West England, the BNP vote was down from 134,959 in 2004 to 132,094 in 2009 so the reason the NW MEP was elected was the massive slump in turnout from 40.9% to 31.7% in NW England. This is tragic proof that Edmund Burke was right, "All that is required for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing". Our electoral system gives the option of not voting, but you only have to consider the suffragette movement and the hours people walked to vote in South Africa's first election to see how valuable the vote is. So part of the responsibility does, I believe, rest with those who did not vote, as well as those who voted for the BNP. I strongly believe the position is different for Christians as Romans 13 teaches that we must value the God given institution of Government. Democracy is our way of doing government, so not voting is poor discipleship, as well as poor citizenship. It is all too easy to be complacent but it is clear that complacency is not neutral, it can and has allowed extremists in.

The particular challenge for Christians is that the BNP often campaigns using Christianity. Again, it is easy to blame the BNP as we know this is as far from the Gospel as was the institutional support of some churches for trans-atlantic slavery. But should we not also, just for a moment, look to ourselves and think how engaged the Christian community is in the civic life of the nation? I have had many a Church leader chew my ear about how their local council doesn't understand the issues or care about local homeless people and how David Cameron alone, (not the Holy Spirit!) has to transform the hearts and attitudes of such Councillors. When I ask in response, "how many of the hundreds of people in your congregation are on the local council?" silence is not golden or godly.

If we do not model Christian, servant hearted participation in society, who will? We need to realize that, if we are absent and silent, people may believe the BNP. The sad truth is we are not participating fully and we urgently need to. We should be local councillors, magistrates, school governors, police authority members and MPs. Not just a few of us but many of us. We need to join political parties or at the very least the Christian organizations that sit in their party Headquarters. Not just a few of us but many of us. Nature abhors a vacumn and I fear the BNP may fill ours.

(The view expressed in the article on the BBC is my personal view) CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.