By Melanie McDonagh<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nKemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, recently explained (in an interview for the BBC series Political Thinking) that she doesn\u2019t wish to be defined by her religion any more than by her ethnicity (she\u2019s from Nigeria). She had already explained why she isn\u2019t a Christian \u2013 interestingly, it was the problem of evil, expressed in the case of the frightful Josef Fritzl, that caused her loss of faith \u2013 but she has attracted rather less attention for a speech last month in which she explained the influence that Christianity has had on her. In the Wilberforce Lecture last month (November), which Conservative leaders have given in memory of the great campaigner for the abolition of slavery, she outlined the ways in which the faith has affected her politics. It turns out that it is much the same aspects \u2013 of self-reliance, care for family and community, and paying debts \u2013 which appeal to her as appealed to Margaret Thatcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, in her lecture, she pointedly quoted Margaret Thatcher\u2019s observation that the Good Samaritan is remembered because he could do good, for he had money to spend. She showed a genuine familiarity with Scripture; unsurprising for the grandchild of a Methodist pastor. But her choice of quotation was very much conditioned by her political philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She dwelt first on her family background:
\u201cThe influence of Christianity in my life is not an abstract subject. It is personal. I was raised in Nigeria by Christian parents and their faith meant duty, responsibility and stewardship. These are Christian values which have shaped my Conservatism. Those values are deeply rooted in my family. My paternal grandmother was a Muslim who chose to become a Christian. She witnessed a miracle, or she certainly believed that it was, when my father was very ill and she thought he was going to die. A priest came over and laid his hands on him and healed him. My grandmother believed that this must be the one true God and she converted from Islam to Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Muslim grandmother who became a Christian has not been something she has dwelt on since becoming party leader. But the Catholic element in her life comes from her husband, Hamish, who is a Catholic; their three children have been baptised as Catholics. Or as she put it: \u201cI\u2019ve given the Catholic Church three children\u2026 I\u2019ve done my part. And every day, I see this religious tradition expressed in how we live our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She identified the influence of Christianity in the party\u2019s philosophy:
\u201cNot only has Christianity inspired our island story, I believe it has also shaped the Conservative tradition, and we must not let it go. Our party is the fortunate custodian of a practical philosophy, shaped by three Christian ideas that have stood the test of time. The first is Stewardship, that what we inherit we hold in trust for those who come after us. The second is the dignity of work and responsibility, that effort should lead to reward, and that rights come with duties. And the third is Compassion through community, that care is best rooted in family, in faith and in the local ties that bind us, with the state as a safety net, not as a first resort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s always interesting to see what scripture texts a politician quotes, and Kemi\u2019s bear out her insistence on self-reliance:
\u201cIn Scripture\u201d, she says, \u201cwe see the virtue of living within our means. In the Second Book of Kings, Elisha tells a widow: \u2018Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest.\u2019 The message is simple and profound: clear the liabilities, live on what remains.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kemi insists, \u201cThere is a very strong Christian case for fiscal responsibility\u2026. As Margaret Thatcher put it: \u2018No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he\u2019d only had good intentions, he had money as well.\u2019 Prudence is what makes compassion possible.\u201d It is a very Methodist view \u2013 Mrs Thatcher too was a Methodist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similarly, her view of \u201cresponsibility and the dignity of work\u201d is framed by scripture.
\u201cIn the Parable of the Talents\u201d, she says, \u201ca master rewards servants who wisely use and grow what they are given and condemns the one who does nothing with his gift. For a very, very long time, I never understood why that last servant was condemned. I just thought: Well, he didn\u2019t do anything wrong. Why not just leave him alone? Now, having been in government for five years, I understand why it is important to make sure that people work, that people are productive. That parable is a reminder that success is a product of work and risk-taking. St Paul, in the First Epistle to Timothy, proclaims that: \u2018Anyone who does not provide for his own household\u2026 is worse than an unbeliever.\u2019 Those are strong words. This is the Christian recognition that we all have duties to ourselves, to our families, and to the communities we are part of. Conservatives believe in making work pay, in rewarding risk, in ensuring effort matches reward.\u201d The surprise was that she did not go on to quote St Paul saying that \u201che who does not work, let him not eat\u201d, which is even stronger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her omissions are also interesting. Critics might observe that Christ also taught in the most emphatic manner that riches are themselves an impediment to salvation; \u201cWoe to you rich,\u201d and referred in Luke 16 to money as \u201cthat tainted thing\u201d. There\u2019s none of that in her speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kemi also has her own take on Christ\u2019s call for workers at the harvest: \u201cWhen Jesus tells his followers: \u2018The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few\u2026\u2019 it is a call to mobilise, to step forward, to serve. Britain has talent and potential in every town. Our task is to remove the barriers that keep people idle when there is work to be done.\u201d Well, indeed, but Christ\u2019s call was for labourers in the spiritual harvest of souls rather than in the private sector; invoking the Lord in the cause of hard work is an idiosyncratic interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then she discusses her third value: compassion through community. \u201cThe Christian story teaches that love of neighbour is lived close to home, in families who care, in churches that organise, in volunteers who give up their time without asking for reward. Yes, the state matters. No decent society abandons those with severe needs. But a healthy society equips people to care for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, the Christian story teaches rather more than that: loving your neighbour as yourself is a far bigger ask than any political party requires of individuals. But at least Kemi knows her scripture \u2013 like so many from an African background \u2013 to quote it so fluently. And so very few contemporary politicians do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She concludes with a rousing affirmation of the value of Christian values, taken from a Conservative perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe influence of Christianity on Conservative thinking is not about imposing belief. It is about recognising that Britain flourished most when it took seriously the virtues Christianity helped embed. It is our history, it is our tradition, it is our inheritance. We must not disavow Christianity. Duty before entitlement. Truth over convenience. Love of neighbour, expressed in the service of others. Mercy with justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, in laying claim to Christian values as the moral underpinning of the Tory party, Kemi may be trying to return to basics a party which has for quite some time seemed to have lost touch with its own roots. It is striking that Sir Keir Starmer, an atheist whose mother was a regular churchgoer, has never sought to restore the Christian values of the Labour Party, which, as was said, owed more to Methodism than to Marx. The truth is that all the main parties in Britain were profoundly influenced by Christianity \u2013 there was no more combative Christian than the Liberal William Gladstone \u2013 but that debt is insufficiently acknowledged in the present generation of political leaders. Kemi Badenoch, in paying tribute to William Wilberforce, is usefully reminding her party of what used to be axiomatic: that Christianity provides the moral underpinning of the nation, and without this influence, it\u2019s not just the Tory party that is rootless and adrift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Melanie McDonagh
share courtesy Rev Sis Benedicta Akala<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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