Politicians and Prayers

I heard a discussion on the BBC Radio 4 Sunday programme today about the new Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, and his Christian faith.

You can listen or download it here

Tim was a colleague of mine at St Martin's College in Lancaster (now Uni of Cumbria) where he worked as a senior administrator in one of the faculties. He sometimes attended our midweek chapel worship when he was on campus, so we had a few conversations. I do remember him talking to me about his decision to go into politics. He's well-liked in his nearby constituency, and the testimony to that is that he held on to his seat in the midst of the demise of the Liberal Democrats at the last General Election.

As far as I am aware, Tim has never made any secret of his Christian faith. It's no surprise that being a Christian means you believe in God, and prayer is one of the fundamental activities. It would be quite weird, therefore, to exclude a whole area of one's life from ever being mentioned in one's own prayers. So it logically follows that a politician who is a practising Christian (or indeed of any other theistic faith) is going to bring their work into their prayers.

What's interesting is that this seemed to disconcert John Humphrys and Polly Toynbee. Polly Toynbee seemed to be saying today that he should avoid giving the impression of consulting God, and that thinking God is there is a private matter. What she didn't seem to understand was that it's not really feasible. Christian prayer is about bringing the whole of yourself to God with all your concerns, fears, hopes, dreams, brokenness, thanksgiving, etc. We don't recognise the notion that there are bits of ourselves we can't pray about.
NB It's worth noting that Tim Farron talked about prayer in response to a question on the subject from John Humphrys..

Of course, the fear that lies behind Polly Toynbee's concerns is that a politician with a religious faith might claim that God is 'on their side'. Many people in faith communities will recognise the issues that can arise if someone moves along the spectrum from saying they have prayed about something (which leaves open the answer, and retains some humility about the result) and saying that God has told them to do something. We sometimes see it in over-controlling church leaders, and it has had tragic results in politics and conflicts. I quite agree that such people are terrifying both for those with religious beliefs and those with none. However, that is not a fair description of MPs who have a faith and practise it. In fact, Christians In Parliament is a cross-party association, which indicates that the most active Christian MPs clearly don't think that God inhabits only their party, or is solely 'on their side'.

The whole discussion struck me as quite amusing this morning at our services today, as we prayed for those who govern and those who represent us. If the established church routinely prays for those who carry political responsibility, then I can't see why politicians shouldn't be free to pray for themselves without criticism.

No doubt Tim Farron will face much more scrutiny as he begins the unenviable task of reviving the fortunes of the Lib Dems. I hope the discussion moves on from where it is now, to the direction he wants to take party policy, and how he might make his party electable again. I don't envy him that job, and I reckon he will need all the prayers he can get.

Lent Blog: stardate supplementary

I have to prepare a Holy Week meditation today. We're working through a sequence of characters who are bit parts in the Gospel of Mark. I have a bit of flexibility as I can do anything on a soldier. I am even allowed a composite character

Thinking of doing something on the way that when the soldiers treat Jesus badly, they dehumanise themselves, based on Mk 15:16-20. Looking to use some war imagery to suggest that the same pattern occurs again and again. Society requires men to switch off part of their humanity in order to do a job on our behalf. Trying to put some Vietnam images together and maybe even use some 60s music. The war looks modern enough to be close, but is enough in the past to avoid the meditation becoming highly politicised.

Just wondering about 'Universal Soldier' by Donovan as the piece of music.

Lent Blog: Day 8

If you just want to view Lent posts, click Lent under the labels heading in the right-hand side-bar

Sorry nothing happened yesterday. Well, quite a bit happened yesterday, actually. We completed the Fairtrade College application, and held a meeting for local ministers and chaplains. In the evening I also got the Lancaster version of Cafe Create publicity organised (more on that elsewhere). Sadly, I didn't get to the blog until now, so apologies for the silence.

Periods of silence can be strange. I have good friends I don't actively communicate with for months on end, and it's absolutely fine when we do get in touch. With other people, a week can induce huge amounts of guilt. Yet the degree of guilt and the closeness of the relationship don't necessarily tally. The factors in that can vary, from the needs of someone in a pastoral relationship to the degree of security in the friendship, or whether there are things that need to be worked through.

In a relationship with God, silence can work both ways, too. Lack of prayer can mean alienation, but silent prayer can be very profound communication. Sometimes God seems silent, and we have to learn while we are waiting; sometimes we don't know what to say, and we have to let our silence speak for itself.

Lent Blog starts tomorrow.

If you just want to view Lent posts, click Lent under the labels heading in the right-hand side-bar

I have had an idea. During Lent I'm going to try and make an entry to the blog each day with some relevant reflection. True to the technical definition of Lent, the 40 days exclude the Sundays (otherwise Lent is 46 days long) so I may take a break 1 day in 7. I'm sure there's a precedent for that somewhere...

No idea if it will work, but I'll give it a try, and maybe someone might even read/comment from time to time.

In the meantime today is Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day, or Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday. It's the day the good stuff, such as eggs got eaten up before the austerity of Lent. (Apparently yesterday, Monday, is known as Collop Monday, when pieces, 'collops', of meat would be eaten up as well. You learn something new every year). So pancakes it is tonight.

It's also the day for shriving - confessing - before Lent begins. Given the Ash Wednesday service has so much penitence in it, I'm not quite sure why it was deemed necessary. Maybe today is for personal confession one-one with a priest/minister and tomorrow is when we do it corporately.

Finally, there's the question of whether to give something up for Lent, or start something new. If you're stuck for ideas or need help to meet that challenge, there's always the Cold Turkey site to help givers-up of stuff.

Personally I'm going for Lent as a transforming season, rather than plain abstinence. Another option you could go for is at the 40daysprayer website. The tag line is "Discovering more ways to pray: 40 Ways in 40 Days!". It's an initiative of the North Lancashire Methodist District