Many of the values characteristic of Liberalism appeal directly to Christian thinking. For example, there is the drawing together of individualism with recognition of the need for collective effort to tackle serious problems ... Jesus emphasised our responsibilities to others, and any Christian model for the political and social order must surely seek to promote that sense of responsibility of each of us for our fellow human beings.
Beith also pointed to the creation of the Liberal/SDP Alliance and argued that a different approach in politics, based not on mutual recriminations but co-operation, was an example of the New Testament's call to find good in others: 'The very creation of the Alliance depends on that humility and willingness to learn from others which is at the heart of the gospel.' Beith's conciliary approach to politics was rejected by party members when he unsuccessfully stood against Paddy Ashdown in the Liberal Democrat leadership election.
Living in Sin: The Time Didn't Come
Shirley Williams had once described the early relationship between the Liberal and SDP parties as like a couple 'living together'. The Alliance, forged in 1981, was the formal wedding ceremony. Perhaps it is symptomatic of the present unwillingness to work at relationships which run into difficulty that in 1987 the Liberals and SDP took the easy way out. By aborting the Alliance and the whole concept of cooperative, partnership politics David Steel and David Owen put paid to their aspirations of forming a Government. Millions of bewildered former Alliance voters, who voted for a non-confrontational form of politics, were left disillusioned. Party activists profoundly misunderstood their own voters. People had not been voting in their millions for the Liberal Party or the SDP but for the non-adversarial spirit which the Alliance represented. That was what made it so attractive to the many Christians who wholeheartedly backed it. As soon as it became clear that David Owen would not support the merger of the two parties David Steel should have put his merger proposals on ice. Although the majority of members wanted a merger, more notice should have been taken of the implications of ignoring those who could not share this approach - both the Owenites who were determined to continue with the SDP, and those Liberals, like the former Leeds MP, Michael Meadowcroft, who also felt unable to join the new merged party. Attempts were made to heal the rift. John Cartwright had been SDP