Chapter 1
The Christian Democratic Tradition in Britain
Every Western European political system has been moulded by Judaeo-Christian values. When these values have been combined with democratic ideals, nations have been well governed. Britain's contemporary democratic institutions are the product of this powerful cocktail. Our rights and freedoms, duties and responsibilities, have not easily been won and only gradually defined. Since Thomas Becket was murdered by Henry II's men in Canterbury Cathedral the role played in this process by the formal Church and by individual believers has been of the highest significance. In our own times, in pre-war Germany and in the tyrannies of Eastern Europe, there have been graphic illustrations of what happens when Christians and the formal Church fail to engage actively in political life - by withdrawing into privatised religion - and what happens when they stand boldly against evil. The Church as a formal institution can become badly compromised when it fails to take a stand or when it identifies too closely with a State or with a partisan cause. Uppermost in the minds of Christians wondering whether they should get their own hands dirty in politics should be the Easter story. When one man with civic and political power washed his hands of his responsibility and said it had nothing to do with him, it led to the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Our own country's history demonstrates that in a parliamentary democracy there is no great desire to see political priests or ministers standing for public office or being caught up in the legislative process. Nor is there a great demand for an American-style Moral Majority, which fails to admit either its own sinfulness or to see morality as about anything other than sex. Christians must also guard against the evil of sectarianism. However, what many yearn for is a prophetic Church and for Christian values to be at the heart of our politics. Perhaps that is why so many thousands have responded to the 1990 call by such House Church leaders as Gerald Coates to petition the Government for change. That desire is also reflected in the growth and outlook of Evangelical Alliance, whose director, Clive Calver, says, 'Vote in line with your beliefs, don't just slip into mere political allegiance.'l