New PM’s vital in-box

By the time the next issue of en comes out, the United Kingdom will have a new Prime Minister.

At the time of writing, the last two candidates are busy appealing to Conservative Party members with a wide variety of promises and prophecies about how successful they’ll be in the post. Whatever your personal feelings about the two, it’s a huge job. The reputational damage of the last few years also doesn’t help.

September also sees the return of the Westminster Parliament with MPs and Peers sitting again from 5 September. The Scottish Parliament is back in action too, as is the Welsh Parliament. Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland there’s been little progress on the formation of an Executive. Can I encourage you to pray for your elected representatives, whoever they are? Why not email them and let them know you’re praying for them as they start a new season?

In Scotland, there are significant challenges to God’s good design. The Scottish Government wants to push through legislation that will make it easier for someone to legally change their gender. They’re also keen on introducing buffer zones around abortion clinics, despite the lack of substantive evidence that pro-life vigils are intimidatory. Christian MSPs will face tough choices, especially those in government.

At Westminster, you can expect the Online Safety Bill to be back, although both candidates for PM have indicated they might tweak it. Parts of the Bill are excellent – for example, the new requirement for age verification on online pornography covers both commercial porn sites (like Porn Hub) and social media. This is hugely necessary because teenagers are accessing porn accidentally online, without any filters of age gates to stop them.

But the really concerning part of these plans are provisions that attempts to place a duty on social media firms to crack down on so-called ‘legal but harmful’ content. Just stop and think about that for a moment. What on earth is it? How do you define something so vague? It’s not hard to see how faithful, Christ-honouring teaching from the Bible that legitimate sex is only between one man and one woman in the context of a married relationship could fall foul of such measures.

This brings me to a wider point. Decades ago, Christians were viewed as ‘weird’, but we were also tolerated. There was some institutional memory that the UK was influenced by Christianity and decision makers maybe still remembered going to Sunday School when younger. But there has been a creeping and rapid change. Now, Christian teaching is not only weird, some of what we believe is labelled ‘harmful’. In other words, by believing what God says in His word about sexuality, being human, about the nature of the atonement, we are actively harming others.

It’s vital that we respond robustly and clearly to this because nothing could be further from the truth. A society that ignores God and His word is one that immediately falls under His judgment. He gives it over to do what should not be done. That’s what we see in Romans 1:18-32.

Yet despite the spiritual darkness, when God’s people engage as light and salt in society and when we speak out wisely, with truth and grace (John 1:14), we can have an impact. That’s what history teaches us.

Last month saw the 188th anniversary of The Slavery Abolition Act coming into force. This of course was the landmark legislation which really was the culmination of Wilberforce’s incredible efforts over decades to abolish Britain’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

May God grant us the courage to engage, not withdraw, to see the good of society by proclaiming the gospel and telling a better story for our nation, one fuelled and inspired by the glorious realities of God, His word, and His wisdom for human flourishing.