Bishops should preach truth

There has been much comment on the detail of the House of Bishops ‘Pastoral Letter’ in advance of the coming general Election.

It is a 52-page document which, despite claims to the contrary, appears to set out a political manifesto. After some initial hype, the response has been somewhat lukewarm, with many challenging the credibility of the Church of England with regards to such matters.

I could not help but consider the contrast as I listened to ‘An Audience With Baroness Cox’ at the Bristol Women’s Conference on Saturday 7 March. Her theme was ‘I cannot do everything but I must not do nothing’.

It was both eye-opening and inspiring, not least because she began by talking about her own faith in Christ. She recalled being been confirmed by her local Bishop and quoted her ‘confirmation text’ by heart: ‘Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest’ (Joshua 1.9).

The frontier of fear

The need for courage – or as she put it, ‘crossing the frontier of fear’ – has been vital in the work that God has called her into – being a voice for the voiceless in the House of Lords. She is not content with being a name on the headed paper of a charity, or relying on second-hand accounts. Instead, she has flown into countless war zones, held the hand of thousands of victims of oppression and worked tirelessly to expose the sharia darkness of slavery, law and other forms of tyranny, whilst providing practical help on the ground.

She amused her audience by saying that speaking in the House of Lords takes just as much courage as facing the bombs and the bullets. But her speeches carry all the more weight because of her own testimony, which allows her to say that she has ‘seen first hand the devastating effects of the Government of Sudan’s escalating aerial bombardment’ or that she visited ‘…areas afflicted by Boko Haram’ where she ‘found that the scale of suffering to which she refers massively exceeds that reported by the media.’ Her credible witness has not gone unnoticed – according to another member of the House of Lords, Baroness Cox has earned ‘the respect of us all’.

Christians in politics

There is no doubt in my mind that we need Christians to engage with politics, and I hope that we will all take seriously our democratic right to vote in the coming elections. We cannot and must not withdraw from our society, however hostile it becomes. But as I listened to Baroness Cox I was left wondering ‘What if our Bishops had spent the last 30 years prioritising their canonical obligation “to teach and to uphold sound and wholesome doctrine, and to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange opinions”?’

Wouldn’t that mean there were more Baroness Coxes, more men and women equipped to live out a credible Christian witness in the Westminster Village and the rest of the world? Perhaps politicians would even have been coming to the Bishops and asking them the reason for the hope that these Christians revealed in their daily lives.