Are evangelicals missing something vital in this vote?

The recent Evangelical Alliance (EA) report surveying attitudes to political engagement among evangelicals provides much food for thought, writes Tim Lewis of Brephos.

If you haven’t already, it is well worth perusing here. The EA are keen to flag up the positive headlines: high voter turnout (93% said they would vote in the next election); compassionate motivation (58% responded that they voted based on helping ‘others who are most in need’) and a desire for the church to speak into political issues (70%). These results are encouraging, and hint at a mindset where gospel transformation permeates society beyond the local church. Yet dig a little deeper into the data and the picture becomes more complex, with a number of inconsistencies apparent. For example, the report suggests limited trust in politicians and the political status quo (64% felt the current political parties discouraged engagement in politics), yet more evangelicals vote for Labour or Conservative than the general population.

A massive 77% state that it is right for Christians to sometimes resist or disobey the law, and 42% agreed that Jesus would be put in jail today for His beliefs and actions!

So where are all the evangelical leaders willing to put their heads above the parapet in speaking out against issues such as abortion – the deliberate destruction of unborn children – that enjoy high levels of social acceptance? Are we committed to obeying God, even when that puts us in conflict with the powers that be (Acts 5:29), or do we prefer to safeguard our reputation, claiming that our witness to the gospel might otherwise suffer?

The EA is keen to stress the diversity of political perspective within the findings, and how no one party receives the ‘evangelical vote’. This is quite different from the situation elsewhere, not least the US, where evangelicals tend to vote Republican, in large part due to the Republican Party’s general opposition to abortion. Outside a handful of very small Christian parties and Northern Irish parties there is no consistently pro-life party throughout the UK. Perhaps the much trumpeted ‘diversity’ of the responses blinds us to the fact that some political positions or stances are more amenable to an evangelical worldview than others. Given their track record on abortion promotion and expansion it is hard to view Keir Starmer’s Labour Party as furthering an evangelical worldview, yet more respondents claim they will vote Labour (42%) than the general population (41%) at the next election. Then again, we might number ourselves within the 46% of evangelical respondents who did not regard the party they were planning to vote for as aligned with Christian/Biblical values. Honest perhaps, but is this a responsible approach to take at the ballot box?

Let’s come back to the statistic that 70% believe the church has a role to play in political life. Here in fact there is a measure of consistency: fully 93% agreed that more Christians should get involved in politics, including standing for election. The question then becomes how that desire is reflected in the average evangelical pulpit – is specific policy being preached about or taught on? Not really. Only 13% of church leaders had explicitly encouraged support or opposition for a particular political policy. It seems that church leaders are significantly out of step with the desire from church members to take a clear lead and work out the practical implications of Biblical teaching for political positions. ‘Without vision the people perish’ (Prov.29:18), in the realm of political engagement no less than any other sphere.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the issues most likely to be talked about in the local church tend to reflect this tendency to avoid controversy. Poverty (67%) and war and peace (66%) are important concerns, but no party brands itself ‘pro-poverty’ or campaigns on an anti-peace platform. On the other hand, only a fifth of respondents had heard anything on abortion in church (21%). This reflects the picture in evangelical churches across the UK, where often the congregation are hungry for Biblical teaching on abortion, but the leadership are unwilling to deliver. Into this truth vacuum an aggressively pro-abortion culture gladly steps, presenting the issue as purely about personal choice, women’s reproductive justice or, most perversely, human rights. No wonder then that 14% of respondents would actually be less likely to vote for a party pledging to reduce the abortion time limit from 24 weeks.

I would guess that the evangelicals thinking like this would agree we have a duty to help ‘others who are most in need’. Furthermore, they would agree that the Bible teaches we should love our neighbour, and also that we were all fearfully and wonderfully made in our mother’s wombs (Ps.139:13-16). Yet because of the deficit in Biblical teaching the dots are not being joined up. UK evangelicals do not necessarily see the 220,000+ victims of abortion in the UK every year as among those ‘most in need’. Nor do they always see abortion for what it really is: the sacrifice of precious image bearers. Until evangelical churches teach these truths compassionately and clearly this tragic situation will continue.