I was thinking about wrapping up my series on what annoys me about some of the parties in the forthcoming election with a general blog about some of the minor parties, but have decided firstly that the Scottish Christian Party (or simply the Christian Party south of the border) and secondly that there are a few things that annoy me about the SNP.
The latter later, but first… things that annoy me about the Scottish Christian Party.
Led by the former gay anthem producer George Hargreaves, the party claims it is “proclaiming Christ’s lordship” and is standing on a pretty right-wing, fundamentalist policy platform. I’ll not bother dissecting their policies right now, but instead focus on two major problems.
Firstly, they belong to the school of thought within Christianity that assumes that following the faith automatically correlates with particular views on ethical and moral matters such as religion in society and schools, abortion, homosexuality, and so on – all things which are in a way beyond politics and very much matters for individual consciences. Of course, other Christian standpoints on these sorts of issues are available, but the way that parties like this hijack the word “Christian” is arrogant and presumptuous, and creates a dangerous lingering association in the minds of non-Christians who are aware of their campaign.
Secondly, they have – in Inverness, at least – been playing a terribly cynical game with their posters. I noticed at church yesterday they had a number of posters on the streets around the building, and heard that it was the same in another church in town. Now I think about it, a number of churches in the city centre have their posters planted nearby. I am sure it is not with the blessing of the churches, who are all trying to play an impartial role in ensuring their membership gets involved and aware in the election.
Now, my particular problem isn’t that they seem to be targetting the church-going vote specifically; it’s quite understandable. My main issues lies, again, in the perceptions of non-Christians, who may associate those posters with those specific churches nearby, and think that somehow they are connected or that the churches in question endorse the party. This then by default suggests the churches are party political or have official doctrines lying in the same particular right-wing tranche of Christian thought as the Christian Party.
That is mischevious at best and deeply manipulative at worst, both harming the public’s perception of Christianity, and also offending those Christians who might not take the same political outlook on such big issues.
So in short, I find them a deeply disturbing party, and that’s even without beginning to discuss their policies.
The election is in four days now. I can’t wait…
Further to your blog post, I thought I would take a moment to check out the Scottish Christian Party’s webpage (http://www.christianparty.org.uk/scotland/index.html). It provided me quite some amusement when I clicked on the link to view their policies and discover…. there were none!!
Enough said I think.
So there aren’t! Maybe they’re waiting for divine revelation or be told their policies…
They have a ‘faith’ page though, which is largely unremarkable, although I was slightly concerned about
4. We believe all government to be under the authority of God and that the purpose of government is the maintenance of freedom and justice solely in accordance with biblical principles.
Really? Solely in accordance with biblical principles? I see a few problems with that….
Indeed, Worm. At best, politics could grind to a halt as you get stuck in a quagmire of scriptural interpretation. “Biblical principles” is a very difficult thing to talk about in a secular application, unless you are absolutely clear about what it means. Which nobody is.
Mind you, they’re not exactly offering crystal-clear definitions of where government is going down in Westminster right now!
They obviously think standard politics isn’t difficult or confrontational enough so they need religious conflict as well just to spice it up.