Parliament - a toxic environment?

This week the youngest MP to be elected to Parliament in 350 years announced she would not be standing in the next election because the place was “toxic and poisonous”. According to another leading political podcast, it is a place of “perverts and weirdos”. And on Wednesday, Newsnight featured a major investigation into the awful experience of young staff members working in Parliamentary offices, many of whom had experienced sexually inappropriate behavior from MPs. In short, it has been (yet another!) bad week for Parliament’s reputation.

For 30 years CARE has trained, equipped, and encouraged young people to go into the public square, because we believe that serving others in public office, or supporting those who are, is a noble calling.

But have we reached a tipping point, where politics, and the Westminster Parliament in particular, is an unsafe space – physically mentally, spiritually – for young Christians?

As I have reflected on that question, my conclusion is, in a rather damning indictment on the institution, that Parliament is no more unsafe than it has ever been.

Yet at the same time it has never been more important for Christians, young and old, to be salt and light in the mission-field that is the public square. Christians confident in the gospel message and faithful in their servant-hearted accountability perform an essential role by being flavoursome salt and life-giving light in the public square.

Therefore, as we read the stories of inappropriate behavior in Parliament, we need to remember three things.

Firstly, Parliament is full of people. People like you, me, and our neighbours. Our political leaders and those working in Westminster are men and women capable of great good; but they are also sinners like the rest of us: as Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” To place them on a mythical pedestal and think that they are not afflicted by the same temptations as the rest of society would not be realistic. They need our prayers. They need our mercy.

However, our ambitions for those in public office and called to leadership should be great. That is point two.

Because it is legitimate that we ask politicians to reflect the best of us and role model good leadership, with integrity.

Paul writes to Timothy and Titus making this point for leaders of the church, but it also applies to our public leaders including, and perhaps especially, politicians.

We often want our political leaders to be regular people just like us and simultaneously to be our saviours, to be the answer to all the problems we face. This they can never be, for only one person in history was both God and man.

Politicians will never fill that space, but they are called to lead, and we must seek to elevate those who do so with integrity, ambition, courage, creativity, compassion, empathy, understanding, wisdom, and humility. We want, and need, leaders to look up to – not because they are perfect but because they seek to be better themselves and want us to be better as well.

As we read about fallen politicians and politics being full of scandals, we must still retain great ambition for who our leaders are and what they do.

But that ambition should be tempered by our compassion and grace for them when they make mistakes, and when they confess, and seek to improve. Sometimes my heart can be very intolerant of others’ mistakes, forgetting the Lord’s kindness and grace in my own life. When we see wrongdoing, it can be right to judge it, and it is right that actions have consequences, but it is not right to be judgmental, or for there to be no way back after repentance. As Jesus said, “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:2)

And that is why, thirdly, we need Christians in and around the public square and politics in general.

As you listen to accounts of Westminster being toxic and poisonous, and read stories about groping MPs and bullying in Parliament, please do not turn your back on politics as a fallen and lost mission field, which is devoid of hope. Christians have a strong and distinct role to play as light and salt in the public square. Think of Christians in politics as lighthouses for the lost and broken in Westminster.

I have written before that the vast majority of MPs and peers are decent people. Most do not claim any faith, but there are many Christians in and around Parliament who are quietly, faithfully serving the Lord where he has placed them.

Their numbers need to be supplemented all the time, and CARE will continue, and indeed, increase its efforts over the coming years, to equip and empower those who may be our future leaders. We want to train up a generation of Christians who strive to grow in virtue and character, as well as in their knowledge and skills, so they can take that step into the noble calling that is political life.

We do so not to seek special privileges for Christianity, but because we believe that, in the good news of Jesus and his announcement of the Kingdom of God, we can bring good news for all people. And we believe that in the person of Jesus, we have the ideal model for life, and we want to follow in his footsteps and imitate him in the way we live in the public eye. We want to show the world the virtues of truth and grace, of mercy and self-sacrifice, and restore faith in public service. And we want scandals, such as those we have heard about in recent weeks, to be shocking for their rarity not their frequency.

As you read of political scandals, remember the words Charles Haddon Spurgeon: “I have a great need for Christ; I have a great Christ for my need.”

Parliament has just as great a need for Christ as you and me, so let us be the generation that continues to shine light into it.