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A lot of Christians will ask the question — why join a secular party when we can start our own Christian party. In mainland Europe there are a number of Christian parties — so why not here?
We think there are three compelling reasons why a Christian party is not the right way to go in this country.
First, it contaminates the gospel. A party which claims to be entirely Christian can have a very damaging effect on the church as a whole. Christian parties in other parts of Europe have done many things which are decidedly unChristian. As long as human beings are imperfect, we would shy away from too closely identifying the Christian faith with one particular viewpoint.
Second, it is ineffective. The first past the post system in the UK means that small parties get no seats at all, unless they are strongly localised. About 10% of the UK population go to church regularly. If all of them were to vote for a particular Christian party, they would not get 10% of the seats, they would simply get 10% of the vote in each seat, and no seats at all.
Third, Christians don't agreeon all things political. The reason that we have strong Christian groups in each of the three major parties is that Christians really do take different views on issues such as the economy, defence, crime and education. |
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