MP CALLS FOR CHRISTIANS TO GET INVOLVED IN POLITICS
A passionate appeal for Christians to get involved in politics was made by Stephen Timms MP, when he spoke at St Paul’s Church, St Albans on Sunday morning (June 26th).
The East Ham Labour MP and Shadow Minister for Employment told the Hatfield Road congregation: “We need people who are following Jesus to take what we read and sing here this morning, and apply them in school governors’ meetings, council chambers, in party discussions and in Parliament.
“We need people who believe that God will keep them safe in the rough and tumble of party politics – who believe that God is big enough for that. People like that have transformed Britain’s politics in the past.
“And Britain’s politics needs to be transformed again today. I wonder if there are some here this morning who are being called to play their part in that task? It isn’t an easy calling. But it isn’t an impossible one either. And if believers in Jesus won’t do it, then who will?”
Mr Timms, who had studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, with St Paul’s Vicar, Canon Tony Hurle in the 1970s, spoke of how the college’s Christian group had gone on a mission to East London and it had changed his outlook on faith. He had become involved in serving the local community and had been living in the area ever since.
Stephen Timms – who was the victim of a knife attack in his East London constituency office last May – said: “There is a tendency for us Christians to separate ourselves from politics, confining our interest to rather narrow moral issues. What I so welcome is that more and more Christians are seeing how the economy, housing, development and tackling poverty can be as much of concern for believers as – say – euthanasia or abortion.
“There is no shortage of examples from our history to encourage us. Most famously, Britain abolished the slave trade some 200 years ago as a result of a great campaign involving a vast number of people from the churches, led by William Wilberforce the MP for Hull. It was the first great, popular, democratic political campaign in the world – and it set the pattern for great democratic campaigns ever since. The progressive current in Britain has been substantially shaped and influenced by people with a starting point of faith.
“Sometimes people give the impression that the churches don’t make much difference any more. But it isn’t true.”
Speaking after the service, Canon Tony Hurle said: “It was good to see Stephen again and to hear his encouragement to Christians to get involved in politics and working for the common good.
“The Christian gospel is not just about Sundays in church, but about living out our faith every day wherever God places us.”
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