This week the Leader of the Liberal Democrats told his party
that they faced a choice between ‘protest and power’. Many grass-roots Liberals seem to feel that
the choice has in fact been between principles and power, and that the party in
its determination to hold on to power has let go of the very things it stands
for.
History’s pages are full of examples from all spheres of
life of individuals and organisations who sacrificed their principles in order
to cling on to power. We would do well
to think a little further about these. The church today is desperate to have
influence in our nation and to avoid being ignored or marginalised. In order to
cling on to the position they have in society, it has gradually diluted its message,
dropping doctrines, beliefs and
practices that the world outside finds offensive and focussing all their
energies on appeasing and appealing to the world. A typical example of this of is a church near here that recently held a beer festival in its mediaeval buildin http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-17775140 . It was clear from the comments made that (possibly in addition to financial considerations) this was about getting non-church attenders inside a church building, and yet having got people into the building by such ruses, these congregations don’t seem to know what message they want to proclaim to people. They have so confused and compromised their beliefs that they no longer have anything distinctive to say to the world. I believe that this is why people who are really searching for something spiritual (as opposed to a good real ale) are turning away from the Established church in many places to independent churches who are still prepared to proclaim the undiluted, uncomfortable, radical Truth. I want to weep sometimes when I hear the kind of insipid counsel given to people who are clearly seeking God by people appointed to be ministers of the gospel - mere platitudes that could just as easily have been spoken by a Buddhist or a humanist as by a Christian minister.
One of the features of our post-Christian era is that we no
longer respect people of strong principles. In the 19th and early 20th
centuries, society honoured people of strong convictions and principled lives.
Their opponents respected them as people of integrity even when they disagreed
with them, and the heroes of the day were people like Florence Nightingale,
William Booth, Earl Shaftesbury, David Livingstone and so on. Now people with
uncompromising convictions are ridiculed as being fanatical, vilified as bigots
or scorned as out-dated in a post-modern era. The heroes of today are film
stars, people from reality TV series, overpaid footballers and all sorts of
other ‘beautiful people’ with decidedly flexible morals.
So having strong principles isn’t popular in today’s world.
But when the chips are down and people are seeking answers to some of the
hardest questions of life, such woolly, insubstantial waffle will not do. People
want answers of substance, clarity and conviction.
But let’s not fall into the trap of thinking this is just an issue for
others people in other places, for this is a temptation for all of us as churches and as
individuals. We are making daily judgments about how much to engage
with the world, its thinking and its practices. It is not wrong to want to have
influence in the world, if that is in order to spread the Good News of Jesus
Christ. Yet if in the process of gaining and holding on to that influence, we
forget why we wanted that influence in the first place, what have we gained? In a sermon I heard recently on being ‘salt and light’ the speaker made an obvious but fundamental point. Salt is meant to be different! Our function in this world is act as a spiritual preservative in society. To fulfil that purpose we need to remain distinctive, for ‘salt that loses its saltiness is of no use for anything’. Our effectiveness is bound up with our distinctiveness. So if we want to remain effective let’s remember why we are who we are, and hold onto our principles at all costs.
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