On Rock or Sand?

Firm Foundations for Britain's Future

John Sentamu

• Publisher: SPCK Publishing
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780281071746
• eBook ISBN: 9780281071753
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The aim of this book is nothing less than to assess and reset the terms of the debate about the kind of nation we want to be. It asks: What are the essential values we need for building a just, sustainable and compassionate society in which all can participate? Chapters by expert economic, political, religious and social thinkers, including contributions by Lord Adonis, Sir Philip Mawer, Oliver O'Donovan, Andrew Sentance, Julia Unwin and Archbishop Justin Welby Addresses crucial questions about the moral principles that undergird the way Britain is governed Written for people of any or no religious background who are concerned about the values that influence our political attitudes and decisions Faced with a period of change as great as that of the 1930s, the continued cohesion of our society is at risk as expectations of ever-rising prosperity are challenged and many struggle to make ends meet. It is within this context that the contributors to this book examine some fundamental questions. How can we draw upon the wellsprings of social solidarity today? What would a new social contract - a new understanding about the respective rights and obligations of the individual citizen and the state - look like today? At a time when budgets and other resources are being reduced, what are the principles we should adopt to distribute them? In short, what values can the Christian faith bring to the table to help address the problems we face today? These and other core questions about the kind of society we seek lie at the heart of this book.

1

Introduction: Hope today for a brighter tomorrow

JOHN SENTAMU

‘His money won’t work! How will he survive?’ Olivia, the granddaughter of the Bishop of Edmonton, asked, when I was visiting Canada some time ago. Olivia was relieved to hear that I wouldn’t be needing my British currency since her grandparents were taking care of my wife and me. But her question made me consider how we help people in our own communities whose money, what little they have, doesn’t work, who have to make hard choices, for example between heating and eating. How will they survive? They will survive, I think, only if we stop thinking about ‘my money’ and start thinking about ‘our money’ and how we can make our money work for all of us.

A few weeks after visiting Canada, I went to Egypt to see how the diocese is serving the very poorest in their communities. One image stayed with me: the picture of a small child and the caption, ‘My name is “Today”: today I need to eat, today I need to play, today I need care, today I need love. Give me hope today for a brighter tomorrow.’

How do we nourish and nurture care and compassion like that of Olivia – she was then three and a half years of age? How do we rise to the challenge to meet all the needs of ‘Today’? Are the well-springs of solidarity still overflowing, or have they run dry, leaving us all in a dry pit where there is no water?¹ Have we ‘forsaken the fountain of living water and dug out cisterns for [ourselves], cracked cisterns that can hold no water’?²

What I want to do in this introductory chapter is to give us hope today for a brighter tomorrow, building on firm foundations centred on God’s free gift of life in Jesus Christ, offering humankind a transforming vision for our ‘Common Profit’.³ That is: the well-being and wholeness of every human being flowing out from the loving purposes of God made visible in the face of Jesus Christ.

The need to build

In April 2010, just before the General Election, the first meeting of the Bishopthorpe symposia was held.

This was a gathering of economists, social thinkers, contemporary historians and theologians whom I had invited to reflect on some of the pressing challenges of the day. It seemed to be an opportune time to take stock not only of the policies by which our society and our economy should be governed but also of the underlying values, virtues and principles of which our society and economy are an expression.

Such a gathering had been in my plans for some four years, but its formation was given added impetus by the signs of increasing dysfunction in the country, and the distress and disaffection among people in the wake of the Financial Crisis and the Credit Crunch.

Can we achieve a common vision? Religion and the public debate

How were we to recover confidence in our society and its direction? Was the answer to be found in politics alone? Would the particular colour or leaning of a political party be the golden bullet that would shatter the old and outdated order, and usher in a fresh vision for the governance of Britain? But what was our responsibility – as individuals, as communities?

During the years in which we have been meeting, there have been calls, from all sections of society, for a rebirth of civic values and virtues. The experience of growing inequalities in Britain, the loss of hope for the future among many of our young people, the financial struggle faced by individuals and families, the threat to health and welfare provision, etc. have been a catalyst for this.

In reflecting on achieving a common vision, we have been drawn back repeatedly to the language of ‘the common good’ (i.e. the universal well-being and good of all); to questions about the real meaning of wealth and what makes for a good society; to the need for a robust vision of what is due to all human beings to enable their flourishing. We have recognised our need to rediscover our fundamental values and virtues, and to be clear about what we may hope for as citizens of Great Britain.

It has seemed clear to us that politics alone is not able to provide a complete answer to contemporary problems. The growing apathy and cynicism about politics and politicians has undermined their ability either to convince the electorate of or even to articulate clearly their vision for the country in an effective way. Jim Wallis, writing in an American context, explains why. He says, in his book On God’s Side:

It’s time to find a better vision for our life together. Politics is failing to solve most of the biggest problems our world now faces – and the disillusionment with elections and politicians has gone global.

Politicians continue to focus on blame instead of solutions, winning instead of governing, ideology instead of civility.⁴

That doesn’t mean, however, that a Christian vision of our future will readily be received.

For example, Dame Mary Warnock, a philosopher who has made a prominent contribution to the public debates about ethical issues, in her book, Dishonest to God, is concerned with ‘what part Christianity should continue to play in legislation and politics and what influence it has and should continue to have in Parliament, whose responsibility is to Christian and non-Christian alike’.⁵ From where she stands, religion and morality must be prised apart, however close they may both have been in the past.

I am a considerable admirer of the contribution Lady Warnock has made to public life but on this I cannot accept her argument. This is false prophecy, and potentially fatal to our social fabric. It is false because morality is or should increasingly be a matter of public concern and not just a private matter. It is false because there is a danger that societies in which the expression of belief is weakened may become societies which cannot articulate a common vision. It is false because, unless informed by a conception of the Divine, moral principles are always in danger of fading away into moral relativism.

In his book The Idea of Human Rights: Four Inquiries, Michael Perry throws down the gauntlet that to speak, as so many claim to do, of ‘human rights’ from a purely secular perspective may well not make any sense.

In the first of these inquiries, R. H. Tawney is quoted as saying in his diary:

The essence of all morality is this: to believe that every human being is of infinite importance, and therefore that no consideration of expediency can justify the oppression of one by another. But to believe this it is necessary to believe in God.⁶

Three days earlier, Tawney had quoted in his diary the words of T. W. Price, Midland Secretary of the Workers Educational Association, and lecturer at Birmingham University:

Unless a man believes in spiritual things – in God – altruism is absurd. What is the sense of it? Why should a man recognise any obligation to his neighbour, unless he believes that he has been put in the world for a special purpose and has a special work to perform in it? A man’s relations to his neighbours become meaningless unless there is some higher power above them both.⁷

But secularists are not the only people who say that ‘the Church should get out and stay out of politics’. Some religious people would also argue that the Church should stay clear of politics. For them, the call to seek first the kingdom of God and the salvation of souls does not encompass a social dimension.

I would argue, however, that Christians are impelled to speak into the public discussion of social issues – not only as involved citizens but also because of the Christian understanding of what a just and sustainable society looks like. For we are created by God as fellow-humans, and that is why the Christian calling implies involvement in the needs and well-being of humankind wherever they may be met.

Like the Old Testament prophets, I suggest, it is essential for religion to speak truth to power. And so speaking up for the poor, the widow and the orphan flows from what the Church is and what it’s for. And it’s important for power to hear this religious voice, even if what is said is uncomfortable to hear.

Of course the Church cannot assume a right to be heard and must establish that right not only by its demonstrable commitment to the universal well-being and the good of all but also by the competence of the contributions it makes.

If the Church is to do that, it has to begin by ensuring that it properly understands the nature of the challenges confronting our society. This was the task our symposia undertook over the past five years at Bishopthorpe, drawing on the broad experience and expertise of the participants.⁸

A number of themes have become clear in our symposia. The first is the need for a more honest, informed and measured style of public debate on the weighty matters of the day. It is understandable that politicians on all sides will want to present their case as persuasively as they can. Sections of the media appear to believe that stories written in stark terms are more likely to attract attention and therefore readers and hearers. But if public debate is constantly conducted in soundbites, the public can end up frustrated, confused and alienated. The Church needs to stand among those who represent the ‘still, small voice of calm’ as the debate swirls around us.

The second is the urgent task of focusing on and affirming reiteratively the essentials of the gospel which should underpin our social understanding:

• that all human beings are of equal worth in God’s sight;
• that both children and adults will flourish only in the context of a well-ordered society, and a society is well-ordered only as it offers all its members ways of flourishing;
• that flourishing requires both a measure of security in the face of typical human needs, and a measure of openness to the emergence of individual creativity and initiative;
• that work is not merely a means to secure what we need to consume, but a form of communication with other people which dignifies us as individuals and draws us together in community.

The gospel call for social justice

Our society needs to come to a common understanding of and desire for the common good of all. We must turn away from the frenetic seeking after individual satisfaction and individual personal gain, and help one another make real progress together for our ‘common profit’. Why ‘common profit’?

Suffice it to say here that ‘common good’ might convey no more than the static idea of an economic reserve, the benefits of which are to be shared fairly within the community. We need to think of how we make real progress together (‘profit’) and how we may help each other make that progress.

Jesus’ first recorded proclamation in the synagogue in Nazareth⁹ (after he had read from the prophet Isaiah (61.1–2a)), makes it clear that the Good News of God’s kingdom (which he came to proclaim and demonstrate), is for the poor, those who are held captive by the oppressive chains of poverty, blindness and enslavement. Concern for a society that addresses problems of poverty and other injustices in society flows out of an evangelism that has the promise of God’s kingdom at its centre.

Jesus went on to say to his hearers, ‘I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose’ (NRSV). So says Jesus of Nazareth in Luke 4.43, when the people of Capernaum try to detain him.

Jesus’ priority was to let the movement of the Holy Spirit bring about a movement of human participation in the reign of God. This is the purpose that all who are called to follow him must adopt as their own....

Table of contents

• Cover page
• Title page
• Imprint
• Dedication
• Grateful thanks
• Table of contents
• List of contributors
• List of abbreviations
• Preface
• 1. Introduction: Hope today for a brighter tomorrow
• 2. Building the common good
• 3. The way ahead for the British economy
• 4. Full education in a free society
• 5. The changing face of poverty
• 6. Reflections on work
• 7. Health and well-being in Britain
• 8. Ageing: blessing or burden?
• 9. Improving the health of our representative democracy
• 10. Building our future
• 11. Conclusion: Firm foundations for Britain’s future