“What would Jesus do?” The BNP, in a desperately brazen bit of publicity, are suggesting if he could he’d be voting for them in the forthcoming Euro elections.
Should you tell them or should I? Given that Jesus was Jewish, I’m willing to go out on a limb and say he’d have some serious misgiving about the BNP. In the best quote I’ve heard from a clergyman, Nick Baines, the Bishop of Croydon, has called it “a shameless two-fingers to anyone with either a brain or a conscience”. What’s next – direct mails from Allah urging people to cast votes for the far-right?!
The BNP’s attempt to find some religious affinity is the latest in a long line of politicians trying to claim religion for themselves. Whether it’s Christian socialists talking about justice and charity, or US Republicans using the Bible as ammunition against abortion and homosexuality, it seems everyone wants a little bit of Jesus on their side. The paradox is that whilst more and more politicians want to stake a claim to a spiritual base, they do so at a time when less and less people say they identify themselves as religious. For example a recent survey by Tearfund, the Christian development charity, found that just 53 per cent of the population identified in some way with Christianity, compared to 72 per cent at the last national census.
It’s almost as if we don’t recognise that politicians can have values unless they reveal some sort of faith-based motivation for them. Perhaps this is a reaction to the modern trends in politics – media management, the internet, triangulation – which have left people hankering for more conviction from their leaders. But when God can be invoked by people as diverse as George Bush, Tony Blair, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and now Nick Griffin, is it really a guide to anything at all?
The very best people in politics are always motivated by selflessness and a desire to act altruistically. Religious convictions could certainly provide motivation to do that. They’re undoubtedly going to be part of a range of factors – social, cultural, economic – through which politicians interpret the world around them. I don’t think anyone would see a problem with that. Equally, few would quibble with Tony Blair’s recent statement that politicians should seek to understand religion even if they have none themselves. Surely, however, it’s possible to recognise all of this without attempting to expropriate a particular religion, or religious figure, for party political ends. The BNP are indeed shameless, but their claim to Jesus’s vote would be just as bare-faced coming from any other part of the political spectrum. WWJD? It’s time to admit we just don’t know, and nor should it trouble us. We as social democrats can be sure our values stand up to scrutiny, regardless of whether they are motivated by religious belief.