‘Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven’

by Ian Geary

The central message of Jesus was and is that the Kingdom of God is at hand – or nearby. But what is it? And importantly, what does it mean for Christians on the left of politics? What are the principles of the kingdom of God upon which a stronger Christian left needs to be built?

It seems that in order to effectively transform lives and society for the better through the gospel, we need to have a renewed effort to clear the fog that currently surrounds this vital Christian doctrine.

Unless our engagement in the Labour Party and the left side of politics is rooted in an understanding of what church actually is, and how it relates to the ‘Kings-domain’, then our eschatology and missiology will continue to induce compromise in our political lives. I speak from contrite and personal reflection but hope these thoughts can start a debate on what we should be seeking from involvement in the Labour Party and our calling in politics. Like Nebuchadnezzar, we need a fresh understanding of the kingdom of God: How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation. (Daniel 4: 3)

The Bible places a clear call for God’s people to engage in politics and government – to seek social justice and righteousness through public life. Around the world today the many ways in which the church is once again grasping this calling is encouraging, and as the global process of desecularisation continues we can expect more and more Christian involvement in the main UK political parties. When we see this process through ‘kingdom eyes’, it is clear that the Labour Party has an important part to play. As we focus our prayers and activities on seeking the reign of the King and his kingdom in the Labour Party, seeking to demonstrate signs of the kingdom in policy and government, we reduce our dependency on human ideas and traditions, and begin to exercise our faith in God – and it is this dependency that he really, really seeks.

Yet, without a commitment to doing the theological spade-work necessary for developing a more rigorous and biblical intellectual basis for Christian action on the left, we may well be ‘left behind’ (to use a seriously erroneous term). In the seminal text on the subject, ‘The Gospel of the Kingdom’ George Eldon Ladd famously states that ‘the future has invaded the present’. Prior to the consummation of all things with the return of the King, it’s about heaven being demonstrated in our lives now. This is echoed in Bishop of Durham Tom Wright’s recent excellent book ‘Surprised by Hope’ in which he devastatingly shows how, living in the ‘now, but not yet’, we are not called to ‘build’ the Kingdom like some human ideology of progress, but to live in it, show and thereby allow it’s extension – all for God’s glory and our healing.

So, what would the Labour Party look like if it had a cultural/spiritual encounter and connection with the Kingdom of God?

If we saw a move of God in the Labour Party that influenced the direction of travel of policy and key individuals within it, we might hope to see a politics that emotionally connects with people. Importantly, this might possibly include those people who have voted Labour in the past but feel alienated now. No amount of think-tanks, policy roundtables and complex utopian discourses can produce the impact of a generation of people who are motivated by love, full of the spirit and see all men as equal because they are God's children. Following the disappointing local elections in May, an MP wrote about Labour's need for 'soul' and an emotional connection with its core vote. The use of such language should at least attract the attention of those of us who view politics through kingdom eyes. Such 'soul' is only going to come from one place and it starts with a focus on the kingdom of God. How can the Labour Party begin to look at re-discovering such a connection without reference to its spiritual roots?

Perhaps most strikingly, the Kingdom of God needs to be manifest in the Labour Party as it has been hijacked by an increasingly secular philosophy. Of course this secularism has all too often been a fellow traveller of those enlightenment cast-offs liberalism and utopianism. All of these philosophies though historically redundant try and flex their 'muscles' in ways that confront religious liberty. The recent HFE debates in the House of Commons saw the sometimes intolerant nature of this tendency. Should the Labour Party, therefore think it can take the Roman Catholic, working-class vote for granted? I think not. In fact let us not be deluded by the intentions of secularism; at its most ugly and brutal edge it does not seek accommodation with faith, it seeks to strangle faith. In fact some have said ‘… secularism is not a partner but an assassin’ (p216, Metavista, Colin Greene and Martin Robinson, 2008).

Labour was founded as the party of the industrial working class, now in Government it all too often appears to be at odds with the concerns of working people. Liberalism has meant the inadvertent triumph of market values over the rights of communities and individuals, the downgrading of marriage and refusal to acknowledge right and wrong. Perhaps a kingdom minded politics would at least have more empathy with ordinary people and the pressures and choices they face.

Further, should we seek to see the Kingdom of God demonstrated in society and in the core of the Labour Party's vision then this must mean more explicit support for marriage and family life. If the Labour Party were to be truly plural it would be concerned for the institution of marriage and strong family life. If the Labour Party could step away from a mixed economy of moral confusion and embrace marriage as the normative relationship, between a man and a woman, affirmed before God, then maybe some of that connection with traditional constituencies mentioned earlier could be developed. Christian values of community, solidarity, marriage and family life actually strike a chord with working-class values that are and always have been profoundly more relational than middle class values. We should not be surprised that biblical norms are the starting point to see some deep re-connection with Labour voting communities. The Bible is still good news for poor – and it is (and probably always will be) rather bad new to the selfish, omni-individual rich. Consequently, Christians on the left who take the Bible seriously can play a part in suggesting positive ways for the Labour Party to re-connect with people and communities. Rebuilding the fabric of their lives, families and communities through a politics rooted in a biblical worldview. Focussing on the King and Kingdom of God should remind us how we should start to approach the challenge we face and that political service is an expression of mission.
I want my politics to be rooted in the central call of demonstrating the signs of the Kingdom. But, we need to ask some searching questions of ourselves: Are we political activists or missionaries? What is our defining purpose and identity? Where does our authority come from?

I love the story of Hudson Taylor, the great missionary praying for 1000 missionaries to go to China and the fruit of that prayer was the work of the China Inland Mission. He sowed the seeds of the gospel that survived the progressivism of Mao – China is now officially the biggest Christian country in the world. Similarly, let's pray for a new generation of Christian missionaries to be acting within the Labour party.

Ian Geary is a political consultant and writes in a personal capacity. He is a former Parliamentary candidate, and in the 2005 General Election had a senior campaigning role in the West Midlands. Ian is a graduate in Politics and Theology from Manchester University in 1994, has an MA in Labour Studies and has worked for AEEU and Amicus trade unions.

Ian Geary, 05/02/2009