Justice, Rights and Human Wrongs (Part 1)

The Politics of Integrity

but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. – Proverbs 11:3 (ESV)

It’s amazing that even thousands of years after it was written the Bible still has some pretty spot on remarks for today’s politicians and public figures. All this talk of expenses which has reared its head again naturally makes us decry the lack of integrity shown by some of our politicians, and recent moral failings on the part of certain sportsmen have provoked a similar response. This lack of integrity has been much derided over the past few months, rightfully so, but what on earth is integrity anyway? The popular conception of someone with integrity would probably be someone who’s got ‘good morals’, someone who’ll give you your change if you send them out for coffee, someone who can be trusted to be in the same room as your girlfriend without making a pass at them. There’s something in that, but as far as the Bible’s concerned there’s a lot more to be said. And as Christians in the political sphere it’s important we get this one right – we don’t have a monopoly on integrity, but it’s impossible to be ambassadors for Jesus, particularly somewhere as difficult as the political world, if our lives aren’t full of it.

We get the word ‘integrity’ from the same place we get the word ‘integer’. To be someone of integrity is to be a whole person – to be the same person when you’re praying on your own to when you’re bantering with your mates; as when you’re chatting to your parents to when you’re speaking to your boss. Obviously I don’t speak to my parents in the same way I speak to my boss, but just as (hopefully) I don’t lie to my parents, I don’t want to be lying to my boss either. Someone with integrity doesn’t have to put on a facade to try and convince people they’re someone they’re not, and doesn’t find themselves in situations where their actions don’t match the levity of their position in the eyes of others. They can be trusted. Integrity in our leaders, whether MPs or captain of the England football team, is, I would suggest, the quality we desire most – when expectations and reality don’t meet we get disillusionment on the scale we’re seeing at the moment. Indeed a ComRes survey for Susa published last week found that 72% of people think personal integrity is more important than party allegiance in their MP. This is such an important topic.

However, there’s a danger here in the quest for integrity. Having ‘integrity’ for integrity’s sake so it can be proclaimed as a mark of how decent a person you are is no integrity at all. The reality is that we are never going to even begin to live lives of ‘wholeness’ without God’s help. In Micah 6:8 we read

and to walk humbly with your God? – Micah 6:8 (ESV)

Justice, mercy and faithfulness as expressed here are the cornerstones of our faith. If we strive for these in our relationship with God and with others, focussing our attention on Jesus, then my hunch is that integrity will follow. To strive for integrity to boost one’s own reputation would seem to suggest that someone isn’t willing to get to the bottom of the disconnect between their private world and their public persona. And in that disconnect lies the problem.

There’s a danger that Christian politicians could be tempted to present themselves as ‘the candidate of integrity’, even using their faith to do so. This will not do. For Christians at least, integrity is the result of a life given over fully to God. It is to be observed, and not proclaimed.

Is Loyalty a Virtue?

It’s been fascinating to observe the differing reactions to Peter Watt, former General Secretary of the Labour Party, who has spoken out against his treatment at the hands of the Gordon Brown in the midst of the furore surrounding suspect party donations. He’s received a mixture of criticism and praise for both the timing and content of his revelations, but one theme which has come through consistently is that of loyalty. Putting Watt’s case to one side for the moment, how should we as Christians in the political sphere approach loyalty?

I was reminded of an intriguing passage in The Christian Mind by Harry Blamires (a fascinating if slightly outdated read) where the issue is tackled head on. Blamires writes

It might be argued that the problem of loyalty is the key problem of our age…Loyalty may be said to be evil in the sense that if any action is defended on the grounds of loyalty alone, it is defended on no rational grounds at all…’I do this out of loyalty to my leader’ is irrational and amoral unless it is consequent upon, ‘My leader’s character, or purpose, of policy, is such that it ought to be supported.’ Loyalty is in itself not a moral basis for action. (pp. 23-24)

It’s hard not to agree with what Blamires has to say here – loyalty is not intrinsically good in the way that humility, for example, is intrinsically good. In the Bible loyalty is only commended when offered to a good cause (Judah staying loyal to the house of David in 1 Kings 12 for example), and its absence is only condemned when not offered when it should be (Psalm 78).

The only loyalty which is always good is loyalty to God, because God himself is always good. Our loyalty to men and to political parties is only as good as those men and political parties we’re following. As it says in Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” (ESV)

Was Watt right to show a lack of loyalty and publish his book? That depends entirely on one’s judgement of how Gordon Brown and the Labour Party treat him. Are Christian politicians free to be disloyal to their party or party leader where it conflicts with their loyalty to God? Yes, in fact they must. Loyalty is always a moral issue, and it deserves more than unthinking assent from those who undyingly profess it.

That said, if every politician were felt free to be disloyal on whatever issue they felt like then our party system would break down very quickly indeed. Christians have no more dispensation to be disloyal than anyone else in the vast majority of circumstances – God probably isn’t going to give divine insight into whether Academies are a good idea, or whether Foundation Hospitals would make things better or worse (to take but two controversial issues from a few years ago). A key verse here is 1 Peter 2:12 – “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” (ESV) For our conduct to be honourable we need to choose times to rebel carefully and on firm moral grounds, indeed the rest of 1 Peter 2 seems to assume loyalty as a default setting. It does our reputation as believers no good to be consistently part of the ‘awkward squad’.

The issue of loyalty is not the cut and dry moral issue that many, especially in political parties, make it out to be. However there’s a sensible, biblical approach to this issue which means that we can be loyal party members as well as loyal servants of God. Loyalty to our political party comes second to our loyalty to God, and cannot be automatically assumed. Nonetheless if we sign up to a party or a cause, we offer our support of its values and, dare I say, its leader as well. We have more to gain from faithful and active participation in politics than we do ‘going rogue’ and making a name for ourselves for all the wrong reasons.