A lot of Christians tell me they don’t do politics – they might read the papers, bemoan the state of where we are and how we got here, and vote accordingly. But they ‘don’t do politics’. They don’t want their ministers to either. They want to talk about Jesus on a Sunday! They want to worship! Christianity is about salvation – preferably mine – and not about who is responsible for the rise in rent prices!

I understand the urge for neutrality – we are called to be peacemakers, to be reconcilers – and to take sides seems to be adding to the awful polarisation we see around us, not healing it. But we cannot have peace without justice, any more than we can hope for justice without peace. The late Desmond Tutu put it best in his famous quote: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

How can we talk about Jesus if we put out of our minds the suffering of those we are called to love? How can we engage in meaningful worship at all if we’ve left the hurt and distress of our sisters and brothers on the other side of the church door as if they’re a weekday issue only? We can’t.

Micah chapter 6 stands as a timeless reminder of God’s plea – demand – for justice and mercy, over and above any beautifully choreographed worship. The arc of Scripture, of the created order itself, is to truth and grace, justice and mercy, and our calling is to that or it is to nothing. The best choral music in this whole world won’t save us if we turn our backs on those who need our voice.

I love the story of Esau and Jacob from the Old Testament – and I always think of it when I am told we should keep politics out of religion.

For those who don’t know it, I have put the link at the bottom of this blog. Esau is the first born of twin boys, and thus the heir of all that is his father’s. Jacob is the younger of the twins. As the boys grow we get a clear sense of all manner of rivalry – Isaac, the boys’ dad, favours Esau while mum, Rebecca, leans to Jacob and she wants that birth-right for him. Anyway, one day when Esau has been out working hard in the fields all day, he comes home absolutely knackered and famished and finds Jacob making a lentil stew. Esau smells that food and can’t think of anything else so when his brother says I’ll give you some food if you give me your birth-right, Esau agrees. What use is a birth-right and all that stuff if you’re literally starving to death?

Now a lot of Christians read this story and interpret it all as a terrible failing on Esau’s part – to give up all that God has promised him for food in his belly now. How short-sighted! I get something a bit different; Esau was hungry and when you’re hungry, really hungry, nothing else can matter. To say that he was short-sighted may be true but it is also the commentary of those who have never felt such hunger. We live in a world full of people who cannot see God, hear God, think about God, because hunger and need and desperation, all driven by political decisions and choices, hide the kingdom of God from them. Politics matter – do justice, love mercy, remember the widows and orphans. welcome the foreigner.

Christians must engage in politics no matter how messy and compromising it might feel. We may see ordinary and essentially decent people falling behind the Right, but the leaders of these movements both here and in the US have an agenda and that agenda is increasingly rooted in the silencing of those who stand between them and authoritarianism. It has nothing godly or Christian about it. Nothing of the Cross, not even the cross of St George.

How do we engage with this – there are some Christians who might share their views, especially in the US, but here too we need to be able to disagree. Graciously, of course, but disagree. For many though, it is simply a case of stay out of it! Keep praying, keep worshipping, and it will pass. But it won’t – God takes us through stuff, not around it. People are living in fear – fear of political violence, fear of being identified as an immigrant, fear of no longer being welcome in this place they call home, and contribute to so fully. Love of God and neighbour does not allow for comfortably walking by on the other side, hoping the problem will sort itself out.

2/ Pray – not to get our own way, politically or otherwise, but to discern what is God’s way and to find the courage and the strength to follow that way on our little bit of the planet, in our own communities.

3/ Speak out when the issue is truth or when our faith is being caricatured. It doesn’t have to be party political but it does have to be categorical. One thing influencers on the Right argue is that empathy is a new age term, and not Christian. Charlie Kirk said empathy is impossible because ‘we cannot feel what others feel’. Of course we can’t – just as well then that is not what empathy is. Empathy is actually imagining yourself in someone else’s situation, asking how you would feel, and then acting accordingly. We can’t hope to feel the fear human beings crossing the channel feel, but we can imagine how we might feel if it were our children, our loved ones. Empathy is real. Words matter.

4/ So much of the influence from the far Right is coming through social media – mainstream (legacy) media is no longer trusted, so instead people are turning to social media – the irony of course is that social media too is run by billionaires with their agendas, and the cream on the irony cake is their greater capacity to manipulate truth through AI and algorithms, more than the mainstream media could ever dream of. People are reposting lies at an alarming rate – challenge them, kindly, and gently, but do it.

5/ Keep your heart on Jesus – he spoke truth to power no matter what the cost – remember why he trashed the tables in the Temple? Remember too God is the Omega as well as the Alpha. This ends well. Take heart. Don’t get disillusioned. We don’t have to fight every battle and turning off social media now and again is really healthy and wise, but we can’t walk away from the battle either.

We were made for a time such as this.

The story of Esau and Jacob – Genesis 25:29–34 NIV – Once when Jacob was… | Biblia