"There is an uncommon graciousness and generosity of spirit at work in this woman. She is a nationalist ideologue, utterly committed to breaking up the UK, but she’s so achingly, infuriatingly reasonable about it."
In spite of this unwanted approbation, Ms Forbes responded with dignity to the attacks made upon her, issuing a statement on Facebook and Twitter:
"I will defend to the hilt the right of everybody in Scotland, particularly minorities, to live and to live without fear or harassment in a pluralistic and tolerant society.
I will uphold the laws that have been won, as a servant of democracy, and seek to enhance the rights of everybody to live in a way which enables them to flourish.
I firmly believe in the inherent dignity of each human being - that underpins all ethical and political decisions I make."
Now, my initial reaction was to condemn Ms Forbes outright - without giving her a fair hearing and without examining the context. After some reflection, however, I came to believe that this was part of a larger issue of politics and religious belief and decided to investigate further. What I found was, to me, surprising.
So, I thought, how unique is Kate Forbes? Is she the only practising Christian, nay, the only religious believer in our political setup? The answer is: far from it. The first political religious group I located online was Christians in Parliament, which, as it says, is:
"...an All-Party Parliamentary Group, which exists to support all Members and staff in their work in the Houses of Parliament",
Members include Tim Farron, MP, and Lord David Alton (LibDems), Stephen Timms, MP, Marsha de Cordova, MP, (Labour), Desmond Swayne, MP, Gary Streeter, MP, (Conservative) and Sir Jeffery Donaldson of the DUP. There is a YouTube video, featured on their website and hosted by the one-time Tory MP, Nicky Morgan, called "Why should Christians get involved in politics?". All of which suggests to me that perhaps Kate Forbes is not alone in being a practising Christian and a politician.
Of course, political party divisions can sometimes override religious solidarity. This is proven by the article in Premier Christian News, which recorded Keir Starmer's supplanting of Jeremy Corbyn by saying:
"Labour’s new top team consists of 14 MPs who ascribe to the Christian faith.A week after being elected as Jeremy Corbyn’s replacement, Keir Starmer has chosen his shadow cabinet – the MPs who will speak and work on specific topics.In a team of 98 there are fourteen politicians who are members of Christians on the Left, which is affiliated with the Labour party."
This 2020 article informed me that....
"On the front bench is Jonathan Reynolds, chair of Christians on the Left and the new shadow work and pensions secretary. A broad church of people join him, including David Lammy and Marsha De Cordova. Bridget Phillipson, a Roman Catholic, and Cat Smith, a Methodist who says her faith led to her involvement in politics, are the shadow chief secretary to the treasury and minister for young people respectively.
So, then, Christians of all denominations are already active in politics, some of whom must share Kate Forbes' views on gay marriages and births out of wedlock. Kate Forbes, then, is hardly an exception.
But what about other faiths? Well, I was interested to learn that 18 Muslim MPs were elected to Parliament in 2019. As The Muslim News says:
"Muslim candidates won a record of 18 Parliamentary seats at this month’s General Election, three more than in 2017 but slightly less than expected as Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party scored a resounding 80 seat majority.The number of successful Muslim candidates are spread over London, the South-East, the Midlands, North-West and North East, though none are in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. No less than 10 are Muslim women, including Apsana Begum, 29, in the safe Labour seat of Poplar and Limehouse, who is the first hijab-wearing MP".-David Miliband, current Labour Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
-Malcolm Rifkind, Foreign Secretary from 1995-97
-Sydney Silverman, Labour MP responsible for the abolition of capital punishment in 1965
-Leo Abse, a Labour MP for nearly 30 years who pushed through reforms on homosexual relations in 1966
-Leslie Hore-Belisha (British Liberal, then Conservative), who Introduced the driving test and in 1934 the Belisha beacon
-LibDem peer Lord Lester, whose two Private Members’ Bills became the models for the Human Rights Act 1998
-Lord Lawson, Chancellor from 1983-89
-Edwina Currie, Junior Health Minister from 1986-88
-Leon Brittain, Home Secretary from 1983-85
-Lord Emmanuel (Manny) Shinwell, a minister in the two pre-war Labour governments. In 1938 he slapped a Conservative MP who had shouted: “Go back to Poland, you Polish Jew”
I regard it as important to consider why people claim to hold religious views; in my opinion, there is quite a variety of reasons, not all of which are based on pious devotion.
ReplyDelete► Many people do follow their religion sincerely and tend not to proselytise. These represent the majority of believers and generally are genuine.
► The faith that some claim can be based on a reluctance to accept that the loved ones they have lost are gone forever or by extension, that their own earthly demise may result in permanent personal extinction. Instead, they'd prefer to persuade themselves that they do believe, as though wishful thinking can bring a God and an afterlife in existence.
► Some publicly claim to hold religious beliefs in order to enrich themselves by preying on other people's insecurities. Wealthy high profile evangelists fall into this category, and I hold the view that many of these are not genuine believers.
► While I accept that some politicians do hold sincere religious beliefs, I would not accept that all professions of faith by political figures are genuine.
With some it can be seen to be politically advantageous. In democratic societies, visibly being a regular church-goer may be seen as good for the image. Good for photo opportunities too.
Undemocratic leaders may use religion as an excuse to inspire their followers into violence or even war. From the Crusades (initiated by Pope Urban II to try to ensure that Christian rulers gave him the respect and obedience he felt was due to him as God's representative on Earth) through to Al Qaeda, Islamic State and the Taliban who motivate their faithful followers into extreme acts of violence against those who don't unquestioningly accept their respective leaderships' diktats and particular brand of religion.
For example, Islamic State massacred Yazidi males and forced Yazidi women into sex slavery, selling them on when they have finished with them like pieces of property.
Such pseudo-religious leaders really want to be in charge, they expect total obedience, they want to control how people live their lives, for example by imprisoning women in the home by banning them from travelling without a male chaperone, and denying them the right to education or employment. It is necessary to ignore the religious pretexts these leaders claim to have. Such people are in reality fascists using (or abusing?) religion to ensure faithful obedience to their commands and total submission to their leadership. Any questioning of their authority or suspicions of disobedience are met with overwhelming violent, and often fatal, retribution. In this, such brutal pseudo-Islamic leaders have more in common with Hitler than Mohammed.
The same applies to all dictatorial leaders from any brand of religion who deliberately incite their followers to violence that - they claim - is required by their respective deities.
For such dictators, their religion is the pretext and their real motivation is the thirst for absolute power over others, which looks like a description of fascism to me.
► To conclude, a bald statement that certain politicians profess to have a faith doesn't tell the whole story. Their motives for declaring their faith also need to be analysed because it cannot be assumed that publicly-declared religious observance automatically represents genuine faith.
Margaret Thatcher infamously gave up the low church Methodism of her parents when she realised the importance of being C of E to serve her aspirations
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