Last night was the first lecture for this term's Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture public lectures on religion and public policy. It was given by John Battle MP, the former adviser on faith communities to Tony Blair. It was an entertaining and thought-provoking lecture. Some things he said:
When he came to meet with all the permanent secretaries of each governmental department, he got not find a single one that did not issues and questions relating to faith communities.
He argued that faith commnuities need to define their relationship with state, otherwise it will be defined for them. He want to see faith communities become government critics (in the best sense of the word).
He pointed us to a consultation document called Face-to-Face and Side-by-Side: A framework for inter-faith dialogue and social action and encouraged us to respond.
He suggest that the test of enterprises like scriptural reasoning will be in their shared action.
He argued we are in a climate where politics is dominated by fear; where the watchwords are security and terrorism. (An opportunity if ever there was one for faith communities to demonstrate and witness to an alternative politics)
He said that parliament and politicians do not have enough time to pause; everything is reactive and without due consideration.
And finally he argued that the word 'neighbours' is now only understand as a tv soap about fictional characters on the other side of the world, rather than a concrete reality in people's lives.
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