NEWSletter January 2014

Election News

They cameExpectingfireworks

The goodSamaritan forthis century

Upcomingevents

The TawneyDialogue

No room atthe inn

Matthew 5:31-46

Welcome to our January newsletter - our first since ourre-launch on November the fifth last year. We’ve beenfilled with a new energy and sense of activity since thenand I hope that this magazine will give some sense ofwhat we’ve got going on from events, new members,campaigns and conversations with new people all aroundthe UK.

The next few months are very busy and packed withexciting developments for Christians on the Left as wecontinue to join the worlds of religion, social action andpolitics.

I hope the articles included here give a good picture of allof that activity and encourage you to get involved whereever you are.

Shalom

Rob CarrCommunications Manager

Christians on the Left

The launch of Christians on the Left is an exciting new chapter in UK politics and this isyour chance to be part of the team that writes it.  Elections are taking place for variouspositions in the officer group and executive committee and we are seeking nomina-tions from among the membership for the following posts:

· National Secretary· Political Communications Officer· Vice Chair· National EC members (two)· National Regional Representatives for the

o North Westo South Easto South Westo Waleso West Midlandso Yorkshire and the Humber

Terms of office are for four years and more details about the responsibilities of officersand EC members can be obtained through the Christians on the Left office.

Nominations for each of the above positions must be made no later than.  Only fully paid up members can be put forward for nomination or make

nominations.

If two or more valid nominations are made for the same position, under the terms ofconstitutional changes agreed at the 2013 AGM, there will be an election at the

A member who is unable to attend the AGM in person may vote by proxy. If you wantto vote by proxy you need to apply in writing or by e-mail to the Christians on the Leftoffice no later than , stating the reason why you are unable toattend the AGM in person.

Further details and rules for voting will be circulated with the papers and agenda forthe AGM.

Results will be announced at the Annual General Meeting or as soon as possibleafterwards.

Get nominating!

Christians on the Left, the new name for the Christian Socialist Movement, was formallylaunched in a packed room at the Houses of Parliament on November 5th.

It was quite a night to be in that famous old building. Drawing inspiration from themost famous anti-parliamentary activism of all time, an anarchist demonstration wasnoisily protesting in Whitehall and Parliament Square at the same time. Numerousfireworks, aimed in the direction of Parliament, emerged from the sea ofGuido Fawkes masks and exploded colour- fully in the night skyaround Big Ben.

The scenario illustrated the challenge for contem-porary politics of how it responds to thewidespread discon- tent and anger withrepresentative democ- racy. Can politicsitself be redeemed? Can an inspiringmovement for social jus- tice emerge with-in the mire of mainstream politics?

Christians on the Left will have a key role in thisdebate in the years ahead. Faith is not going away. Wehave seen incredible growth of Christian social action nationwidethrough food banks, night shelters and community organising. Like-wise, it will be faith and spiritu- ality that will provide both the energy and themoral compass for social justice movements.

Many of these qualities were evident in the launch event of Christians on the Left thatnight:

At the launch, Labour’s Policy Coordinator Jon Cruddas MP gave a historical overviewof the importance of Christian influence within the Party. His enthusiasm and knowl-edge of the rich heritage was inspiring as he illustrated how Christians had influencedgreat characters of the party from Keir Hardie, to George Lansbury and Clement Attlee.Cruddas showed how the new name maintained the link with the rich heritage thatChristians on the Left can always draw on. Truly, the further back we look, the furtherforward we can see.

After Cruddas spoke about the past, the infectiously passionate Susie Stride, theLabour candidate for Harlow, spoke about the future. She shared personally abouthow her upbringing in Tower Hamlets fuelled her desire to get involved in changing thestructures of society to create greater fairness and opportunity. After her, the writerand commentator Vicky Beeching urged everyone to take hold of how social mediacan be tool for social justice and encouraged a wave of tweets to be dispatched toillustrate her point. These younger speakers illustrated the youthful energy withinChristians on the Left and it was reflected by the vibrant mix of MPs, candidates,church leaders and those who work for international NGOs or UK charities who were inthe room. This was not a bunch of Westminster hacks but a group with the potentialto create a significant movement.

Gavin Shuker MP, a former church leader who at 28 became the MP for Luton, spokeabout the need for Christians to be confident in their faith and to stand in solidaritywith each other. The meeting itself embodied this - as well as the references to justice,there were many references to Jesus. It illustrated a significant spiritual confidence inChristians on the Left to be explicit about the person we seek to follow. We cannot beshy about our faith – we need to be confident about using both ‘J words’ because ourcommitment to justice is rooted in our commitment to follow Jesus.

All this was drawn together in a closing speech by Andy Flannagan, the Director ofChristians on the Left, who warned against people who wanted to see change comeinstantly and easily in a flash and a bang.

“In first century Palestine, many also came looking for fire-works. An op- pressed people came looking forliberation. They were hoping for a mighty ex-plosion of energy and light that would re-store their status as God’s chosenpeople, in charge of their owndesti- ny. And it lookedlike this carpenterof Nazareth

was go-ing to

li ght thetouch -paper.

They came looking for fire-works, but they got a storyabout something practically invisi-ble. What they got was a man who said “TheKingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed”. Hesaid, “This isn’t going to be fast. This is going to be slow. Hesaid, “This isn’t going to start huge, it’s going to start infini-tesimally small”.

We must not get sucked into the instant culture of the 21stcentury, where everything is about overnight sensationsand next big things. We must be prepared to do the hardyards of relationship building. Change in political thinkingand practice is rarely fast, but we must believe that thatmustard seed will produce fruit. There is also something ofsacrifice and death about that seed. We will not necessarilybe lauded for what we do, but unless a grain of wheat fallsto the ground and dies…”

Jesus told a story: a man was going along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho when hewas attacked by thieves and robbers. Perhaps you know the story? It’s the story of thegood Samaritan, and it was told to challenge us to become better neighbours to oneanother.

The man is left for dead on the side of the road. A priest walks by. A Levite walks by.Neither of them stop – they avert their eyes, pretend they haven’t seen, tell themselvesthey’re too busy, perhaps assume that someone else will help.

In other words, the very people who should have known better – who should’ve knownthat acts of mercy and compassion are re- quired of those who serve God –these people rushed on. They passed by on the other side of the road.

Finally, a Samaritan appears. Now let’s be clear, this story isknown as the Good Samaritan – but that was a contradictionin terms in Jesus’ day. The Samaritans were the for-eigners, the apostate, the outsiders, scum of theearth. (Which makes the conversationJesus had with the Samaritan wom-an at the well even more remarkable.)

A Good Samar- itan? You might aswell say a good asylum seeker, agood benefit scrounger, a goodchav or even a good banker or politician– you choose ac- cording to which newspaperyou read. Whoever the hate figure is for you and yourtype, add ‘good’ to their name. It’s shocking, surprising,confusing. That’s the point Jesus was making. The Samaritancrossed the road and helped the man. He tended his wounds, put himon his donkey, and took him to an inn and paid for his care.

The Samaritan thought not about what might happen to him if he lingered on thisdangerous road. He could have been concerned that he too would be mugged. But no.The Samaritan was more concerned about what would happen to the man if he wereleft alone.

This is beginning of mercy and compassion – that we have concern not for what mayhappen to ourselves if we act, but rather concern for what may happen to others if wedon’t act.

The Good Samaritan crossed the road. Would you? Will we? Now, if we saw someonemugged and left for dead in the road today, we’d call an ambulance, we’d call thepolice. We’d probably help, but we’d also look to the intervention of the professionals.

But what if the victim of the mugging wasn’t visible? What if we didn’t see them in theroad? What if the victim of the mugging was hidden from view? Behind closed doors?Suffering in silence? Imagine the parable of the Good Samaritan were being retold forour time: the mugging on the road is an economic one: the victim is one of the poorestand most vulnerable in our society; the thieves and robbers are the government:Osborne, Cameron and tax-evading multinational corporations sucking the monetaryblood out of our nations;

The priest is the self-insulated middle-class pre-occupied with self-preservation and itsown advancement. The Levite is the self-annihilating Labour party too terrified tospeak against injustice lest is be perceived to be remotely left-wing.

The real question is this: will someone else step up and be the Good (and Political) Sa-maritan?? Will anyone cross the road?

Perhaps you heard about Michael Gove’s comments earlier this week, saying the poorand vulnerable who relied on food- banks had no-one to blame but them-selves?

Even today, it’s finally confirmed that the Government plans to selloff Royal Mail to private inter- ests. Another chance for therich to get richer on the backs of low wages and pitifulpensions; redundancies, re- duced services and in-creased insecurity for employees. And all inthe name of free-market so-called efficiencies.

Who will really pay the price of privatisation?The workers; the small businesses facingescalating delivery costs; you and me as theprice of postage increases; all of us a we re-ceive reduced service – for example, the eld-erly who de- pend on snail-mail rather thanemail for con- tact with friends and families.

Perhaps you know the truth – that the poor, the elderly,the young, the vulnera- ble are suffering at the hands of thisgovernment; told they must work, regardless of their health,regardless of there being a jobs shortage. Left to fend for themselves,regardless of spiraling housing and food prices.

Perhaps you know that there’s an injustice being perpetrated by the rich and powerfulin our society against the poor and vulnerable. Perhaps it makes you angry. Perhapsyou might be willing to cross the road – irrespective of what it costs you.

I’m a Christian. I follow a God who did not leave me lying in the gutter, wounds fester-ing, destined for only despair and death. I follow a God who crossed the road in Jesushis Son. A God who picked me up, bandaged my wounds, and has undertaken to carefor me – despite the cost to himself. I’m going to strive to do the same. Will you joinme? Will you step up, speak up and stand up for the victims of this brutal economicmugging?

Let’s not just rescue the wounded. Let’s take our stand against the thieves and the rob-bers. Let’s make the road to Jericho a safer place to travel. Let’s make our cities a safer,fairer, more prosperous and more hopeful place for all our communities.

Will we cross the road to create Safe Havens across our communities? Will we crossthe road to urge the council to take action on payday lenders? Will we cross the roadto make opportunities for our young people? Will we cross the road to make ourcouncillors and MPs take their constituents needs seriously?

Let’s take our stand together. Let’s cross the road.

Then, the King said “I was hungry and you told me that it was my own fault for beinglazy and believing that I was entitled to help from hard working families and that I’dprobably spent all of my money on alcohol, cigarettes and drugs anyway.

I was thirsty and you assumed that I was desperate for gin or vodka, rather than water.

I was naked and you said that I would have more chance of a job if I took more care ofmy personal appearance, even though I wore all I could afford.

I was poor and you told me I was a scrounger who just wanted to sponge off the stateand put stories about me on the tv and newspapers, despite knowing nothing aboutmy circumstances.

I was sick and you denied me any help, told me to go back to work and assumed I wasfaking illness in order to scrounge.

I was in prison and you demanded that the key was thrown away and that I was keptaway from all respectable, law-abiding members of society because I was a bad personwho could never change.

I was a stranger and you ran, scared of me, told me to go home, that your country wasfull and that I was only there to steal your money, possessions and jobs.

For I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least of these brothers or sisters ofmine, you did it to me."

For the last four years my wife Jen and I have been trying to help build community onour council block in South London. It has been a long road, but a fantasticone.

As part of our desire to actually DWELL in our block ratherthan just use it as a base, we knew we would need somerhythms to stop us slid- ing into box-set selfishness.We were inspired by an incredible bunch offolks we met in Australia called ‘UrbanNeigh- bours of Hope’(www.un oh.org) who have arhythm whereby every weekthey eat a meal at some pointwith some folks in their immedi-ate locality. We thought we probablywon’t manage once a week, but we couldmanage once a fortnight.

So for the last four and a half years we have shared mealswith our neighbours (now friends) on the block. After ‘date night’ itis the first thing that goes in our diaries as non-negotiable. For the firstfew months it was hard work. We didn’t get too many return invites, and

conversation didn’t always flow easily, as people from vastly different cultural, ethnicand economic backgrounds were mixing often for the first time.

But four years later we are now regularly having parties, BBQs, and working togetherto improve the block. The transformation has been a beautiful thing to watch, and I willtell you more about it another time, but bearing in mind the debate in Parliament to-day, I mention it only as context, as I couldn’t allow our friends’ story to remain untold.I’ll call them Steve and Gemma.

Steve and Gemma have been key to the developing community, always offer-ing to cook or host. But they don’t live on the block any more. They hadto move out. And why did they have to move out? The bedroomtax. They couldn’t afford the extra rent they were going to becharged for their spare room (which was uninhabita-ble anyway due to damp from an unfixed leakyroof). So they have had to move to anoth-er flat, which is perfectly nice, but is along way from the commu- nity that theyhave been part of build- ing. They are nowa long way from people that care aboutthem, and help them in times of sickness orchallenges with fami- ly. The change willmake them more state-dependent ratherthan less state-de- pendent. Above all weare sad, because our friends are not justaround the cor- ner anymore. It gets mewondering how many other communi-ties are being fractured in the name of effi-ciency.

When human rela- tionships are abstracted fromeconomic transactions, pretty shocking things can happen.People are exploited. The sub-prime mortgage crisis has left usin no doubt of that truth.

The Bedroom Tax feels like a housing plan dreamt up by management con-sultants in a drive towards profit and loss efficiency. Well-meaning perhaps, but wrong-headed in the extreme. It’s a startling insight into a potential future where hedge fundmanagers run public services for maximum efficiency rather than, oh what’s thephrase… public service.

Prayer meeting Portcullis House, 6:15pm House of Commons

The Summit 5:30pm Vauxhall foodbank (see inside cover)

How Labour wins a mandate - joint event with Progress 7pm, Devonshire House Hotel, Liverpool

God & Government Day - joint event with Theos Westminster

Tawney Dialogue - with Rachel Reeves MP & Anna Rowland 6:30pm Methodist Central (see page 7) Hall, Westminster

Fundraising dinner 6:30pm, London

Labour Annual conference 2014 Manchester

For further details of any of these events, contact the office on 0207 783 1590