It is the phrase ‘putting pressure on policy makers and fund holders for appropriate interventions’ which irks me the most. Do we read in the Gospels or the Epistles of Jesus telling his apostles or Paul writing to some fledgling church, encouraging the brethren to lobby Caesar about the plight of the poor in downtown Jerusalem? Do we see, in the lives of the saints, of how John Chrysostom eschewed writing liturgy and sermons in preference for organising mailing shots at local officials to provide appropriate support for the local waifs and strays?

I was rather amused – tho’ also dismayed – to see Anglicanmainstream is at present championing a lobbying campaign to removed the Terrance Higgins’ Trust’s charitable status – all because it has produced some explicit leaflets aimed at teenagers (tho’ given the largest beneficiaries of the THT, since the late 90s have been, in the main, African heterosexuals, infected with HIV, living in the UK – a disproportionate number of whom are conservative Christians – I rather think this campaign could be a shot in the foot!). Odd, our conservative Christian brethren haven’t organised an on-line petition to voice their concern about government taxation policy that disproportionately penalises the poor and pensioners. Indeed you’d be hard pressed to find any voice of opposition or opprobrium from many of our conservative Christian lobbying and interest groups, unless the topic has a sexual element in some shape or form… water finds its own level, as they say…

Here again, in the quote above, we see that it seems the Christian way of getting things done, is to tell someone else to do it for you! The state is seen as the means by which Christianity should have its influence in our society. Odd, call me a bit dim, but I thought Christians themselves were supposed to be salt and light; that it was by their own deeds – and not ‘charity by proxy’ – that the Kingdom was supposed to be advanced.

So much effort these days, by many a Christian organisation – and individual Christians – is put into telling society how it should behave and how it should spend its money. The lobbyist and the petition are seen as ‘faith in action’ as opposed to the more sacramental (and costly) act of rolling one’s sleeves up and actually doing some hands on work. It appears the effort of a certain flavour of Christian is to be society’s master, instead of its servant.

It’s all by-the-by I suppose, but who are the real casualties of this desire to get others to do the work? I would suggest Christians themselves – it is good to serve, to get one’s hands dirty, to be a servant, to labour and NOT seek reward (nor publicity!). At the end of the day saying ‘putting pressure on policy makers and fund holders for appropriate interventions’ is really just an admission of failure – an acceptance of the fact Christianity is side lined and needs others to do its bidding… Unless there is less reliance on the state to do that which Christians often claim is their own possession, then the sacramental and eschatological nature of charity will be forgotten and will be replaced by the bureaucrat and policy maker… But perhaps it is too late and this has already happened?

The privately sponsored baby-snatcher moralising in the maternity ward, over the last 30 years in the U.K. there has been a frenzy to create a psychological disposable class fom the underclass, think of the pseudo-scientific diagnosis that is “welfare dependency”.

The U.K. is in a very dark place in criminalising its new born.