Upholding gospel standards

LORD HAILSHAM once remarked, somewhat optimistically, that all Conservatives think there is something more important than politics. For John Selwyn Gummer, the Party chairman. there is religion. A member of the General Synod or the, Church of England, he considers himself "first and foremost a supporter of the Church".
Oft quoted In the press since taking over from Cecil Parkinson at Smith Square. and known affectionately in Private Eye as "Goody Gummer", the MP for the Suffolk Coastal constituency has very definite views on the intervention of the churches in polities.
He once remarked that he, wanted to be "embarrassed by the Church constantly" and stands by the sentiment, although he suggested a modification by noting that he wishes "everyday to make decisions, challenged by what the Church teaches".
His image of the churches in the public arena is that of a group, above party politics, which, taking its Inspiration from the gospels, holds standards in front of those in government office. The churches' mission in politics is to "inform and challenge". The government's job is to take note of those standards and then try best to put them into practical effect.
With that general guideline in mind, John Gummer then thinks that the churches and clerics should choose the subjects which they wish to discuss in public. It would be "barmy" to try and silence them he says.
However, he is very conscious of the dangers to the Church from an over-involvement in the field of politics and particularly the narrow confines of party politics.
Churchmen should be very careful "not to clothe what are in fact political views with their religious authority". To illustrate this point he gives the example of two contrasting cases — the first a matter of morals where a bishop speaks "as a successor of the apostles with an authority that comes directly from Christ", and the second where a bishop extols the relative merits of Keynesian economics over Friedmanite principles. In the second example the bishop speaks only as "an educated lay person" and is transferring the authority inherent in his office into an area where he has no special expertise or authority, Mr Gummer emphasises.
The danger in this is not to politicians, he goes on, but to the Church itself for it reduces its impartial authority. He quotes another case in point, this lime not hypothetical. For a bishop to find "moral grounds of objection" to the government's buses deregulation bill is "wholly wrong" in Mr Gummer's view. If the bishop were talking about the difficulties of rural access by bus or such a matter where he might have some experience, then it might he forgiveable, but for him to judge on the merits or not of deregulation was "the same as suggesting that he could tell Galileo something about astronomy" Mr Gummer stresses.
Another area where the
Church and clerics had to be careful before making public statements was that of getting vital facts straight, Mr Gummer adds. In the case of urging on the Government its responsibilities to the developing countries, it is no good churchmen suggesting an open door policy to the produce of the Third World if they do not also lake into account that workers in this country will lose their jobs as a result. The churches must accept "the factual results of the proposals they make" he contends.
Mr Gummer is not happy bandying around such terms as "social justice" when talking of the Church's authority to speak on the contemporary problems of society. He prefers to start with love, and the gospel idea of loving one's neighbour. No-one can hide behind the excuse of telling others to love their neighbour without first doing that themselves, Mr Gummer states, and he holds up the example of Bob Geldof and the Live Aid effort. There is someone who did not push off responsibility for famine and starvation on others. Bob Geldof did something, and therefore has a right now to challenge others.
In a similar way the churches must put their challenge to society on the basis of action. "If you start with love you start by saying that I'm not only concerned that my neighbour is well fed, well housed and well clothed, but I'm also concerned to ensure that he has the freedom to choose these things" Mr (Summer goes on. Love to his mind is about free choice.
For that reason he personally finds socialism and Christianity rather unhappy bed partners. "I happen to find it very difficult to see how you can believe in a centralised state and still have any understanding of free will. If God gives us the right to choose between heaven and hell, which is eternally rather more important than anything else, it seems to me to be a terrible thing to remove from human beings choice in terms of education, health and housing".
In matters that could loosely and generally be termed as moral and ethical, Mr Gummer has "a very considerable respect" for the opinion of the churches and finds their positions "an important antedote to the fashionable convenience morality" of today:
Over the question of abortion, he feels strongly that the Church of England has not come out strongly enough against legislation which he abhors. Over Warnock and the embryo experimentation debate he feels that the churches must take "the leading rolein informing public and government opinion. "Who else should be talking about the morality of the origins of life?" he says. He {{made particular reference to Cardinal Hume's article in the Times on the Warnock debate as a clear outline of the principles that Christians and others should adhere to.
Turning to an area where the role of the churches and churchmen has aroused considerable controversy, the miners strike, Mr (Ammer feels on reflection that in general the comments of clerics on the position of the miners and mining communities were fair. He stresses his concern that all such comments should have been perceived as showing as much concern for the dilemmas of working miners as for those on strike, and adds that "some statements failed to ensure that breadth of coverage".
Single standards for the churches in politics is the watchword for John Gummer, single standard which can be above political rivalries and therefore upheld with the authority of the gospels.