Do Christians make good Liberal Democrats? Do faith and politics mix or sit together ?
Being a Christian and a member of the Lib Dems I want to suggest that in Both cases this is true and in the latter case even if it isn't true it will always be true as long as they both exist.
I want to look at the later issue first and In both cases these two issues are relevant to every aspect of our lives. In the case of politics there was a series of adverts trying to encourage people to vote that pointed out that Politics and the decisions made everyday in parliament really do impact every aspect of our lives. The recent Equality bill bared this out as it discussed the issues of employment and discrimination both against people with religious beliefs and because of those religious beliefs. I can't think of a single religious person who would argue that if their religious belief lead to them being not given a job or fired, then they would have no complaint. Therefore there is an acceptance from all sides that politics does affect every aspect of our lives...even if that's to say it shouldn't affect this aspect.
As for religion, well some people, both secularists and religious, would like to believe that religion should only affect small aspects of our private life and not every decision or aspect of our lives (in some cases there is the belief that religion should end completely and not affect any aspect of our lives but I'm choosing to ignore that desire and address the actually situation at the moment).
Even in the cases of religious people who say that their religion only affects small aspects of their private life this isn't actually true. By believing in a religion you to some degree or another agree with the moral framework that it presents. This maybe agree upon its core values as a list of rights and wrongs or in other cases it maybe more a system of values, priorities (in most cases it is elements of both) however these beliefs/values will of course impact decisions and actions we take.
So Politics will always be influences by religion as long as religion exists (if you are one of those humanists) and religion will always be affected by the political system and either clash or compliment it until politics ceases to exist (if your religion believes in an end time/afterlife). However the big issue and where the debate should be focused on is on weather it is right/good to force these views upon someone both from the political and from the religious.
I think that most religious people would accept that even if it is desirable to impose your beliefs upon someone else this is actually impossible. A belief is by nature something that you actually do Believe, no one can tell you what to believe they can simply tell you what they think and tell you that your wrong if you disagree but ultimately no matter how strict the force used to impose these beliefs the person won't continue to follow them as soon as they get the chance.
Lets take the case of sex outside of marriage or adultery, many religions teach against this actions however if this was made law it would be impractical to enforce and would not actually stop it from happening. Some cases would be caught and in many countries this does lead to the horrific stonnings that happen however I am certain that many more cases occur than are caught. In these countries there are also probably many more marriages that if they could cheat/divorce the other person they would however due to the possible repercussions they instead suppress these issues and never deal with them. Wouldn't it be much better to actually be open about these and possibly in some cases help people work through these issues where they should.
It is with issues like this which is why I believe that Christians can be great Liberal Democrats. In Christian Beliefs there is the view that if you have even had these thoughts it was as though you had committed adultery. This should first of all help people to be more humble in cases where people have themselves not lived up to the standards that are impossible to match, But it should also help us to realise that the problems are not just the actions but the thoughts which are as I have said uncontrollable (even if they were controllable that doesn't mean I would endorse that!)
There is a huge difference between accepting that someone is doing something that you disagree with and agreeing with what they are doing, if that wasn't true then actually Liberalism would just be a massive form of fundamentalism that tried to persuade everyone that every action was as good as the other, which in a way is just as bad as those religious groups that try and imposes their beliefs upon everyone else.
One of the best reasons I can think that Liberalism and Christianity go together well is due to the fact that Jesus' ministry was with many of the outcasts from society, ( prostitutes/adulterers and tax collectors in particular) and dispite disagreeing with their lifestyles he still loves them and spends time with them. I think there is a great example that we can be good friends with people who live lives that we don't agree with.
There are some questions that do provide conflict and problems and they usually cross over into the areas of Mill's harm principle, when peoples actions affect others. It is a very rare person who would say that something like murder is acceptable and that someone's religious beliefs about murder being wrong shouldn't be considered when it comes to this issue. However when the issue of Abortion comes up, to which many religious people believe that this is Murder it becomes a different issue for many. I'm sure there are other issues like this and you can probably think of some and it is in areas like this where being a Christian and a Lib Dem seams to become slightly less compatible. However Issues like these are also present in other parties who are more authoritarian, the main difference is that with the Lib Dem's we can look at mills harm principle and frame our debate within that context.
To be honest I don't really think when people talk about a conflict between religion and politics they are really talking about that, what they are really referencing to is the conflict between secularism and religion or between the rights of minority belief vs the majority. I believe that Liberalism give us a great frame work to discuss these issues (especially as free speech is such an central value) and that's why I'm fine being a Lib Dem and a Christian.
