The church and politics

Tashyboy

Tashyboy

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Always felt that they should never mix in one another's business for the fear of mixed/ conflict of interests.
Just read that Tim Fallon has now resigned as Liberal leader as his faith was tested whilst liberal leader. Am I missing something here.
Same thing happened with Tony Blair when he left the Anglican Church to become a catholic after X number of years. Was there not a conflict of interests there as well. Nothing against any religious faith or political party, but am struggling to see how one can be involved in both walks of life without one affecting the other. Unless you are totally upfront before hand.
 
Blair was different, as he was CofE as long as he was pm, and then swapped to Catholic as soon as he wasnt. He must have known a long time which his faith led him to, so another case of dishonesty.
 
The church should never influence policy but I have issues trusting the judgement of a politician when they believe in god.
 
murphthemog said:
Blair was different, as he was CofE as long as he was pm, and then swapped to Catholic as soon as he wasnt. He must have known a long time which his faith led him to, so another case of dishonesty.
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I think you will find he changed to Roman Catholic as he disapproved with Female Bishops.
 
SocketRocket said:
I think you will find he changed to Roman Catholic as he disapproved with Female Bishops.
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He may or may not have approved/disapproved of female Bishops, but I believe the main reason he converted was because the rest of his family were Catholic, so it simply made sense to worship together!

To me, there's very few REAL differences between (High) CofE and Catholism anyway!

It was, in fact, 'Politics' that triggered the creation of the CofE!
 
Foxholer said:
He may or may not have approved/disapproved of female Bishops, but I believe the main reason he converted was because the rest of his family were Catholic, so it simply made sense to worship together!

To me, there's very few REAL differences between (High) CofE and Catholism anyway!

It was, in fact, 'Politics' that triggered the creation of the CofE!
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Blimey, you must not have spoken to many C of E or Catholics then. I'm not either but I have heard responses to that comment previously and they were not polite.

In response to the change being down to female bishops, I would be very surprised about that. I have a relative on the Church Synod and her local church is wholly opposed to female bishops. She believes there will ultimately be split in the C of E with more traditional followers joining with the African churches, apparently the biggest growing area for Christianity, and the more "progressive" section being the other half. The thought of changing to Catholicism is not even an option, they will simply split off. Plenty of churches within the C of E strongly opposed to female bishops and female vicars. Churches can not have a female vicar forced on them incidentally, they can refuse them.
 
Foxholer said:
He may or may not have approved/disapproved of female Bishops, but I believe the main reason he converted was because the rest of his family were Catholic, so it simply made sense to worship together!

To me, there's very few REAL differences between (High) CofE and Catholism anyway!

It was, in fact, 'Politics' that triggered the creation of the CofE!
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You'll have to help me out with ''Catholism''
 
Kellfire said:
The church should never influence policy but I have issues trusting the judgement of a politician when they believe in god.
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To be honest after the last 2 weeks I have more issues trusting the judgement of a politician when they believe in Theresa May.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
Blimey, you must not have spoken to many C of E or Catholics then. I'm not either but I have heard responses to that comment previously and they were not polite.
...
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Actually, my background is pretty broad. And yes, it includes discussions with both CofE and Catholic (and several other faiths!) folk, though primarily in NZ, where there is less 'polarisation'!

My early upbringing was 'congregational' following 'orders' from my fiercely Free Kirk grandmother, but we lived very near the 2nd largest RC church (with school) in the city and I had an Uncle who was a High Church Vicar!

A period spent teaching (at Lord Rutherford's old school) while lodging with an ex-RC Pentecostalist (the rest of the family were still 'practicing RCs'), with a TM advocate as a fellow teacher/lodger, was rather 'spiritually enlightening'!

I find the attitudes of the extremists of both forms of Christian beliefs distinctly un-Christian!
 
Hacker Khan said:
To be honest after the last 2 weeks I have more issues trusting the judgement of a politician when they believe in Theresa May.
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If Theresa May has strong faith beliefs then I suspect she will have had struggles as Home Secretary and Prime Minister - and that these struggles might have become very evident during the GE campaign. I got the impression that she was basically acting using a script put together by her two main advisers. That she did not sound authentic might well be because she was not being true to herself, but she could just about act the part when following the script. Put her in front of challenging members of the public and the mask would have slipped and she would not have been able to speak in an authentic manner on an ad-hoc basis - because what she had to say she was really not that comfortable with given her faith and beliefs. Just my observation
 
Foxholer said:
Actually, my background is pretty broad. And yes, it includes discussions with both CofE and Catholic (and several other faiths!) folk, though primarily in NZ, where there is less 'polarisation'!

My early upbringing was 'congregational' following 'orders' from my fiercely Free Kirk grandmother, but we lived very near the 2nd largest RC church (with school) in the city and I had an Uncle who was a High Church Vicar!

A period spent teaching (at Lord Rutherford's old school) while lodging with an ex-RC Pentecostalist (the rest of the family were still 'practicing RCs'), with a TM advocate as a fellow teacher/lodger, was rather 'spiritually enlightening'!

I find the attitudes of the extremists of both forms of Christian beliefs distinctly un-Christian!
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Snap!
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
You know who or what God is then?
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Yes, I know it doesn't exist as proven by the myriad evidence that disproves any documented record of said god; that be whether you call it YHWH, Allah, Buddha or whatever. All are easily disproven and force followers to interpret their god's word (yea, because an omnipotent being would speak to mere mortals in riddles and metaphors) and decide what god meant, as if a god isn't capable of speaking clearly.
 
Kellfire said:
Yes, I know it doesn't exist as proven by the myriad evidence that disproves any documented record of said god; that be whether you call it YHWH, Allah, Buddha or whatever. All are easily disproven and force followers to interpret their god's word (yea, because an omnipotent being would speak to mere mortals in riddles and metaphors) and decide what god meant, as if a god isn't capable of speaking clearly.
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You may be certain He doesn't exist, but there are Billions of others that have faith that He does!

And it's impossible to convince them otherwise, because they either have, or have found (and that is a truly amazing transformation) faith. It is impossible to convince someone with faith otherwise, because the response will always be 'But I have faith!'!

And that (inability to convince otherwise) also applies to other areas of life where 'faith' is a particular view - Politics being a case in point!

Btw. Buddah should not be categorised the same as Yahweh, God or Allah!
 
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Foxholer said:
You may be certain He doesn't exist, but there are Billions of others that have faith that He does!

And it's impossible to convince them otherwise, because they either have, or have found (and that is a truly amazing transformation) faith. It is impossible to convince someone with faith otherwise, because the response will always be 'But I have faith!'!

And that (inability to convince otherwise) also applies to other areas of life where 'faith' is a particular view - Politics being a case in point!
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Oh and I've given up trying to show people their flaw. I've reluctantly accepted that it gives people a form of happiness and comfort which I understand, but I just couldn't find happiness in an easily demonstrable lie.
 
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