Had a weird Saturday. Spent part of it at the Labour Party's Compass conference in London ('Born Free and Equal') and another part watching thousands of cyclists ride by, cycling as they were when born - stark staring naked! (The latter was much more fun of course and was a powerful and assertive statement of against oil dependency and car culture and also an assertion of positive vulnerability 'Pass wide and slow. I am easily hurt'.)
At the Compass conference heard the Rt. Hon. Douglas Alexander MP, Minister for international development say something surprising. A questioner had asked why the government, treating the electorate as a market, had assumed only 'right-wing' demand in the market, instead of 'creating demand' for progressive ideas in the way that Barak Obama succeeded in doing with his campaigning.
In response the Honourable Minister said this, and I paraphrase: social democracy and progressive ideas was built on two pillars, the trade union movement and faith organisations. Now that both were in decline, and we live in a largely secular society....the social forces on which a Labour government depended for progressive policies were absent....
In other words, there is not enough faith (or trade unionism) to save the planet.
We could react to this approach in two ways. We could regard it as wrong-headed, and a lame excuse for an absence of progressive leadership by a government fearful of leading on the greatest question of our time: the threat to our security posed by climate change. Instead the government is inclined to abrogate such leadership to something abstract called 'the market', because, it would appear, faith organisations and trade unions no longer play a leadership role in society!
In other words we could indulge in yet another round of weeping and wailing about the weakness of the Labour government. Or we, as Christians and faith organisations, could rise to the challenge....as we are doing at Operation Noah..and exercise the kind of moral and ethical eadership that the market is incapable of.....This will then allow elected leaders like the Rt. Honourable Alexander, to follow.
I feel strongly about this, especially after a fascinating inter-faith dialogue at Heythrop theological college in London last week....when people of faith questioned how they could 'add to the debate' about climate change, without alienating others; without alarming others; and without paralysing potential campaigners with fear and defeatism. We should not, in my view, be 'adding to the debate'. People of faith, more than any other I would contend, whether they be Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims or Hindus all have their faith rooted in morality and ethics. They/we should be leading the debate on climate change; condemning the destruction and exploitation of those precious resources on which all life on our planet depends - and proposing alternatives.
And if we model ourselves on Christ, we will not do so by trusting to focus groups and 'warm words'.
