Austerity Britain is arriving at a platform near you. In June the new Chancellor, George Osborne, steamed in with the first budget of the Conservative/Lib-Dem coalition. It was styled an ‘emergency budget’, aimed at reducing the enormous national debt, and everyone will have to get on board.
The measures introduced included a rise in VAT to 20% from next January, Capital Gains Tax increasing from 18% to 28%, and the freezing of child benefits. In my street already some of the young guys are downsizing from flash cars to motorbikes.
Whatever your own views on this, there are big implications for how we now think and live as believers. Do we need to look at our own spending, and debt burden (Romans 13.8)?
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …