Three other election views: ‘What unites us is Christ’

Of course, other parties are also taking part in this election.

Writing on the website of Christiansinpolitics.org, Stephen Gray says that as a Christian he votes Green for two main reasons: ‘The first reference to government in the Bible is Genesis 1:26, where God says “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

‘This is pretty clear that God put us in charge of the rest of creation. The obvious implication is that He intends us to properly steward it. Because of this, I believe that we have to at least consider environmental issues when thinking about politics.

‘And today we live in a world where environmental issues are a major concern. Humanity has always shaped the natural world around us, but modern technologies mean that we can have a global impact on the environment, rather than just a local one. Growing up in the 80s, things like climate change and the hole in the ozone layer were big news and convinced me that the planet we live on is actually quite fragile. To make matters worse, our society is heavily dependant on some of the technologies that cause the most damage. This means that the biggest political issues of the 21st century will inevitably be climate change and peak oil (extraction of conventional oil has, in fact, already peaked).

‘Regardless of your political philosophy (and there are many that are compatible with Christianity), it is impossible to come up with long-term solutions to any of the other problems our society faces unless we put dealing with these two issues at the heart of our political agenda. Sadly, however, the main parties simply haven’t done this. At best, they treat climate change as a secondary, albeit important, issue and ignore peak oil… Regardless of whether the Greens have the right solutions, they are currently the only political party in the UK that is even asking the most important political questions of our age.

‘However, environmental issues aren’t the only reason I vote Green. One of the major themes of the Bible is God’s heart for the poor. It is … my belief that the neoliberal project has failed to build a better world for those at the bottom – the poorest amongst us, the dispossessed, and marginalised … The Greens are the only party of any significance that are proposing anything different from the neoliberal consensus…

‘I expect that many of my brothers and sisters in Christ will disagree with me on the issues, and that’s fine … What unites us as Christians – our love of Christ – transcends our political divisions.’

The Reform UK party candidate for Torbay, Gordon Scott, writes on his website: ‘Personally I am a Christian and follower of Jesus Christ.’ He says: ‘Our leaders have let us down. They don’t listen to us. They break their promises. We will not let you down.’ He calls for more bobbies on the beat, removing ‘woke policies’ and a freeze on immigration.

Finally, on the christiansinpolitics website, an article about Plaid Cymru states: ‘The party’s beliefs in social justice and fairness have been greatly influenced by the Bible, and Christianity will continue to play a crucial part in the development of Plaid Cymru.’