I have often said that we need a Christian Voice in public life. However, my experience is that very few people know what this means, including Christians.
I am 70 years old today and I have been involved latterly in Christian politics for almost 20 years. Many Christians in the UK do not know what Christian politics is, although some Christians in other countries do. 20 years is a significant period of time observing the political scene, and with over 50 years observing the ecclesiastical scene, and an intermediary period of time interacting with public life, this leads me to compose this blogpost on this significant day for me. It is as good a day as any to promote a Christian Voice, even if it does sound like a Voice calling out “in the wilderness” Isa 40:3.
If you can point me to a Christian Voice in UK public life, I will be pleased to note it. I do not mean a Christian speaking in public. There are many such, but they do not speak with a Christian Voice upon national affairs. Contrast them with J. D. Vance’s confident promotion [at 15:50 hrs] of his Roman Catholic faith motivating his politics in the USA. UK Christians are possibly satisfied that they are speaking from a Christian perspective, although this is not always so. They may be satisfied with writing in their religious periodicals about the need of the Gospel. Very well, but we need a Christian Voice in public affairs.
A Christian Voice is not someone using Christian words. Anyone can do so, and use them wrongly.
Nor is it preaching the Gospel. There are some street preachers and many pulpit or platform preachers. Some produce good sermons and a significant proportion do not. Some are false prophets misleading their hearers.
Nor is a Christian Voice the fantastical prophesies and “prophetical” voices issued by American televangelists, imitated by charismatic leaders in other countries including the UK. A Christian Voice is not the articulation of the dreams or imagination of excitable preachers, usually to their admiring and uncritical followers, but a Christian Voice is the sensible application of biblical teaching in public life to the general public and opinion-makers.
If someone should point to Jacob Rees-Mogg using his programme on GB News to promote christmas, praying to the Roman Catholic saints, and other paraphernalia such as promoting Roman Catholic relics for veneration, I would agree that this is a Roman Catholic voice. However, we need a Christian Voice, applying biblical teaching in the public sphere.
If someone should point to King Charles III’s christmas message, I would agree that it is a nod in the direction of Christianity, but his message is mixed with interfaith sentiments.
One does not hear the application of Christian thought in public discourse in the UK. So, what is a Christian Voice?
A Christian Voice
A Christian Voice is the use and application of Christian biblical thought in public discourse. This is the strapline of my blog. When did you last hear, or ever hear, Christian politicians or commentators advocating or even following the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace? There is much talk about peace and unity, and occasionally about human rights (until economic reality interferes). These peace initiatives are not conducted in a Christian context, with Christian teaching and application. Why is it so rare, so rare that people do not even know what it is?
In the UK, the Government is busy trying to define antisemitism and islamophobia in order to have an “inclusive” society. This is secularism applying its mistaken ideas to public life, now competing with islamic ideology articulated in sharia. Competing with this is international socialism, but a Christian Voice articulating a Christian worldview is nowhere to be heard in the UK. There may be books, lectures, conferences, think-tanks and lobby groups, but no-one in public or corporate life is speaking with a Christian Voice.
One may hear quotations of Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Ghandi, Nobel Prize winners, Bonhoeffer or the Roman Catholic pope in Rome – but when will they quote the Lord Jesus Christ?
Minority groups want “role models” to promote their minority, whether in sport, media or whatever; pressure groups look for a celebrity to publicize their cause, but the publicizing of what Jesus Christ has to offer society is confined to church meetings and private houses, just where the secularists want it to remain.
Politicians are trained by their political party to roll out a consistent mantra in media interviews so that they are “on message”. This is their “political voice”, promoting tax cuts, increases in welfare spending, improving public services, promoting independence or the Green agenda, or whatever. Where is the “Christian message” or Christian Voice? The mainline parties do not want it, calling it sectarianism, as if their spokespersons knew what a sect is. Christianity is now caught up in the “sectarianism” applied to aggressive islam and antisemitism, Northern Ireland politics, Black Lives Matter and American civil rights movements. Each group is at each other’s throats, sometimes literally, and the Prince of Peace is studiously ignored. The result is that Britain must now deal with islam, humanism and several other “isms” at the behest of career politicians who know little about life and even less about Christianity.
The year 2024 witnessed many changes in the international and domestic political scene. Ecclesiastically the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby fell on his sword and resigned over criticism of his leadership. His temporary replacement, the Archbishop of York, is being attacked for the same reason and is holding out against calls for his resignation also. The public is being invited to nominate a candidate for the vacant Canterbury seat.
Using Christian terms is not necessarily Christianity
Jesus warned us against false Christs and each of the apostles did the same. How do false Christs operate? They use Christian terms. Christian words “do not a Christian make”, far less a sermon, nor a Christian politician or commentator. Useful and beneficial though it may be to have Christian values, these need to be supported by true Christianity.
If someone should point to US President Trump’s promotion of Judaeo-Christian values, this is a good beginning but it is meeting with hostility in the UK. Trump’s promotion in America of the King James Version of the Bible is very welcome, and he says it is his favourite book. In contrast the UK Prime Minister is an atheist, the previous one Rishi Sunak was a Hindu, the mayor of London is a muslim, and the former First Minister of Scotland was a muslim. Tim Farron, a former leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, said it is not possible to be a Christian and the leader of a political party in Britain (evidently he does not know about the Christian Party in Britain) and so far Scottish voters have voted down evangelical Christians as party leaders in Scotland.
Reform UK is filling the political void that Christians could not see, and Roman Catholicism is trying to fill the Christian culture void created by 1. secularism, 2. the fear of islam, and 3. the failure of the Church of England to teach Christianity to the nation through its official spokespersons.
Reform UK has been a protest voice against the established Conservative and Labour Parties in the UK and the membership of Reform UK now surpasses the Tories giving Reform a claim to being the official opposition in Britain. Everyone knows that this is based upon Nigel Farage’s ability to articulate the concerns of the disenfranchized. This is a Reform UK political voice. We need Christian Voices speaking with the same clarity. Jesus’ teaching was the most radical in history, reaching down to the root of man’s problems and providing the radical solution.
So what is a Christian Voice in public life?
A Christian Voice is a person in public life who is able and willing to articulate the biblical application to particular issues. “‘The children of Issachar had an understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do” 1Ch 12:32.
Let me illustrate this. My readers are possibly more familiar with this concept in the area of sport commentators – ‘the voice of rugby’, ‘the voice of snooker’, etc. Such commentators know their subject and make commentary interesting as they apply what they know to the game in hand.
In the political realm, there are no significant political voices other than Nigel Farage as the Reform UK voice. Jacob Rees-Mogg uses his programme on GB News to be a Roman Catholic voice, and others are following in his train. There are many more in the mainstream media. Peter Hitchens does his best to promote Christian solutions, but he himself complains that no-one listens to him. Danny Kruger’s maiden speech in the UK House of Commons extolled Christian culture as the way forward for Britain, but that was five years ago on 29/1/2020. What has happened since?
Thatcherism entered the dictionary several decades ago, but hardly anything comparable nor significant has become an “ism” since then. We do not yet speak about Trumpism because no-one knows what it is, if indeed there is anything to define, but he is certainly the Voice of a significant number of Americans. Possibly Reaganism has some meaning to older people. In Britain we need a Reformer to articulate the need for a Christian Voice, and not just one but many more if they can be found. The name of the Reform UK Party draws attention to the need of reform, but its spirit attains only to Christian culture, if even that. So far so good. I have regulary replied to those who say that we don’t need a Christian Party – “Agreed, we need many more, but meanwhile we have one.”
Examples of a Christian Voice
There are many Christians in public life, but they do not speak with a Christian Voice. They may articulate Christian values but usually with rationalistic arguments that they hope will appeal to thinking people. Thus abortion or end of life issues will be argued from rationalistic standpoints with next to no reference to man being created in the image of God, nor to God as Creator, except possibly in a throwaway line that “we should not play God”.
The “image of God” would also be a good place to begin to correct the gender-bending indoctrination of Britain’s youth, as well as improving the lack of self-worth in young people generated by their undue regard to social media and their chosen peer group.
Politics – is debated from the point of view of left or right or whatever issue is flavour of the month. The Prince of peace is completely ignored in peace negotiations.
Violence – we have witnessed growing violence on our streets, which is discussed from various standpoints, but those who confess their ignorance how such and such a violent attitude can exist demonstrate their lack of Christian teaching. A Christian Voice would not only explain this but it would articulate and remind violent people that they will not escape God’s justice Gal 6:7, that they will have to give account for their behaviour to Him, as well as live with it throughout eternity. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it: “however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape His righteous judgment.” This biblical concept applies to abortion, stabbings and euthanasia, as well as a host of other evils.
Miscarriages of justice – the UK has a sophisticated legal system but there are core deficiencies in it. The imprisonment of Julian Assange was a national disgrace, the current imprisonment of Tommy Robinson follows in its train. David Davies MP said recently on GB News [at 19:12 hrs] when discussing the recent Lucy Letby case that 500 cases of miscarriage of justice have been identified in the UK since the 1970s. These miscarriages are used to justify the abolition of capital punishment, which in turn has contributed to the violence in the land. A Christian Voice needs to be added to such a debate. Failure to use the biblical standards of two or three human witnesses discredited capital punishment. The death penalty can only be justified biblically by having two or three human witnesses. Forensic evidence is evidence and not a human witness. By abandoning this principle, God’s death sentence has been brought into disrepute. The Hungerford massacre was so plainly carried out in public view that there could be no miscarriage of justice in a sense of identifying the wrong person, although in that case the killer killed himself. I mention it because it was almost 40 years ago when murder was not as common in the UK as it is now, but I have never heard anyone in public life refer to the biblical standard in debates about capital punishment.
Economy – people love money and even churches will change their principles and behaviour if they are losing money. Not many people realise that almost 50% of Jesus’ parables were about money and wealth, making use of money and profit as central to His teaching: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mk 8:36. Jesus was not opposed to wealth and He knew it was useful to illustrate the important things in life, and none are more important than why are we alive and where are we going after death. A Christian Voice would bring this perceptive and such priorities to bear upon the public conscience. The reason why Christians should show an interest in the economy of the country is that a stable economy is important for maintaining civil peace. When the economy goes wrong, civil disorder breaks out.
Not least among the factors that interfere with the national economy is corruption, corruption within corporations and Government itself, a debilitating factor with ramifications that are so difficult to document, identify [at 19:48 hrs] and measure, but which the disadvantaged can easily experience and feel.
Corruption in public life – do I need to prove that corruption is endemic in UK corporations? As there are always sceptics, I link to Wikipedia, although the article is quite short, and this link gives some of the most prominent global examples with eight from the United Kingdom. There are too many examples even from recent decades to mention. Others have made lists on the internet and political opponents regularly make such lists of their opponents’ failures in order to influence voters. President Trump is prepared to confess about America that “we have a very corrupt country” [at 21:40 hrs] after reading out a list of abuses in foreign aid and social security hand-outs. Some of these scammers were older than the USA itself [at 22:45 hrs]! At least he is trying to clean it up, but what about Britain? Does Britain not have similar scope for improvement? Long ago, the Christian Party’s Manifesto called for such a review of the multiple quangos and public corporations in the UK. A Christian Voice would remind company directors, board members, CEOs, bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes, lawyers and politicians that it is “the end of a matter” that counts, and it would teach this to young people in school. Mohamed Fayed may have done as he pleased when he was alive but his reputation is already rubbish and always will be, not only here on Earth but more especially in eternity and more particularly among those whom he has abused. Where is this mentioned in public life? This applies to all the wicked who have ever lived on Earth. They have not “got away with it” Mal 3:15.
Defence and the NHS – a national defence policy seeks to protect the life of the population and the NHS seeks to promote the health of the population. The Christian Party would re-establish the concept of care being a vocation and not simply a job. A Christian Voice will teach responsibility towards the defence of the nation, one’s own health and the health of others. It will promote the preservation of life and teach Jesus’ self-worth and evaluation of the human soul.
The NHS, health and wellbeing – a Christian Voice applies Christian teaching to promote the health and the wellbeing of the citizens in a country, so that each one may have a meaningful life and be not simply an economic unit contributing to the economy of the country. Human beings are not simply numbers on a spreadsheet and a Christian Voice will teach the value of each soul and the way to true self-worth and happiness. A Christian should have a worthwhile existence, and everyone is invited to be likewise.
Mental health – the NHS is taking on more than it can handle by mixing up the ordinary anxieties of life with historical ‘mental illness’. The problems that young people experience about their self-image, their self-worth and the hell-fire of global-warming preachers is better dealt with by proper preachers of the Christian Gospel with the proper biblical view of God Gen 8:21-22. A Christian Voice will improve mental health and the personal worth particularly of young people with their anxiety about global warming, teaching them the real message from God’s rainbow. A Christian Voice will expose the medicalising of sin by the psychiatric profession which has a bible of disorders (DCM) growing by the decade.
Education – the NHS seeks to promote the health of the population and education seeks to promote the well-being of the population, by identifying and developing each person’s skills to make them employable to earn a salary, to enable them to purchase housing, get married and enjoy family life. Beyond this, a Christian Voice will motivate and teach them how to contribute to the well-being of society. International socialism turns the order round and subordinates the individual to the state.
A Christian Voice in education would explain and promote the benefit of a Christian education. Just as Aesop’s fables with its worldly wisdom are no longer promoted because of ‘politically correctness’, so biblical wisdom is unknown to the rising generation. The Bible was removed from schools and replaced with homosexual indoctrination over the past few generation, another example of reaping of what one sows Gal 6:7.
Environment – God told mankind from the beginning to care for the environment. Christians have a long-term vision and have a natural concern for future generations and for the environment bequeathed to them, physical, moral and spiritual. A Christian Voice is not confined to the short-term thinking of the average politician.
It should be apparent by now that a Christian Voice can cover the whole of public affairs, and much more. For some details you may read the Christian Party manifesto online, and you may read about or at least consider a summary of Christian behaviour here, from the personal to the international level.
This blogpost is long enough and there are many more matters I could mention, but I will desist and I hope to pick them up in future blogposts.
Meanwhile, I await the arrival on the scene of those Christians who can see the vision and who will be mature enough to learn to speak from a Christian perspective to the issues of the day, in the workplace, in our educational establishments and in our culture.
The future is good for the Christian church and for the nations of the world, but will people continue to sell their soul for lack of knowledge? It is the end of the matter that counts – “Let not him that puts on his armour boast like he who takes it off” 1K 20:11.
Christian worldview
What do these topics amount to? It is a Christian worldview, which needs to be re-learned, promoted and applied to UK society.
This is my swan song after 70 years in this world. The promotion of a Christian Voice in public life is as good a swan song as one can expect. The 16th-century European Reformer Martin Luther’s symbol was a swan. Britain and the world need a new Reformer. I may not life long enough in this world to see it, but I will witness it better from heaven. My writings will continue to point the way, so that “by it he being dead yet speaks” Heb 11:4.
In America, President Trump has promoted the King James Version of the Bible. It is his favourite book, and he urges: “Make America Pray Again.” What about Britain and other nations?
May God bless us and all nations with Christian Voices. Jesus taught us to pray: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven” Mat 6:10 and Lk 11:2. Scripture predicts that the time will come when the nations of the world will choose to be Christian. Will you be on the right side of history and of eternity?
“The kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.”
Revelation 11:15.
Links
20 Nov 2010: What is politics about? Why, should, and how can Christians be involved? Christianity and Politics.
9 Feb 2019: Why we need Christian Voices in public life.
25 Feb 2025: Jacob Rees-Mogg raises the spectre of Roman Catholicism reviving in the spiritual vacuum in the UK caused by the Church of England [at 20:00, 20:43 and 20:46 hrs]. If it takes a vacuum for Roman Catholicism to revive, so be it, for it has difficulty holding its own against biblical truth. Rees-Mogg’s summary of Protestantism in Britain was shocking but revealing, helpful for people to hear with their own ears what a standard orthodox Roman Catholic thinks of Protestantism. His interviewee demonstrated the superstitious nature of the Roman Catholic religion. They are hoping that the aimlessness among young people will find meaning in Roman Catholic conservative tradition, which is what attracted J. D. Vance to Romanism. Various matters were mentioned about the spiritual and transcendence, with buzz words such as supernatural, authenticity, the church, religious faith, etc., but not one reference to Jesus nor the Bible. This is a reminder that one should pay attention to what is not said, as much as to what is said. Of course, this requires maturity of years and breadth of knowledge, which may be why young people are so easily beguiled by whatever pied-piper crosses their path.
3 Mar 2025: King Charles III continues his inter-faith agenda.
5 Mar 2025: GB News questioned royal priorities in supporting Ramadan without any mention of Lent, Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday [at 13:26 hrs] and Gavin Ashenden has described it as “two-tier religion” [at 13:28 hrs]. He pointed out the need for Christians to speak out [at 13:31 hrs]. This was discussed again here [at 19:48 hrs] where some think “the institutions are frightened of islam” [at 19:50 hrs] although it is more accurate to say “aggressive muslims” rather than “islam”. One panellist drew attention to King Charles’ desire to be “defender of the faiths” [plural]. This follows the earlier observation that his Accession Oath as King “to defend the true Protestant faith” [at 13:32 hrs] was rather “ephemeral”. This is one way of assessing his Accession Oath, but more significantly, before making the Oath King Charles commented to the effect that “I am expected to read this out”, which was hardly an admission that he subscribed to it. To my knowledge, there has been no public comment on this. One may wonder how this agrees with his proclamation “I am a faithful Protestant” at his Coronation service. It is an example of the many “two-tier oath-taking” practised by Jesuitism and all the other subtle practitioners of the dark arts of being economical with the truth. It is not “two-tier religion” but “inter-faith religion”, which is a denial of being a faithful Protestant. There are many examples of mental reservation in oath-taking both in church and state in the UK, and it is notable that oaths for public office in the USA are taken “without mental reservation”, which the proper administration of major oaths in Britain was designed to avoid. A panellist on the next discussion called the Church of England “an abomination” [at 20:48 hrs].
10 Mar 2025: another multi-faith extravaganza took place in Westminster Abbey today in the celebration described as a Commonwealth “service”, without explaining who was being served. There is a case for saying that they are serving King Charles III as Head of the Commonwealth; it is his bidding that is being followed. There was no reference to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and how could there be amidst inter-faith proclamations? There was a collective affirmation to the common values of the Commonwealth. These 56 countries are in harmony around what? Are such affirmations made with the understanding?
10 Apr 2025: Danny Kruger, MP, discussing the Persecution of Christians in a Westminster Hall debate.
21 Apr 2025: with the death of pope Francis in Rome today, there are hundreds of hours of free publicity and discussion about the way forwards for Roman Catholicism. The Roman Catholic voice is being portrayed as the Christian voice, without challenge. The public is becoming more aware of the many Roman Catholic voices. Those beguiled into thinking that organisational unification under the pope in Rome suggests a unified Roman Catholic voice are learning otherwise. The Christian Church is unified under the teaching that Jesus Christ gave to us by the Holy Spirit in the Bible. This does not change, and it is the proper foundation of the Christian Church. Roman Catholic teaching is cemented in its magisterium which adds traditions to Scripture, similar to the Jewish rabbis that Jesus and Peter contradicted.
23 Apr 2025: the secular Voice of UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in today’s Prime Minister’s Questions began his comments by referring to “his holiness pope Francis” to whom he thought “the entire House” would pay tribute, and concluded his remarks “may his holiness rest in peace.” As an atheist, Starmer’s ideas of holiness will differ markedly from many others, and it is another example of Humpty Dumpty’s principle that “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less”. This is one feature of the language battle of our current generation. The leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, also repeated the same terminology, which like “holy father” Jn 17:11, are biblical phrases applied to God Jer 23:9. Whom do they think Francis was? More and more, Roman Catholic terminology is being used in public life even by secularists like Starmer. I await a Christian Voice in public life. Before the day was out, the GB News newsreader told us about the “holy door” [at 21:06 hrs] associated with the Roman funeral.
16 Jul 2025: in a debate on The Future of the Church of England, Danny Kruger, MP, spoke to an empty House of Commons about the need to recover Christian politics. Both the Church of England and the political class have contributed to Britain’s decline. It was a good speech, which went viral on the internet. The fact that it was addressed to an empty chamber shows the level of interest among our politicians. This is similar to a Scottish Holyrood debate when only six MSPs turned up to contribute to a debate on the 500th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible (1611-2011). This Authorized Version of the Bible remains the world’s best seller.
His full speech can be read here and watched here and it is worth hearing and reading in full.
He said that the Church of England “is riven by deep disputes over doctrine and governance, and is literally leaderless, with even the process of choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury unclear, confused and contended. The country itself reflects that.”
In his speech Kruger said that “all politics is religious, and in abandoning one religion we simply create a space for others to move into.” He expressed concern at the growth of islam and another, as yet unnamed, religion – “a combination of ancient paganism, Christian heresies and the cult of modernism, all mashed up into a deeply mistaken and deeply dangerous ideology of power.” He overlooked the religion of secularism, hidden in plain sight.
Among many telling points, Kruger said: “We can no longer pretend, as people did in the 20th century, that we can be neutral or indifferent to God or to the public square being a godless desert.”
He named the sin of the House of Commons: “Last month, in the space of three days in one infamous week, this House authorised the killing of unborn children—of nine-month-old babies—and it passed a Bill to allow the killing of the elderly and disabled.”
He expressed the hope that Britian might be brought back from the edge. “A wind is blowing, a storm is coming and when it hits we are going to learn if our house is built on rock or on sand, but we have been here before. The reformers of the 11th and the 16th centuries, the Puritans in the 17th century, the Evangelicals in the 19th century all brought this country back from the edge—from idolatry, error or just plain indifference, and from all the social and political crises that indifference to Christianity brought about—and they each in their generation restored this country to itself.” Whatever restoring “this country to itself” means, it is not sufficient.
Kruger concluded: “A new restoration is needed now, with a revival of the faith, the recovery of Christian politics [Hansard modifies this slightly, as it often does, to ‘a recovery of a Christian politics’] … This is a mission for the Church under its next leader, whoever that is.” This debate was about the Church of England but he places too much hope in its new leader, especially when we consider the job-description that was circulated for the new one.
This was a good speech and a good beginning. However, he needs more support. The response from the Government minister does not hold out much hope. He said that our society was “equally enriched” by other religions, reminding us of the multifaith agenda of the Establishment, headed by King Charles III who is steering Britain in the multifaith direction.
11 Sep 2025: Charlie Kirk was assassinated yesterday by a coward sniping from his hiding place. Charlie is the closest I can use to illustrate a Christian Voice in public life. He applied Christianity to public life so openly and effectively that a 22-year-old opponent felt he had to silence that voice with a bullet. Charlie wanted to debate issues openly and this youngster didn’t have the answers so he shut him down. This boy will have eternity to experience the shame of his ignorance. He trained himself to shoot to kill but he never trained his mind to debate. He will have eternity to regret his folly. I do not endorse all of Kirk’s political or Christian opinions but his readiness to debate issues openly as a Christian and his application of Christian principles to public life and political issues illustrates what I mean by a Christian Voice in public life. We have none such in the UK – yet.
19 Sep 2025: the Charlie Kirk Effect.
23 Sep 2025: Elon Musk at the Charlie Kirk Memorial Service: “his words made a difference. He was showing people the Light and he was killed by the dark.”
12 Nov 2025: Senator John N. Kennedy has expertise in law, politics and theology and is a founding member of his local Methodist church in Madisonville, USA. He attempts to apply Scripture to his public utterances in Congress and is one of several Americans who try to be a Christian Voice in public life. We have nothing similar in Britain.
Donald's Thoughts 