Colin Bloom: Christian Conservatives can be proud of this Coalition's record but a lot more still needs to be done

Colin Bloom is the Executive Director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship. He blogs here and you can follow him on Twitter.

The Prime Minister is getting a shellacking from many Christians this weekend. Yesterday the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey got in early with a few combination shots, and today the Methodists and Baptists decided to mix it up with an ecumenical tag-teaming left foot kicking. Some of the blows were a bit low, but the referees in the broadcast media are seemingly on the side of the Holy minority.

Earlier today I was prompted by a friend to list the Government’s biggest ‘Christian’ achievements. This friend is known to everyone on this site, and he suggested that the increase in faith schools or the .7% of GDP on Overseas Aid as a good start. Pah! There is so much more to list than that.

However, the near universal and visceral rejection of same-sex marriage by the Church has perhaps meant that now anything and everything the Government does, and particularly if it comes from the Prime Minister, is going to be rejected and rubbished without consideration. This would not be fair, and dare I say, it would not be a particularly Christian thing to do either.

The Bible tells us in numerous places to honour and respect and pray for those in Government, for ‘…all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour.’ I would gently remind my Christian brothers and sisters, especially those in the Clergy to spend as much time praying for our politicians (of all parties) and less time attacking them.

Colin Bloom: Good Friday - the One Nation Party Agreement

By Colin Bloom
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Colin Bloom is the Executive Director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship

For many subjects the maxim "those that know know, those that don’t know, don’t matter" is usually true. Regarding John Major’s efforts during the 1990’s to bring peace and normalisation to the people of Northern Ireland it seems that not enough people appreciate the facts.

The Good Friday Agreement has been described by some as ‘Tony Blair’s Good Friday Agreement’, and of course he deserves recognition for his efforts; but it wasn’t just his. This article does not deny that the heavy hand of history was on his shoulders, even if it wasn’t a day for sound bites. But we Conservative’s need to be a little sharper elbowed before the revisionist historians start to diminish the impact that we
have made.

Today is the 15th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, and it is self evident that peace in Northern Ireland has come a very long way, a lot has been done, but there is still more to do. It remains a process akin to the Christian understanding of sanctification. It is a process of becoming; it is a state of perpetual improvement.

One of the key aims of the Good Friday Agreement was ‘normalisation’ which according to the letter of the agreement, was to reduce the number of military installations there. The spirit of the agreement to ‘normalise’ goes so much further, it surely also means ‘normal’ politics, the same as the rest of the United Kingdom and an end to the dominance of political parties with historical links to the ‘troubles’.