For the first time in 18 years, the Labour Party is now under the leadership of someone who does not espouse any form of Christianity or, indeed, any faith at all.
Since John Smith’s election in 1992, Christian Socialism has experienced something of a revival, in terms of profile if not numbers. Smith harnessed Christianity into a moral protest against the policies of the neo-liberal Conservative Party and the ethical back-drop for the ‘post-Thatcherite agenda’. Tony Blair took this a step further, using a form of Christian socialism to plug something of the ideological and rhetorical hole left by the dismantling of Clause IV, weaving a vision of community into the cloth of the New Labour Project. And at times, it seemed Gordon Brown could hardly make a speech without quoting Isaiah, Amos, or the Parables of the Good Samaritan or of the Talents. Even as Prime Minister, Brown’s rhetorical style was as strongly religious as any since Margaret Thatcher, or perhaps even
Now that, according to Miliband the younger, the era of New Labour is over, what are the prospects for Christianity and the Labour Party? Being a self-confessed atheist, Ed Miliband obviously won’t ‘do God’ in the sense of any of the previous three leaders. Like Nick Clegg, he should not be embarrassed by his unbelief. Our political culture ought to be mature enough to allow him to expand on it, should he choose to do so. But the real questions are around how he will relate to the strongly religious elements of his tradition and the contributions that they would make to the debate around the direction of the Party.
Christian Socialists have some reasons to be cheerful. First, Ed may or may not be ‘red’, but he is clearly on the mutualist and not the statist side of the centre left. Perhaps there will be a lurch to the left, but that needn’t necessarily mean a lurch towards a
Second, as plural as the Labour Party under Blair was, there was much that was part of the Christian social tradition that it could not stomach. Clearly, Labour has been broadly economically liberal. Under Blair, it seemed that we had indeed come to ‘the end of history’ when it came to the struggle between great opposing economic paradigms. An unfettered market economy, its worst effects ameliorated by the tax take, was the order of the day. In the wake of the economic crisis, the Labour party will be more open to voices that would question and qualify the place of the market, consumerism, and choice in human flourishing.
Third, we have to wonder what dividend there was from thirteen years of a Labour government for faith communities. In retrospect, rhetorical enthusiasm for the participation of religious institutions in public life and a harnessing of religious communities’ energy for social change on the international development agenda was mixed with a great deal of suspicion for faith groups. To paraphrase Brown in his 2006 conference speech, New Labour often celebrates religious ‘compassion’, but has been deeply apprehensive of ‘theological zeal’. Christian Socialism’s superficial revival hid a deep guardedness towards faith.
It's ironic that a practising Catholic like Ruth Kelly was continually interrogated about her suitability for a number of government posts, in spite of being thoroughly circumspect about the influence of her faith on her political decision making. On the other hand the humanist Charles Clarke, while Home Secretary, defended religious faith as ‘natural, positive, and essential to the development of society’ at a New Humanist/IPPR event in 2006. Maybe an atheist leader could be just what the Party needs in order to start taking faith seriously again.
Paul Bickley is Senior Researcher at Theos and the author of Building Jerusalem? Christianity and the Labour Party.
