As this short election season comes to a climax on 8 June, Pat Finlow of Christians in Politics has one more slogan for Christians to hear

Elections tend to attract slogans of one kind or another: pithy sayings that capture the essence of a party’s message. Well, I’ve got one too: ‘Show up, speak up and disagree well’. OK, maybe it’s not that pithy, but it sums up the message of Christians in Politics for this election – and for after the election too.

Why this slogan? In Isaiah 58 there are strong words about the imperative to ‘spend yourselves on behalf the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed’. Since time immemorial, Christians and local churches have been faithfully and lovingly responding to the Bible’s message of caring for ‘the least of these’.

In recent years, this faithful presence has grown as churches have responded to the difficult circumstances that communities find themselves in. The call on existing services has increased and new, innovative projects have sprung up to help people through times of crisis. This experience has given ordinary Christians an extraordinary insight into the challenges faced by the men, women and children in their community and this insight needs to be heard and felt by every candidate in the coming election. But how do we do that?

Our most basic responsibility is to ‘show up’ and vote. At the risk of throwing another slogan at you, decisions are made by those who show up. Let that sink in for a moment… if we don’t show up and vote, decisions about how people are taxed, and what those taxes are spent on will be taken by others who may not share our values. So showing up and voting is the first and most obvious thing to do. …

Pat Finlow is Events and Communications Manager of Christians in Politics, an all-party, non-denominational organisation equipping Christians to be involved in public life. Videos for display in church services can be found at www.christiansinpolitics.org.uk

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This is an extract from an article published in the June 2017 edition of  Reform