Gareth: Hello. I’m Gareth McNab, and I’m Director of External Affairs here at Christians Against Poverty, which means that politics and poverty are kind of my thing. I love them. I love reading about them and praying about them and thinking about them and talking to other people about them.
And as I talk to other people about politics and poverty today, especially during a general election period, I’m finding two very common, sometimes quite powerful responses, and I wonder whether you can relate.
I come across responses of anger on the one hand, and apathy on the other. Anger at the way things are today (‘It’s your fault things are this way’, ‘It’s your fault you haven’t come up with better ideas’), or apathy. A sense of hopelessness or helplessness at the way things are. (‘What can I really do about it?’, ‘Does my vote count?’, ‘Aren’t all politicians the same?’)
I found two things really helped me as I battle anger and empathy at this time, and I wanna share them with you too.
Firstly, this excellent resource from our friends at Jubilee+ called ‘Voting like Jesus.’ It’s a beautiful short guide. As Natalie Williams, the author, walks through the scriptures and unveils God’s heart for compassion and mercy and justice towards us, and that he invites us to show towards people everywhere, people in poverty and people in power.
I’ve read it and reread it. It’s doing me good. Can I commend it to you? It will do you good, too.
And secondly, action. It’s a great solution to combat apathy, it’s a good outlet for anger, and the action that I’ve taken and I’m inviting you to join with me in, is to write to your local Prospective Parliamentary Candidates today.
We’ve made it really easy on our website, capuk.org/ppc, just a couple of clicks and you’ll be able to ask one of three questions we’ve written for you that we pray we will stimulate a meaningful conversation between you and local candidates.
It’s not for us to tell you how to vote. We just want to make it easy for you to connect with your local candidates, to show them that poverty matters to you, and to invite them to explain to you some sense of how they would go about addressing it, were they to be elected.
Action. There are two things to do there. Great solutions to apathy and to anger.
May God guide us all through this general election period. We pray for those in power and those who seek it. And we particularly pray for those experiencing poverty today. Would God bless them, deliver them and bring this country closer together? Amen.
