post - UKIP: Christian schools 'must be allowed to do what it says on the tin':
Can I point you to what will most likely be my election address? (Teach our children English, Maths and Science - not sex.) As a father of 3 girls of school age. I will not allow their morality to be influenced by this sick government. My seven-year-old will not be attending sex education.
UKIP is certainly being vocal in support of Judeo-Christian values in education for which it should be applauded. Whether it is the right party for an orthodox Christian to vote for is another matter. There are two most helpful perspectives on the UKIP question in the letters section of April's Evangelicals Now.
Mr Fred Lush of Bideford, Devon, supports UKIP and argues that a vote for a minor party is not a wasted vote:
I believe that the idea of a 'wasted vote' is misleading, and encouraged by the major parties to enhance their share of votes.
If it is believed that votes for minor parties are wasted we shall at some time have an exclusive two party system.
Mr Graeme Kemp of Wellington, Shropshire, left UKIP in the late 1990s
as the party drifted further to the right. And, indeed, UKIP has increasingly adopted a much tougher stance on immigration. UKIP is obsessed with defending 'Britishness'.
Additionally, the party oddly blames the welfare state for educational failure, crime and family breakdown. A lot of people hit by the 'credit crunch' and unemployed would disagree with that kind of sentiment.
He concludes:
If we are to take the Bible seriously on social justice issues, and concern for the poor, then voting for fringe right-wing parties is not really an option for Christians, I believe.
It is vitally important that Christians engage with this coming election and do not capitulate to the 'whatever' society, the politics of 'the shrug', as Ann Widdecombe terms it. We are facing a squeeze on our Christian liberties and this is likely to get worse whether the Conservatives or Labour get to power and even worse if we have a hung Parliament with politically-correct Liberal Democrats holding the balance.
Christ's servants must be seen to be concerned for the welfare of the earthly city in which we spend our time of exile, more concerned though we should be with our heavenly home. The Apostle Paul expresses our Christian hope so wonderfully in Philippians 3v20-21:
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body (NIV).
Would Mr Graeme Kemp like us to completely lift our border controls? From his post I get this impression.
ReplyDeleteYes let’s lift them! This should guarantee the end of Christianity in Britain. Guess who's going to fill the country if we do? Put it this way, it won't be Anglicans!
What's wrong with Britishness? I'm proud of my culture. It's not perfect, but which culture is? I also believe its potential replacement is far worse.
Mr Kemp defends the benefits system. We also want to defend the safety net, it’s the fishing net it has become we have a problem with. No-one would not want to help the “needy“. However, when the
” Needy “are outside a pub everyday. I question their need. I could fill the server up with examples of benefit abuse. We simply cannot afford the system as it is. We are virtually bankrupt. All the income tax we all pay doesn’t cover the benefit system. This situation is un-tenable. A system that without doubt encourages children out of wedlock, and makes a father a financial burden. Cannot be supported by anyone purporting to be a conservative Christian. Employment is the way to get people out of poverty. The Tax Payers Alliance estimates EU membership costs Britain as much as £120 billion per year. Just HALF of that would pay for 3 million jobs @ £20,000 p.a. Imagine!
As for his fear of a hung parliament, this only seems a fear of British political establishment. Other parliaments all over the world seem to do quite well under them. A majority government can pass any poor legislation it likes with a three line whip.
The Liberals forming part of a coalition government may not be the as bad as you think. The reason being, they will insist on proportional representation being part of any deal. Then millions of disenfranchised voters will see their vote count.
Please have a look at our policies, here are our policies please make your own mind up.
http://www.ukip.org/content/ukip-policies
Grant French UKIP PPC for Penistone and Stocksbridge
As someone who believes in a God who wants the best for us, and a hope that any government should take a 'moral' stand when making policy, I am standing as a PPC in the general election.
ReplyDeleteWe (The UK) seem to have become a country known for pouring out benefits, so, for example, when someone starts work, often, there is a very thin 'line' where it is not worth working, because of tax and N.I. Sometimes you are 'better off' by not working and remaining on benefits.
I believe UKIP, in offering a tax policy of allowing £11500 income before tax is paid, helps to 'tip the balance' and sends a moral message that it is better to be in work than not. It's interesting to find that on 'the doorstep', this policy leads into conversations touching on issues of fairness, and a general 'annoyance' that some folk are not willing to find work.
UKIP is not a Christian Party, but I've met some Christians within it, and they are concerned that this country is becoming a Godless European zone where biblical guidelines are being daily 'thrown aside'.
Should Christians even get involved in politics? Yes! No party has a perfect solution. All I can suggest is seek God and pray about what you can, or should do.
I'm standing with UKIP. Someone, somewhere, must reverse this 'chaos'.
Regards, Mark Taylor. UKIP Coventry South PPC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xaj5gAlMNWk
Well here I am! Graeme Kemp in the flesh - and using my own name, too.
ReplyDeleteWhen did I ever suggest the abolition of UK border controls? Certainly not in my letter to Evangelicals Now. It's difficult to have an immigration control system that filters out those who belong to the 'wrong' religion.
Anonymous (not his real name?) fails to define what he means by 'Britishness' anyway. Having attended a Church of Scotland church for nearly two years, in Edinburgh, 'Britishness' can't mean Anglican!
The benefits system provides such a low level of support for people that the only way it could be reformed is to increase benefits. People have to live.