On Sunday the 18th of April 2010, The Potters House Christian Church Croydon hosted a Hustings with Croydon North local candidates.Now I must admit up until a few weeks ago I had no idea what a 'Hustings' was! One definition says a 'Hustings' is a platform where candidates in an election campaign give speeches. To that end we had candidates from the three main parties Jason Hadden(Conservatives) Gerry Jerome (Liberal Democrats) and Malcolm Wicks (Labour).
We had a good turnout from our congregation with 150+ members of the church present. The candidates answered (eventually) tough questions on DNA records, crime levels and what their vision for Croydon is. The event lasted just over an hour and the candidates had one to one conversations with individual congregation members afterwards.
As a Pastor I believe Christians should get engaged in the political process. Churches are a tremendous force for good and social action in our communities. Often we are the bedrock of communities. Also because of the high concentration of people in Churches (especially afro carribean) churches can (potentially) have a loud voice, and what better way to use that voice that in the General election?
All in all the event was a thought provoking experience, with some people making a decision at the end of who they would vote for.
Recently we know that MP's have taken a 'bashing' over the expenses scandal and a lot of trust has been lost. Its hard to follow leaders if you dont trust them? As a Church we need to pray for all of our leaders, wether political, educational or religous (Rom 13), and as leaders we must lives with integrity and character.
So the good pastor thinks there are only three parties worth listening to in this election, does he? Where does that fit in with Christian values, fair play and the like?
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous, we invited the 3 main parties because they are the only ones who had contacted us wether personally or via mail. However I would also add that since the hustings i have received mail from the communist party, the green party and UKIP. I was unaware these parties were even putting forward a PPC (propsective parlimetary candidate)?? Had they contacted me earlier we would have considered them for sure. I don't understand the 2nd part of your comments because on that basis one 'might' expect me to invite the BNP?
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