Poverty & Lies

Tim Montgomerie was until recently the editor of Tory blog Conservative Home, He’s recently been appointed as Comment Editor for The Times.

In The Times of 1st April he writes an Op Ed piece with the headline “Christians must put families first, not politics.” In order to read the article you either need to buy the newspaper or have a subscription to the web site. As it happens I do both but unfortunately The Times won’t allow links to articles on the web site to Facebook for example. So I’ll précis his article.
I don’t know whether Tim Montgomerie is a Christian but if not, he clearly knows his quotable Christian writers with an opening quote from Tony Campolo and a closing reference to Philip Yancey. The Campolo quote is the old chestnut of the Campolo lecturing his congregation on the importance of giving:

"I have three things I'd like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night."

It’s a good story. But what relevance it has to Tim Mongomerie’s dubious argument remains to be seen.

Montgomerie firstly criticises Lord Carey’s recent claim that David Cameron was “overseeing an age in which Christians feel persecuted.” Montgomerie (rightly) says that persecution of Christians is a huge problem in the Middle East but is hardly so here. Then Montgomerie says how the Torys have shown support for Christian schools and have continued giving aid to developing countries. Instead says Montgomerie we had another moan from Lord Carey about gay marriage. And this only goes to reinforce the view held by many younger people that the church simply doesn’t understand the modern world.

Personally, as I have blogged before, I’m in two minds over the gay marriage issue. And I don’t need to discuss that again here. But Mr. Montgomerie neatly side steps a couple of points. 1. That many Conservatives are opposed to gay marriage and 2. Most denominations do feel let down by the way the Government has pushed this through.

Sorry Anglican friends, but to me Lord Carey speaks for the Tory party at prayer wing of the Anglican Church so I’m not too excited about what he has to say. And I can take Tim Montgomerie having a swipe at the noble Lord.

But what made my blood boil this morning was the second part of Montgomerie’s article. And here I quote:

“Lord Carey is not the only leading Christian who has lost touch with modern realities. Yesterday, on Easter Sunday, four leading churches signed a joint letter questioning the government’s welfare cuts. Churches that were silent when youth unemployment soared under Labour have suddenly found their voice when a Conservative led government fights to ensure that more people look for a job rather than to the state for their income.”

I’ve had a quick look on the internet and from some statistics I’ve found that yes youth unemployment did grow in the last years of the Brown government and has continues to grow ever since. But the growth ties in with the general down turn in the economy. And must people agree this was caused by the banks – and the churches have said much about them.

Montgomerie then says more focus should be on the family. And apparently churches don’t say enough about families. This is of course utter nonsense as Tim Montgomerie has clearly never heard of the work of Christian charities such as “Care for the family” and charities such as “Action for children” with Christian values. There is a lot of work Christians do with families.

Tim Montgomerie says:

“If you want my theory why the West is in trouble I’d nominate the collapse of the family as a major cause.”

That may be a factor Tim. But what about the greed values instilled by your pin up girl Margaret Thatcher for example? How damaging have they been?

According to Montgomerie:

“Strong families are better carers of the young, the sick, the old and the disabled than the State.”

They are also essential to education and apparently produce the best nurses too. And no doubt Mr. Montgomerie would argue strong families are able to leap tall buildings with a single bound, not just stop locomotives but lay the tracks they run on too.
Actually, strong families are important to Society, I believe that. And I believe that strong families which are based on a religious ethos have much to offer. But the inference from Tom Montgomerie’s article is that strong families aren’t dependent on welfare but are wholly self-sufficient. And consequently families on benefits aren't strong families.

Well he is wrong. There can be strong families who do need welfare support. And the point of the Poverty & Lies report produced by the Methodist Church, Baptist Church, United Reformed Church and the Church of Scotland is to scotch the myths – no lies – that are peddled about people on benefits. Some people receiving benefits do so because they are low paid.

Tim Montgomerie concludes his piece by quoting another Christian writer Philip Yancey and his book “What’s so amazing about grace?” A favourite book of mine. Montgomerie cites Yancey’s retelling of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. What relation this has to his piece is questionable other than proving a connection with family.

“No civilization can be built without family and its celebration should be the Church’s primary social proclamation.”
No! The Church’s primary proclamation is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bring in the Kingdom. And that means values of justice and peace love and compassion. Values for families and everyone.