It helps to bring our respective roles into clear perspective. Not because I'm a meddling or crusading bishop, but because politics is about people, communities and institutions, about issues of justice and the quality of life, whether at national or local level. The Church and its leaders must, of necessity, if we are true to the Gospel, be concerned about the whole of life, and especially for the disadvantaged. People matter to God, and so they must to us. They are not pawns in a game.
Human relationships flourish or diminish in the context and conditions in which they are set.
These are influenced and fashioned, for good or ill, by economic and social realities and forces. Each political party has its own manifesto. It was a manifesto that was spelt out in more detail in what we know as the Sermon on the Mount, and was put into action during the course of Jesus' ministry, healing, delivering people from the powers of evil, comforting the bereaved, confronting injustice, caring for those on the margins of society and finally sticking his neck out to such an extent that the authorities, both political and religious, of the day had had enough and brought about his apparent downfall. But God has the last say. Resurrection followed crucifixion, and empowered by the Holy Spirit the early Christians, and those who followed in their train down the centuries, have sought to be obedient to that same manifesto.