Emily Graves spoke with Don Horricks from the Evangelical Alliance

Don Horricks

Following a landmark survey of evangelical Christians, political leaders have made a play for why their party should be backed. Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage have responded to the findings of the Evangelical Alliance's recent Faith in Politics? report. David Cameron declined to comment on the findings with a response given from Conservative Party chairman, Grant Shapps, instead. Emily Graves spoke with Don Horricks, Head of Public Affairs at the Evangelical Alliance to find out more about the contents of the survey, what issues are important to Christians and how they view politics.

Emily: When and why was this survey carried out?

Don: The Evangelical Alliance conduct surveys all the time. If you go to its website you will see that there are many surveys that are conducted with a pilot group of round about 2,000 Evangelical Christians to find out what they think about key issues, and, key significant aspects of national life or, politics or, other issues. We decided last year to carry out a survey, which we entitled 'Faith in Politics'. It was carried out between August and September in 2014, and the aim of that particular survey was with a general election coming up, to get the views of Evangelical Christians on what they think about politics in general.

Emily: Why is faith in politics important to society today?

Don: That's a very, very good question. I think that we have to recognise that we live under a democratic system whereby participation in deciding the new Government of our country is absolutely crucial. Normally Christians had been very good at getting involved in the political arena. We know for example, and this survey confirms it, that Evangelical Christians are many times more likely to vote than average members of the public, because if you vote you are taking part in how our society is being shaped for the future. Christians should take an interest in how our country is governed. In the Bible we are called to pray for our leaders and we therefore have an interest in the common good.

I think with the coming elections, what we have seen is a big turnoff of people generally from getting involved in politics and from voting, and, Evangelical Christians have been turned off in large numbers as well. I think this is for a number of reasons, but two particular reasons; one is there's great doubt and annoyance really, with politicians in general, and a lack of trust in them, because the people who are supposed to be our leaders have been generally viewed as being corrupt and failing to keep promises and in it for themselves. There have been repeated stories in the media of how they've abused their positions and so it would be true to say that politics is at a very low ebb in this country and the standing of politicians has probably never been lower.

There is also a particular thing that Evangelical Christians are concerned about, which this survey shows, and that has been the forcing through of the redefinition of marriage last year, against the popular view. Certainly a large part of the population showed in response to Government consultations that they did not want marriage to be redefined, and that was evidenced from the Government consultation, but the Government ignored that and just simply went ahead and forced it through Parliament in defiance of the popular view.

So there's a perception amongst Christians on two counts, that politics is corrupt, therefore, don't get involved with it; let's stay away; let's not bother to vote or, at best if we are going to vote we are going to protest.

I think it was a very important survey to carry out. It also played into the Alliance's own campaign, which you can see on its website, which is really focused around the message to Christians to show up at this election, because whatever you feel about politicians, and whatever you feel about the bankruptcy of politics, it's still crucially important to vote, because if at the end of the day you opt out, and that the only people who get voted for tend to be extremist, then you run the risk of a much worse situation in power. We may all get something that we don't want, so, I think it's a plea really from the Evangelical Alliance to Christians not to give up just because politics is not in a very good space at the moment.

Emily: The Evangelical Alliance has released a book called the '21st Century Evangelicals' which is a myth-busting book that's showing that Evangelicals are engaging in politics for the benefits of others. Tell us a bit more about the book and why it's been released?

Don: This is a summary of a number of surveys that we carried out, which gives a picture of what Evangelicals think, what they believe and what they do. If you want to know what a reasonably well balanced survey of what Evangelicals think and do is, then you should have a look at this book.

You will find out that compared to the population at large, Evangelicals are many more times likely to have got involved with community or local politics and community work reaching out to their community. It also will show you what Evangelicals think is really important; what are the big issues, for example, the overwhelming number of Evangelicals believe that religious liberty and freedom of expression is the number one issue today that we need to keep our freedom. We also as Evangelicals think that the biggest issue is the need to make a difference in the lives of the poorest people in the UK, and also to eliminate the awful statistics relating to human trafficking. There's also great concern about other issues, certainly, there's ongoing concern about the need to reinforce marriage and for there to be a very pro-life take on issues like abortion and euthanasia. So, these are a cross section of what Evangelicals are concerned about and it helps us focus on the things that we're really concerned about. This high level of engagement by Evangelical Christians in our world and the high level of participation in voting and elections, is why the party leaders are very keen to send a message to the Christian sector, simply because they know that most Christians are likely to vote in much bigger numbers than the population as a whole.

Emily: How can we find more about the Faith in Politics Survey and also the book?

Don: These are freely available, just go to the Evangelical Alliance website: www.eauk.org and look up 'Faith in Politics', and you will be able to see the booklet there.