Do we need a Christian Prime Minister?

I still remember my surprise when my friend said: “My vicar told me to vote for them because they were a Christian.”

Putting aside whether vicars should actually be telling people who to vote for, the question of whether a candidate’s faith – or lack thereof – should matter is an important one.

Faith may play more of a part in US politics than in Britain today, but the worldview any individual holds invariably shapes the values they believe in, and accordingly, what they are likely to do in office.

So do we need a Christian Prime Minister? Will that sort out all our problems?

Politics is, as Tim Farron calls it, ‘A mucky business’. Politicians can enter Parliament with good convictions, and easily lose their way. They can be torn between representing God, their constituency, and their party. The job can involve impossible choices, competing voices, and weighty responsibilities. Sometimes, there will genuinely be no good options.

But Christians can do immense good in politics. We see this not only in the Bible (Joseph, Daniel etc.), but in history, from the anti-slavery reforms of William Wilberforce to the faithful Christian MPs who speak against assisted suicide, gender ideology or poverty today.

Christians have a uniquely privileged insight into how we should live, because the Author of Creation has revealed His wisdom to us. The Bible is “God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-16).

Politics matters, because the decisions politicians take directly impact people’s lives, for good or ill. And God cares about it: the Old Testament speaks of God’s anger when Israel turns a blind eye to corruption and oppression.

We want to see Christians bringing God’s wisdom into the public square, whether it is about life issues, marriage and sexuality, or caring for the vulnerable, because this is the way to human flourishing. Believing Christians serve in Parliament across the political parties, and we pray for their witness in this crucial role.

Christians are not naive about human nature. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and that is just as true of us as everyone else. Not even the most godly Christian leader can fully live up to God’s standards, and the Bible is littered with examples of leaders who began well, only to fall, including Israel’s first three kings: Saul, David and Solomon.

And not everyone who says they are a Christian actually is one. Although only God can truly judge us, recent Prime Ministers have claimed to be Christian, but introduced policies which suggest otherwise. For some, faith is little more than nominal.

It is one thing to say you follow Jesus. It is another to enact policies which glorify him. In Isaiah, God warns he is less interested in prayers and sacrifices than how people are treating one another. We need to ask whether Christian candidates will reflect God’s Kingdom in their actions and policies.

The theologian Chris Wright, warns of: “[the mentality of] getting ‘our man in the White House’ – the precise words that a dear American friend said to me when I landed in the United States a few days after a previous presidential election. “He holds a prayer meeting in the Oval Office!” she went on, with obvious delight. I could not help but recall the prophet Amos…what matters to God, Amos would say, is not what a president says in his prayers but what his government does in practice.”

Christianity is more than a label: it is faith being translated into action. We want to see Christian leaders who have been faithful in small things, and can be entrusted with larger things. And we hope for leaders whose priorities - regardless of whether we agree with them on everything - echo something of God’s priorities.

Every human is created “in the image of God”, and has some awareness of right and wrong. Paul writes in Romans of the Gentiles, who did not have access to God’s written law: “They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness” (Romans 2:15).

C.S. Lewis spoke of the moral law imprinted upon each of us: deep down, humans know what they ought to do. The UK has had leaders whose allegiance to Jesus has been tenuous at best and non-existent at worst: David Lloyd George and Clement Attlee, or more recently, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. Even Winston Churchill himself, despite his support for the establishment of the church, once declared, “I do not accept the Christian or any other form of religious belief.”

We worship a sovereign God who can work through anyone, regardless of their ability, personality, or whether they believe in him. In Isaiah, we read about Cyrus, who was chosen as God’s vessel so that the Jews could return to Judah: “He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please” (Isaiah 44:28). In the next chapter, God calls him ‘his anointed’, a quasi-Messianic figure.

God is the potter, and we are the clay. By His common grace (“He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45)), non-Christians can achieve good, just like Christians can.

So do we need a Christian Prime Minister? If we automatically think a ‘Christian’ will be superior, regardless of character or policies, we may find ourselves disappointed. The candidate my friend voted for was actually Liz Truss!

We have to examine the promises and character of political leaders. Will they steward power with integrity? Will they reflect God’s heart for the vulnerable? What have they said about key issues, like assisted suicide or addiction, and do they communicate with truth and grace? It is possible for a non-Christian to propose something closer to a Biblical vision than a misguided Christian.

We long to see Christian leaders, shining like stars and bearing witness to the gospel. But we worship a God who is not limited by our faith or folly. He will work his purposes out, until the day when the “earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

If we think we need a Christian in Number 10 to advance the Kingdom, perhaps we ought to ask ourselves: how big is our God?