British Pol Advises American Christians to Get Involved in Politics
by Allie Martin
February 22, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A member of the British House of Lords has told the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) convention in Dallas that biblical preaching could be outlawed unless Christians become more politically active. Recently the British Parliament nearly passed legislation that would have amended that nation's Racial and Religious Hatred Bill and outlawed incitement to religious hatred. The measure lost by a single vote -- the vote of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who left early, confident that the bill would pass without him.
John Taylor, a member of the House of Lords, spoke at this week's NRB gathering in Texas. Taylor said passage of the bill could have led to pastors being arrested for so-called "hate speech." Unless Christians take action, says Taylor, clergy in his country -- as well as in the United States -- could fall victim to such statutes, should they be enacted.
"There's an old saying that things won't change until people change," Taylor says. "So we can moan about these [political] institutions and so forth, or we can basically get in there. We are called to be salt and light -- so why don't we take over the Senate and Congress and so forth?"
According to Taylor, Christians in Britain have virtually abandoned politics. He says there is a "kind of lethargy" in Christians that often causes them to retreat from the political arena, saying "Well, that's politics; we don't get involved in politics." But try telling that to Muslims, he adds.
"There are Muslim Members of Parliament who are sponsored by mosques. They are there to preach Islam," he says. "In the House of Lords, there's a room where you can pray to Mecca -- but there's no room where you can pray to Christ."
Taylor calls it a "miracle" that the prime minister was absent for the final vote. Earlier, members of Parliament had voted 288-278 to back the amendment to the bill.
A BBC report quotes one member of Parliament as saying "the government just failed to understand that they can't take liberties with freedom of expression. This [vote] has showed ... that we will stand up for freedom of expression." That report notes this was only the second defeat of government-backed legislation in almost ten years.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
