BLENDING FAITH WITH POLITICS
Never hide your beliefs, says Preston Manning
In Mathew’s Gospel, when Jesus sends his disciples out into the wider, public world, he advises them to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.
According to Preston Manning, that’s the exact advice anyone strong in faith should heed if he or she decides to get involved in politics.
Manning himself has been immersed in politics in some form or another virtually all of his life. The founder of the Reform party and former leader of the opposition in Ottawa has never hidden the strong Christian faith that’s been his bedrock throughout that public career. But, that faith is often unwelcome in the corridors of political power. So much so that in the House of Commons even voicing such belief is taboo, according to the longtime Calgarian.
Manning has just had a new book published, based upon a series of lectures he’s written and delivered to students and faith-based individuals interested in the possibility of entering the political and public arena.
The book, Faith, Leadership and Public Life, draws upon lessons gleaned from major biblical figures such as Moses, David and Jesus, and applies such wisdom to the challenges facing believers intent on entering today’s political battlefield.
He warns those intent on such a life that the road ahead is not necessarily an easy one in this country.
“There has been this trend in both Canada and Western Europe to basically push faith out of the public arena — to privatize it,” he says. “Yes, you can hold these views, but it is considered taboo in the House of Commons or the Legislature to speak about your own most deeply held faith and convictions, or those of your constituents.”
When delivering lectures he often finds that young people, born and brought up in the cultures of Africa and South America, will approach him afterwards to say how surprised they are with this attitude in Canada. In their native lands, they say, the opposite is true as faith plays such a huge role in politics.
Yet, Manning argues in his book, Jesus was a consummate politician. According to scripture, his public career lasted only three years but today 1.5 billion people follow his words and deeds in some form.
“The guy had only a 36-month public career yet 2,000 years later, there are more than a billion and a half people who profess to be guided in some way by his teachings,” says Manning. “How many of us can have that short a public career and have so many people remember you — most of us can spend 20 years at it and then people won’t remember a thing about it 20 years afterwards.”
He writes that there are vital lessons to be learned from Jesus about how to conduct yourself in public.
“During the first year of his public work, all that his disciples did was follow around and watch. Then, he told them he was sending them out to do public work in his name. He gives this long talk on how to do it and the key guideline is to be as wise as serpents and gracious as doves, which is a pretty good guideline for someone today intent on operating from a faith perspective in the public arena,” said Manning, who points to the well-known story of when Jesus was quizzed if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. After pausing, he asked for a coin on which the face on the Roman Emperor was embedded.
“He then had a short response — give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God,” Manning says. “That is as shrewd an answer as you could imagine. If only today we who have a faith commitment and are in the public square could answer as shrewdly as that, we’d be better off.”
During his time as a party leader in Ottawa, Manning saw how people of many faiths were reluctant to speak about their beliefs. His Reform party included the first Sikh opposition member, the first Ismaili MP and the first Hindi member.
“So I asked: ‘How come you don’t ever say anything from your faith perspective in the House?’ They said: ‘ We see you guys, who are part of the traditional Christian background in Canada and are far more prevalent that us, and you get hammered for even trying to do that, so imagine what they would do to us,’ ” recalled Manning.
However, he wonders if the pendulum is swinging back and if, in future, faith will no longer be dismissed or ridiculed in the public arena. The governmental acceptance and acknowledgment of the beliefs of Indigenous Canadians could drive such change.
“Aboriginal people have a spiritual side to them. On the prairies, the Cree and the Blackfoot believe the Great Spirit was everywhere present — in the grass, the trees, the buffalo. That’s not too different from the Christian view of the omnipresence of God,” Manning said.
“If you are going to accept that view when it is expressed by Aboriginal people, then can you deny it when expressed by others? Maybe these things do go in cycles.”