With Sinn Fein and the SDLP holding their respective seats fuelling talk of the mythical border poll, and the DUP losing seats sparking yet more gossip about Unionist unity, the Christian churches also need to ask themselves some serious questions about their relevance under a Labour regime in the UK.
There is a real need now for those churches to set aside petty theological differences about who the Biblical Antichrist is, should women wear hats to church, which form of baptism is correct, and how often should the sacrament of communion be held.
In many Northern Ireland constituencies, the voter turnout was well below 60 per cent. The churches need to ask - how many Christians stayed at home? Put bluntly, if the churches want to have their voices heard in a Labour-dominated Parliament, they need to champion the cause of Australian-style compulsory voting.
Within some sections of Christian theology, there is a viewpoint among evangelicals and fundamentalists that when a person becomes a born again Christian according to the Biblical doctrine of salvation, they should adopt a ‘come ye out from amongst them’ attitude to the world - and this includes not voting.
However, Christians cannot adopt a hypocritical Biblical Pharisee attitude and moan about the advances of the secular society or the liberal views of elected representatives if they have not bothered to vote in the first place.
While there may not be council, Assembly or Westminster elections in Northern Ireland for a few years, this gives the churches time to organise their flocks into an effective lobby group with a common agenda - getting compulsory voting as part of UK citizenship.
Could you imagine how the political landscape of Northern Ireland would be radically changed if we had a 96 per cent turnout of voters in each of the 18 constituencies?
Of course, the main hurdle in achieving this common agenda among the churches is that Christians love to argue among themselves. Theological liberals find it hard to agree with theological evangelicals; broad-minded ecumenists would differ from hardline fundamentalists. In practical terms, Christian unity in Northern Ireland has become as big a myth as Unionist unity.
Practically, what the churches need to do as a starting point is to copy the tactics of the Southern Baptist churches in the United States in the Sixties during the civil rights era for Afro-Americans - they got their congregations registered as voters.
For a start, if every person who calls themselves a Christian in Northern Ireland, of whatever theological standpoint or denomination, got themselves on the electoral roll and pledged to vote at the next election, what impact would that have on those who were elected?
A Churches Voter Forum needs to be established with the sole purpose of getting all Christians registered to vote. Surely that can be achieved without anyone compromising their theological beliefs?
The next step would be the most challenging - establishing an agenda of core beliefs which the Churches Voter Forum could put to wanna-be candidates and parties. Unfortunately, this is where the theological differences and petty squabbles between the Christian denominations would kick in.
However, there is one part of Scripture which the vast majority of all Christians agree upon - the role of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, also known as the Beatitudes; the ‘blessed are …’ passages of the New Testament.
Surely no Christian could disagree with these specific teachings of Christ? This being the case, could a future Churches Voter Forum get candidates and parties to sign up to this agenda? Put bluntly, Christian voters would be asked by their denominations to plump for any candidates who sign up to the Beatitudes Agenda.
Currently, as a result of this month’s General Election there is a perception that the real political battle in Northern Ireland is for middle ground politics. This also fuels the false perception that middle ground also applies to theology - that it is only liberal Christians who are interested in, or will influence, the electoral process.
Other false perceptions have existed - and still do! During the Paisley senior era, the Free Presbyterian Church he founded in 1951 was viewed as the DUP at prayer, just as in 2024 some pentecostal churches have been unjustly branded as the TUV at prayer.
There is the false perception that theological evangelicals and fundamentalists are being increasingly sidelined in what is viewed as the forward march of secularism and pluralism in Northern Ireland, especially among young and first time voters.
Like Unionism and nationalism, the Christian churches will have some serious thinking to do as they ponder the implications of the election results.
For the churches, the key question will be bluntly simple - how do we become a relevant voice which is listened to in a secular society? The sooner the churches get their act together in voter mobilisation, the better placed they will be for the next poll.
The bitter medicine which the churches may have to swallow is that if they bury their heads in the pews, the significance of the so-called ‘church vote’ will become increasingly irrelevant and voiceless in future elections.
Christ Himself took positive action against the money changers in the Temple; the time has come for churches to practically follow His example and organise the flocks.
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online. |
TLDR John advocates a sectarian head count.
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