Emily Graves spoke with Christians on the Left Director Andy Flannagan

Andy Flannagan

On Bonfire night, over 140 people squeezed into Committee Room 11 of the House of Commons for the official parliamentary launch of 'Christians on the Left'. There was a tangible enthusiasm amongst the members and supporters present. Hosted by Chair, Stephen Timms MP, speakers included Shadow Cabinet member Jon Cruddas MP and Christian theologian and broadcaster Vicky Beeching. The significance of the date was not lost on Christians on the Left Director Andy Flannagan. His talk was titled "They came expecting fireworks, but they heard about a mustard seed." He challenged the Christians on the Left members to be ready for the long haul of building relationships.

More encouragement for Christians on the Left came recently from the Labour leader Ed Miliband who issued a video message thanking churches and Christian organisations for the work they do to fight poverty at home and abroad. Highlighting that political activity can work in partnership with such work, Miliband said, "I'm very proud of our organisation Christians on the Left and I hope you'll get involved with them as part of that fight for social justice."

To find out more about their work and the re-launch event, Emily Graves spoke with Director Andy Flannagan.

Emily: So, first of all Andy, what is Christians On The Left?

Andy: Well, Christians On The Left, we're a group of believers, Christians obviously, and we're on the left side of politics. Our reading of Scripture leads us to believe in the pattern of Old Testament things like Jubilee and Sabbath and the way that the New Testament Church operated showing that inevitably we are selfish and God, knowing us better than we know ourselves, has instituted some ideas that stop power and wealth trickling up to the powerful and wealthy. In the same way that we need boundaries in our personal lives and in our relationships for them to be healthy and flourish, we similarly believe that you need boundaries in our economic lives and in the economics of the nation. We're focusing on those whose heart is for social justice and for the poor and who are therefore getting involved on the left side of politics. Right across the UK folks are getting involved in some incredible projects, whether it's debt counselling, street pastors, or food banks and I guess a crew of us are saying that's absolutely brilliant; that stuff's amazing, but maybe for some of us and for some of those folks there is a call to the next step, which is to get politically engaged. It's like trying to treat the causes of the sickness rather than just treat the victims of a sick system. You're trying to change the system and that's what we're trying to do.

Emily: So how and when did Christians On The Left begin?

Andy: Christians On The Left is the new name for the Christian Socialist Movement and it started 52 years ago. In fact Christian socialists were writing way back in the 1800s and a lot of their writings, a lot of their thinking and a lot of those people went to form what is now the modern Labour Party. I guess a big part of our job is to prophetically call the Labour Party back to those roots, back to those Christian roots. Some people don't know that a quarter of the Labour MPs in the '20s were Methodist lay preachers. In fact the reason why some of those folks were able to do public speaking was they were taught by Wesley. It's a huge part of the history of people who are passionately fighting for social justice and fighting for the least well-off in our society. I guess it's our mission field. We're not saying hey, everybody should be on our side though. I always work really closely with the guys from the Conservative Christian Fellowship and the Lib Dem Christian Forum as well, but we're saying this is our mission field, this is the place where we feel called to be inputting; this is the place where we feel called to be; prophetic to both the Labour Party and to the Church. It's incredible to see the young people especially who are getting stuck in and who are getting involved. They're saying I don't just want to be helping like the Good Samaritan, hand to hand, mouth to mouth; I want to be going back to the Jericho road to try and stop other people getting mugged. I want to be part of changing the systems, to make sure that the systems aren't producing so many victims. The bottom line is we do live in the context of a global economic system that is making the rich richer and making the poor poorer and either we just keep treating the victims of that system or we actually go about trying to change the system and that's what we're about.

Emily: When you say prophetically calling the Labour Party back, what exactly do you mean by that?

Andy: I mean we're trying to make sure that it's about people and it's not just about management. Everybody knows the constant critique of politics in the last few years. It's been about, 'well we'll manage'; it's the death of ideology; it's the death of actual new ideas; we're just going to manage; we're just going to pragmatically try and re-apportion money rather than actually having some heart and soul and representing people in what we're doing and connecting with people. People need to know that those who are going to lead them politically are those who are going to serve them as well as lead them. So we're calling people to get stuck in and involved.

When Labour MPs meet a lot of our future candidates, a lot of our young folks, who are youth workers, who are social workers, who are community workers, they're going, these are the sort of MPs we need. These are the sort of people who are going to restore people's faith in politics. They haven't gone into politics because they want to lord it over people, or because they want to make money, or because they want the status of doing it. They're already serving their communities and this is just the natural next step to doing that. They're realising they have to do this, otherwise they'll be stuck doing what they're doing time and time again and they'll have to keep coming back to solve the same problems again and again and again, unless they actually get involved in some of the law-making and the decision-making.

We're very much trying to make sure that the Labour Party for our part - and actually all the Parties - are really connected to what's going on locally with the Church: all these great projects we've talked about and also saying that Christians have a voice across all the different issues. Traditionally Christians have been tagged into just speaking out on certain issues, whereas we're saying God has a heart for every single sphere of society, whether it's economics, education, or healthcare. I know absolutely we've got views on those other more traditional issues as well and that's part of making a prophetic case to the Party, but we are trying to say, look, there's a case to be made and there's a voice to be heard about all these issues.

Emily: Why do you specifically affiliate with the Labour Party?

Andy: Well, number one because of the history I was talking about there, that a lot of folks in our movement were actually part of what formed the Labour Party and because on the left side of politics you probably find more folks who are passionate about putting those boundaries in, that aren't content just to let a free market roam free, whether you're talking about taxation, regulation of the finance industry, or regulation of the banking sector. There are more folks on that side of the political coin who would agree with some of what we would say are the scriptural principles of Jubilee and Sabbath, that call people to look out for one another, to speak up for those who can't speak for themselves, to actually be concerned for the common good, not sold out to a western individualised, consumerised, materialistic dream of what life should look like. I think that's why our folks feel more of a call in that direction.

I'd encourage folks to look at our website. There's a whole set of videos and pictures and stories of folks explaining why they are Christians On The Left and why their faith leads them to be on the left side of politics. That's on our website which is www.christiansontheleft.org.uk.