‘You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.’
Deuteronomy 5:11
Bob Dylan may well have had this Old Testament commandment in mind when he wrote his 1964 composition, ‘With God on our side’, just under 20 years after the end of the second world war. It was, of course, written from a purely American perspective; but just imagine the huge number of additional verses that could be added on a global basis.
The Times’ headline on Saturday 20th July broadcast that message loud and clear with their headline from the Milwaukee Convention, ‘God is on my side, Trump tells his re-vitalised party’; and even Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, claimed that ‘God had spared his life’ a week earlier at that election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The adulation even included an awful social media image of Jesus with his hand on Trump's shoulder following the shooting.
Meanwhile, as reported in the Church Times, on the other side of the world in Moscow Patriarch Kirill continues to laud President Putin as a divine instrument for saving mankind, ignoring global condemnation of Russian missile attacks on a children's hospital and other civilian targets in Ukraine, and the devastation that has been brought as a result of Putin's invasion.
These are just two recent extremes but, as Bob Dylan sings, there have been countless examples throughout history of warring and aggressive leaders claiming divine justification for their actions, including many from Britain, with its crusades and empire-building.
And yet, as St. John tells us, ‘God is love’; and Jesus gave the clear instruction to love our enemy and to pray for those who persecute us.
In contrast to the extremes of Donald Trump and Patriarch Kirill, the new British government is led by a man who claims not to have a personal faith or, indeed, to believe in God; although he shares his Cabinet with many who are Christians. We've published the podcast of the King's Speech as delivered at the State Opening of Parliament last week, and it resonates with themes which echo the Christian faith, including opportunity and fairness for all.
It's indeed impressive that the new Government could come forward with such a comprehensive list of plans within less than two weeks of their success at the General Election and, although the Daily Express described the King as delivering the speech ‘through gritted teeth’, he would be in agreement with many of its provisions, particularly those focused on the environment.
There will be ‘measures to modernise the Constitution’, with one specific proposal to remove hereditary peers from the second chamber. The hereditary principle, of course, does not stop there: it also applies to the monarchy itself. So, do Sir Keir Starmer’s intentions for hereditary peers carry a deeper plan for the monarchy? I suspect popular support might not be so forthcoming in that respect.
In the United Kingdom, the association between divinity and national rule is more controlled than in the United States and Russia: but it’s still there. The King is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, a key part of its establishment, and up to 26 of the 42 diocesan bishops serve as the ‘Lords Spiritual’ in the second chamber. These are not, of course, hereditary and presumably will continue in that role unless those ‘measures to modernise the Constitution’ decide otherwise.
We have put forward our own proposals for a democratic second chamber focused on long-term perspectives, in contrast to the House of Commons pre-eminent concern with the short-term, and these were broadly supported in our pre-election survey.
Bob Dylan's famous song takes us through centuries of violence resting on supposed divine justification and, if he drew on a wider global perspective, it could have gone back for millennia. So many ancient scriptures claim this justification, and yet they cannot deny Jesus’s teaching to love your enemy — and that cannot mean killing them.
Dylan's lyrics even extend in verse 7 into the terrifying array of weaponry with which the human race is now burdened, implying that even the use of these existential weapons could be based on divine instruction, ‘If fire them we’re forced to, then fire them we must’.
Political leaders should therefore urgently take inspiration from teaching which helps us to understand and work with others who are so different to us: hence the title of our commentary last week, ‘One Human Family’. They should also recognise that this becomes easier with a presumption in favour of forgiveness and not judging others: that's the basis for restorative justice. There's not much evidence of calls for restorative justice coming from either Kirill or Trump.
So, rather than national leaders claiming divine justification for their actions, perhaps they should pray for guidance as King Charles did at the end of his speech opening parliament: ‘I pray that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon your counsels’. At the end of the day, none of us can usurp God's favour or authority.
Gavin Oldham OBE
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