Don't be conned by cuts and the Big Society 'big lie'

Common Wealth - a network of Christian clergy, academics and activists is calling on the churches in Britain to resist the government's public spending cuts and expose the Big Society's 'big lie'.

The statement from Common Wealth - which has been signed by theologians, Anglican priests, Methodist ministers and others - was formally launched on16 November 2010..

The group says: “Christians in Britain today are called to take a stand. Faced with the biggest cuts to public spending for over a generation, it is not enough to retreat into the private ghetto of religious consolation.”

Steven Shakespeare, an Anglican priest and lecturer in philosophy at Liverpool Hope University, explained: “This is not the time for the churches to be cozying up to government. That would be a failure of nerve, imagination and faith. We need to be saying loud and clear that we are part of the resistance. We don’t accept that the market is God.”

The Common Wealth document, which offers a radical theological critique of current government policies and the economic and social system they perpetuate, declares: “We are convinced that the actions of the current government are an unjustified attack on the poor. The rhetoric of necessary austerity and virtuous belt-tightening conceals a grim reality: the victimization of people at the margins of society and the corrosion of community. Meanwhile, the false worship of markets continues unchecked and the immorality of the growing gap between rich and poor goes unquestioned.”

The statement is the most forthright declaration of opposition to government policy to come out of the church and faith communities so far.

British church leaders have, however, expressed deep concern about public spending cuts hitting the poorest. The Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury and York have spoken out on the issue, and the Rev Alison Tomlin, President of the Methodist Conference, has said that the test of the government's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) is whether it protects the most vulnerable.

The Public Issues Team sponsored jointly by the United Reformed Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Methodist Church has also challenged the government's assumptions and statistics.

Meanwhile, the Church of Scotland, through its Church and Society convenor, the Rev Iain Galloway, has criticised the impact of the cuts.

Campaigning groups such as Church Action on Poverty say that the government's policies are regressive and target the poor, as demonstrated by the analysis of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and others.

However, the Evangelical Alliance's statements have been much more equivocal on the government's policies, and have encouraged Christians to claim their stake and position in the 'Big Society'.

By contrast, the new Common Wealth initiative says targeting the poorest in society is un-Christian and warns against churches being co-opted into plugging damaging gaps in social provision.