REDACTED seems to be the hardest word
Christian MPs should be able to say c****f***
Elton John was wrong. About so many things.
First of all, you can’t tell everyone ‘this is your song’. Logistical nightmare and frankly naïve. Second, ‘Sorry’ is not the hardest word. As we’ve all seen this week, ‘ceasefire’ seems to be the hardest word.
From the beloved Bernie Sanders running verbal rings around it to Labour MPs who enjoy talking about justice being ordered not to vote for it, c****f*** [ceasefire] has been trickier than most words this week. And it’s getting more and more absurd, to quote Elton1.
For your average Christian, the concept of a ceasefire is uncontroversial in most situations. All sides in a conflict stop fighting so that no more people die. It’s so uncontroversial that we celebrated it (under the word Armistice) just over a week ago. Under normal circumstances, asking people to vote for a ceasefire is literally asking them to vote for righteousness.
So, what is it about the current situation that makes the circumstances abnormal?
The simple answer is: because Israel really, really wants to keep firing2. And what Israel wants, Israel gets.
Western politicians seem incapable of going against Israel’s wishes for many reasons. Some are indebted to Israel lobby campaign funding, others rose to power by equating support for Israel with fighting anti-Semitism, and some venal pragmatists see Israel as little more than a base for western interests. Add to that the spectacular legacy media bias in Israel’s favour and a generalised intellectual laziness that tends to side with anyone who claims to be ‘fighting terrorism’, and it’s easy to understand the current political zombie sleepwalk to the beat of Israel’s propaganda drum.
But not everybody is happy to lope mindlessly along. The world is waking up. Young people, Jewish justice groups, deconstructing religious folks and BLM-energised decolonisers are getting more traction than ever before — and making more noise3. Which, in shocking democracy sometimes works news, contributed to British MPs voting on calling for a Ceasefire.
The motion was defeated, not least because Keir Starmer told his Labour MPs not to vote for it.
So what? some might say. It’s not like a UK vote is binding for Israel. It’s not like Israel listens to international condemnations anyway. Perhaps not. But Israel has been allowed to flout international law with relative impunity for so long because of its close relationship with powerful allies. “Britain is not America, but it’s also not Luxembourg,” as one commentator put it. A vote for a Ceasefire would have sent a clear signal to Israel that it was going too far. It may have slowed the killing.
To many of us, the least — the very, very least — our representatives could have done was call for a ceasefire. Not a smoke break before the killing starts again. Not a toothless and disingenuous bleat about following the international laws already repeatedly broken. A ceasefire. That unmentionable word.
Which is why those who failed to vote for a ceasefire are facing backlash. That backlash is what democracy looks like. MPs are not our masters, they are our representatives, and we should let them know when their cowardice or bankrupt ideologies lead them to execute their duties in ways we find unjustifiable.
Representative democracy requires accountability.
What about Christian MPs?
With that in mind, I was interested in which Christian MPs voted FOR and which AGAINST a ceasefire.
Creating my own list of MPs who have, in various ways, been identified as Christians [more on that below], I have checked those names against a Guardian list of all MP ceasefire votes. and compiled that list here. I can’t guarantee its completeness or that I’ve nailed down the complex notion of faith identity, but I suspect this is a reasonable list of Christian votes on the ceasefire:
How did they vote?
Stuart Anderson (Cons) - AGAINST
Caroline Ansell (Cons) - AGAINST
Steve Baker (Cons) - AGAINST
Ian Blackford (SNP) - DIDN’T VOTE
Peter Bottomley (Cons) - AGAINST
Fiona Bruce (Cons) - AGAINST
Lisa Cameron (Cons) - AGAINST
Miriam Cates (Cons) - AGAINST
Alex Cunningham (Lab) - DIDN’T VOTE
Janet Daby (Lab) - DIDN’T VOTE
Marsha De Cordova (Lab) - FOR
Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP) - DIDN’T VOTE
Stephen Doughty (Lab) - DIDN’T VOTE
Tim Farron (Lib Dem) - FOR
Nick Fletcher (Cons) - AGAINST
Paul Girvan (DUP) - AGAINST
Emma Hardy (Lab) - DIDN’T VOTE
Sharon Hodgson (Lab) - DIDN’T VOTE
Ruth Jones (Lab) - DIDN’T VOTE
Danny Kruger (Cons) - AGAINST
Andrea Leadsom (Cons) - AGAINST
Rachael Maskell (Lab) - FOR
Connor McGinn (Independent) - FOR
Robin Millar (Cons) - AGAINST
Theresa May (Cons) - AGAINST
Ian Paisley (DUP) - AGAINST
Jonathan Reynolds (Lab) - DIDN’T VOTE
Andrew Selous (Cons) - AGAINST
Cat Smith (Lab) - FOR
Gary Streeter (Cons) - AGAINST
Wes Streeting (Lab) - DIDN’T VOTE
Desmond Swayne (Cons) - AGAINST
Stephen Timms (Lab) - FOR
Michael Tomlinson (Cons) - AGAINST
At least one person who didn’t vote (an SNP MP) has stated they were not able to attend the vote, though they supported a ceasefire, which is something, I guess. And perhaps others had similar reasons and would have done the right thing if they could.
And, hey. Amidst the lack of courage and lack of concern for Palestinian lives which seem to underpin the AGAINST votes and non-votes, there are little lights of hope in the form of Christians (I think!) who voted FOR a ceasefire.
Not all politicians lack any sense of solidarity with the oppressed. Not all politicians lack the backbone to stand up to pressure from their leaders. Some politicians care.
That gives me a little hope, among all the despair, that there might be a ceasefire, before too many more people die. But that hope requires more of us to have the courage to speak up.
How I came to that list
Or: I am an opinion guy, investigative journalism is hard
Honestly, I was personally most interested in the Christians in the Labour Party, the party I have always voted for in this country. I wanted to applaud those who broke ranks and disobeyed their leader, to congratulate them. And I wanted to see who conformed to the Party line despite the suffering in Gaza.
But that felt like I was picking on people who I generally admire, so I did some trawling the internet for other Christians in Westminster.
Turns out, it’s quite difficult to work out which MPs are Christians. I contacted an official group who would know about one particular party, and they understandably (and politely) declined to give me a list of their members, though they did tell me that around ten of them voted FOR a ceasefire. Which was heartening. I checked on a couple of other party-specific fellowships, one of which was helpful with a few names, the other of which led to a 404 page (you can probably guess which, lol).
What was most helpful was the Christians in Parliament website, particularly the minutes of their last few meetings. I figured most of those MPs bothering to show up to meetings could reasonably be assumed to identify as Christians, but you can never be sure, so I wrote to CiP to ask them to corroborate, complete and correct my list, but did not hear back by time of publishing. I really wanted to avoid misattributing faith to anyone, and also didn’t want to leave anyone out, but AGM minutes can only take you so far. That’s why I looked at a number of stories by Christian subgroups and fellowships within political parties as well as too many published articles that identified Christian MPs to helpfully link here. If I’ve got any of this wrong, I do apologise. I personally don’t think it’s shameful to be called a Christian and if one’s voting record causes shame, well, that’s something to consider, isn’t it?
Coming up on the podcast
Last week we recorded with the inimitable Jolyon Maugham, founder and director of the Good Law Project and a man Rishi Sunak once accused of waging ‘lawfare’.
We’ll be publishing that episode very soon, so watch our socials. Publication date will depend on how soon Jonty gets over his cold / flu / lurgy, so pray for him if you like!
The end bit
Beer Christianity is an occasionally amusing, boozy, sweary Leftist Christian podcast. Find us at beerchristianty.co.uk
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If it’s a choice, I’d rather you share this stuff than give money. But money is helpful too. Ugh. This is so awkward.
or
Yes, yes, I know it’s Bernie Taupin but who is going to laugh at that?
I will try to do a follow-up piece in the next few days on the possible reasons why Israel is so determined to make an already disproportionate level of violence even more terrible.
In an amusingly embarrassing move, some in the pro-Israel lobby have accused TikTok of bias towards pro-Palestine content, with TikTok pointing out that young people are just more pro-Palestine. Of course they are. They are less plugged into traditional propaganda sockets. They see babies dying and think: hmm, maybe that isn’t good.
Find more content at beerchristianity.co.uk
The end end bit
Hey there, hi there and, if I’m really honest, ho there. Thanks for reading all this way. Some of you even comment or message to let me know you have done. I notice and appreciate it. I’ve been sick the last few days and am kinda terrified it will turn into pneumonia again so I am trying to rest and sleep more than I write, edit, research and share stuff about Palestine and other justice issues. But then have you seen what is happening in Congo. Again. Horrific. It’s all a lot and I am so aware I’m safe and privileged and having an easy time. We do what we can, hey? Thank you for reading and sharing and encouraging me. And thank you for caring enough to engage with issues that matter. We aren’t alone, whatever they want us to believe. Much love. J