I’ve been watching the BBC series Sherwood.
It’s a suspenseful drama.
It explores facing the truth in life even when painful.
I noticed an illuminated cross in the background of the police incident room set up in a local church hall.
Telling the truth and being sincere matter, especially in our leaders. Recently this paper published a letter from me calling on MPs to sack Boris Johnson because he broke his own lockdown laws, which looks like disrespect for people who faced painful sacrifices to keep those laws.
It sparked a debate in the letters page about whether pastors like me should “get involved” in politics.
My point was about morality not party politics.
All of us thankfully, including pastors, have the freedom in our democracy to challenge our leaders when they seem to set themselves above what is true and right.
When we read the Bible, we see Jesus called out the leaders of his day because they did not care about what was true and right for their people. They only said and did things which kept themselves in power.
As Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a key figure in removing the racist apartheid system in South Africa once said when people told him pastors should not interfere in political matters, “I don’t know which Bible they are reading!” Tutu also spoke up for the truths contained in the Bible when he said “We are each made for goodness, love, and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths”.
Jesus said that the truth sets us free. It is when we face what is true in our lives even if painful then we can own it and move on into new life.
The Revd Canon David Hodgson is the Rector of Wokingham, at All Saints CofE Parish, writing on behalf of Churches Together In Wokingham
