The Church and the Government

Abstract

The election of the Conservative government in 1979 commited to radical policies, particularly in relation to economic liberalisation, the freeing of markets, the diminution of the role of government and a more limited role for the welfare state occasioned major controversies with mainstream British churches which continue unabated. At the centre of the argument is first of all a dispute about the nature and degree of involvement by the churches in matters of public policy. Should the churches really have a view about social and economic policy or should they be more concerned, as a Conservative MP said in 1984, with putting more bottoms on pews? Is the Church’s concern primarily with individual, personal salvation or does it have a central concern with people’s material conditions and the public policies which have a role in producing and distributing those conditions?