William Wilberforce’s guiding principles as a politician
1. The good seed of the gospel must be planted and allowed to grow not only in the human heart, but within the structures of society. Christian faith is personal and individualistic, but it is also social and communal. The cross is God‘s answer to the sin of the human heart and the evil of human society. Thanks to Mr Wilberforce, the age of atonement has also been the age of improvement and reform. The most religious age has been the most progressive. Mr Wilberforce was always keen to talk with individuals about their personal need for faith in Christ, but he was also committed to reforming systems: the system of the penal code, the prison system, the transportation system, the education system, and the economic system based on slavery. The good news, then, is not only for the salvation of the individual, but it is also for the preservation and transformation of society.
2. Public policy should be not only consistent with Christian values, but should be energised by spiritually-vital., gospel-centred Christianity. It is only real Christianity which makes a real difference. It is only by ‗an illuminated and lived faith‘ that God is rendered credible in the world, and it is only through vital faith that our public and social life can be built on the foundation of the public good and not the self-interest of the powerful. That is to say, Mr Wilberforce believed that the best of public values need religious faith and spiritual energy to vitalise them. You are clearly a people with a strong instinct for democracy, and democratic values look set to be esteemed by the colonists as among the values most to be prized. Well, Mr Wilberforce would insist that such values depend for their ‗vitality upon citizens with a sense of moral purpose and attachment to ultimate truths that democracy itself cannot supply‘.40 Every nation needs a community life characterised by morality with civility. It cannot happen without vital religious faith.
3. These two principles – that Christianity must be allowed to shape our social systems and national structures as well as our individual morality, and that vital religious faith is required if our cherished national values are to produce morality with civility – these two principles lead to this simple, practical conclusion. Shaping society is greatly facilitated when the initiative of parliamentarians is combined with the work of voluntary Christian associations, for that allows communal values to be energised by the vitality of lived faith. So, if you in the colonies come to esteem the separation of Church and State, make sure that you do not inoculate the political and public domains against the infection of faith.
Professor Stuat Piggin’s address was hosted by Senator Guy Barnett to celebrate the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. See: William Wilberforce, the Clapham Cabinet and ‘Liberating the Captives’ in Australia.
And an earlier post on this article: Wilberforce and Co. ‘Liberating the Captives‘.
