New survey will reveal Christians’ voting intentions
RESULTS OF A SURVEY OF CHRISTIANS’ POLITICAL VIEWS WILL REVEAL THAT THOSE SURVEYED REALLY DO WANT THE BEST RESULT FOR EVERYONE.
Dr Dave Landrum, director of advocacy at the Evangelical Alliance, which conducted the survey, tells HEART OF SUSSEX that the results reveal that evangelical Christians intend to use their vote to support politicians who back issues that benefit the common good rather than personal gain. These issues, he said, were almost diametrically opposed to those held by the general population and some politicians.
At the same time, there are two particular issues which may cause politicians to lose significant support.
Eighty per cent of those surveyed have said that will certainly be voting – that’s nearly double the national average – while another 14 per cent say they are ‘likely” to vote.
The people the politicians really need to listen to, though, are the nearly two million nationally who are still undecided, according to the survey. Taken as being representative of the population as a whole, nearly a quarter of those surveyed intend to ‘show up’ but are undecided.
For the Faith in Politics? survey, the Evangelical Alliance quizzed 2,020 evangelical Christians online in August/September 2014. The results, showing how Christians intend to use their vote as compared to 2010 and why, will be published on 19 February at www.eauk.org/surveys.
Meanwhile, the Evangelical Alliance and Christians in Politics have organised the Show Up campaign, to encourage Christians to get out and vote. They say that Jesus never shied away from engaging or commenting on issues of the day and so Christians also ought to engage in the political process.
“As Christians, we have spent too long shouting from the sidelines rather than getting on the pitch of political life,” says Andy Flannagan of Christians in Politics.
Details of the Show Up campaign, supported by 30 organisations, are available at http://election2015.eauk.org/. The Show Up video is available for churches to download and show in church or publish on their websites free of cost.