Westminster 2010 Declaration of Christian Conscience - Newsletter #4

The Westminster 2010 Declaration of Christian Conscience now has gathered over 65,000 signatures and over 8,500 ‘Facebook fans’ since its launch on 4 April (Easter Sunday).

The election has resulted in a coalition ‘Lib-Con’ government but also a parliament that is better balanced on Christian conscience issues. Overall we lost 63 MPs with poor voting records but only 10 MPs with good voting records.

Of over 200 new MPs 32 made the Westminster pledge to ‘respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold and express Christian beliefs and act according to Christian conscience’. A further 38 were judged ‘supportive’ on the basis of their emails and public statements.

Overall, we know of 24 new MPs who are Christians including nine members of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and one from the Christian Socialist movement.

From the 250 marginal seats where we made a ‘preferred candidate’ recommendation 96 of our gold star candidates and 38 of our silver stars (tactical votes) came through some with big swings.

In Oxford West and Abingdon, Nicola Blackwood (Conservative), an evangelical Christian, edged out outspoken secularist MP Evan Harris with a 6.9% swing. But in Westmoreland another Christian Tim Farron (Lib Dem) held his seat with an 11.1% swing against the opposing Conservative candidate.

There is a full list of elected candidates on our candidates’ page where you can also check how we graded them. See the key on our blog.

The real impact of the Christian vote in this election will require more detailed analysis – but Christians have been mobilised to vote on conscience issues in greater numbers than ever before. Hundreds of churches have sent in petition forms and thousands of people have written to local candidates to enquire where they stand. That can only be good.

What now?

1.Please keep gathering signatures – Send this email on to friends and encourage your Christian contacts to sign. Sign up forms and posters for churches can be printed from the homepage. Send them in to Westminster 2010, 8 Marshalsea Road, London SE1 1HL and help us on our drive to 100,000 signatures to present to the Prime Minister.

2.Please email any of the 300 candidates who signed the pledge via the candidates’ page and thank them. It’s very straight forward. Tick the box titled ‘show all candidates who have made pledge or are supportive’ and email anyone with a green tick using the standard email. Modify if you wish.

3.Join our Facebook page, follow the regular updates and join in the conversation.

4.Pray for all new MPs in these challenging times.

With thanks again for your support.

Warmly in Christ Jesus

Westminster 2010 Support Team