Is Conservatism born out of Socialism?

Canvassing: Reh and Me in Watling

FANTASTIC! Not only do I get a ten minute lecture from a life-long Socialist whilst canvassing, he actually made me think!

I mean, really, what kind of a person forces a 17 year-old to think in the middle of the summer holidays, when all they should be doing is relaxing and doing a summer job (still looking, by the way, any most offers welcome!)?

Don’t misunderstand me on this one: he didn’t make me question my beliefs. They are as strong as they have ever been (and his remarks on immigration only fuelled my beliefs further, but that is another story). He did something much worse, he made me question the origins of my ideology.

For longer than anyone cares to remember the Church of England has been described as the Tory Party at Prayer. Modern Conservatives (though more inclusive than the 19th-Century Tory Party) are still quite religious folk (well as religious as anyone in modern society). Accompanying Reh to St Mark’s Church last Sunday proved that (though they weren’t all Conservatives, a few people we spoke to were).

However, the guy who decided he would lecture me (as a young, “misguided” soul, he obviously thought he could turn me before it was too late – how wrong he was!) left a slight impression upon me, when he quite rightfully declared that we Conservatives go to Church every Sunday to worship the greatest ever Socialist: Jesus Christ.

Not meaning to unecessarily confuse politics with religion, and to state it in the simplest possible terms, the guy had a point! If one were to define Jesus’ actions using the political spectrum, then He would be the perfect Socialist: infallibly promoting true equality and helping your fellow man (the feeding of the five thousand could be considered when discussing the welfare state – a Socialist adventure – for example).

Though Jesus was not a political figure – He was the Saviour of mankind – many lessons can be learnt from His life, both religiously and politically. I won’t delve deeply into them now (mainly as I want to sleep), but it is an idea worth thinking about in the future.

The real focus for this post (the first to be posted on both my primary blog and my myspace blog) is the idea of the origins of Conservatism. Could it be argued that it was born out of Socialism (or even vica-versa)?

I would personally suggest not. There are many similarities between the ideologies, the aspects where the two meet in the middle (without turning into Liberalism). For example, one cannot argue that small “c” conservatives are monsters because they would leave a dying man to die alone when they could possibly attempt to save him.

The conservatives as Christians were morally influenced by the teachings of the Bible (though these may only be negligible now) and modern Conservatives, “Cameron’s Conservatives” embrace Social Responsibility, the 21st-Century definition of “love thy neighbour”.

So it may well be one thing to compare Jesus to Socialism, but it is important to remember that we are considering that idea based on a relatively modern political spectrum – certainly one not around at the time of Jesus Christ – so I think that it is absurd to consider one’s religious background (bearing in mind the aspect being considered was 2000 years ago) being relative to the origins of one’s political ideology (within the last 200 years).

Jesus was not a political figure and Chrisitians of all political beliefs certainly do not enter a Church and think to themselves “hmm, I wonder if Jesus would be a member of the Labour Party if he was around now?”

It is certainly not something I will be confronting Canon John Saunders with tomorrow!