It sounds almost naïve to say it but perhaps over the next 10, 20, 30 years the whole culture of British society in the UK might shift from being based on individualism and materialism to being based on relationships. We are just starting to see some signs that that could conceivably happen. Firstly, Michael Gove gave a speech on August 4 on the politics of relationships, in which he talked about the need to see children, schools and society from a relationships point of view. Then Lindsay Tanner, the Minister of Finance in Australia, who is not a Christian, said he felt Relational Thinking has a key role to play in a post-capitalist political environment.
CT: How do you see Relational Thinking working within multi-cultural Britain? How do we project a biblical vision onto a society that is becoming increasingly pluralistic?
MS: I think that the most Christians can hope for is to have a cultural framework of thinking for their schools, hospitals, companies and prisons and so on, that comes out of biblical ideas, but which is inclusive.
We can't have something which is exclusively Christian because we are not a big enough proportion of the population. But if we could have something that grows out of Christian roots and ideas but which is able to accommodate people coming from many different positions, then that would take people towards the Gospel as opposed to away from the Gospel.
An emphasis on relationships, and defining what we mean by good relationships with an eye to Christian teaching, takes people away from materialism and individualism. Christianity is about a relationship between God and people. What Christianity is saying is that these relationships are the most important things in the world because God Himself is relational - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
If you are thinking and talking relationships all day at work or at school and someone comes along with a relational message and says this is the key to the universe, it makes a lot of sense. But if you have been talking economics and money all day and then you come along and say that the key to the universe has nothing to do with money but it's about relationships, people say 'What?!'. It just has no connection.
CT: Jubilee Centre has engaged with many different social issues over the last 25 years, globalism, materialism, individualism, family, to name a few. But which of the many challenges do you think we have to tackle first?
MS: I think the main symptom of relational distress is the breakdown of marriage and what is happening both to children and older people. Malachi 4:6 - 7 comes to mind. I think there are six or seven major drivers behind the breakdown in marriage and the family and they include long and unsocial working hours, debt - because debt breaks up families like nothing else - the tax system, and corporate structures which mean that the people running companies have little connection with their employees. They therefore have little idea of what the daily life of their employees involves, and therefore what the effects are of their decisions on those employees. They just have to satisfy the needs of their shareholders.
