91Èȱ¬

Good Morning and Happy New Year.

Politicians of faith, I reckon, come in two categories. For some, religion, be it held sincerely or as a convenience, provides a means to an end. It ensures the political endorsement of religious leaders, shores up electoral support among the devout, and helps paint opposing forces as enemies of the divine. Jimmy Carter, whose death was announced this week, was the other sort. The former US President’s deeply held Christian beliefs were, notwithstanding the margin to which they appear to have been relegated in some of his obituaries, the very essence of his life. Faith motivated both his time in office and over four decades of public and charitable service since. His life cannot be properly portrayed without his beliefs being at the fore.

Nearly two and a half million viewers have so far watched the 91Èȱ¬ TV serialisation of The Mirror and the Light, the final volume of Hilary Mantel’s epic trilogy about the life of Henry VIII’s statesman Thomas Cromwell. In a conversation I had with her a few years ago, I commented on how she manages to capture the religious faith and motivations of her characters, allowing us to understand them better, yet without reducing their faith to a caricature. Whilst she is not unique in that talent, the playwright Jimmy McGovern possesses a similar gift, too often religious motivation and inspiration is either absent from news, literature and drama, or deployed purely as a shallow reason for wrongdoing.

I can understand why some authors and journalists, in whose own lives religion may play little part, are tempted to take the easy way out, excluding faith and its impacts from their narratives. Yet to me, lack of personal faith offers a poor excuse. Some of the best writers and commentators on religious matters are not adherents of any particular religion, they are simply those willing to make the effort to understand a force that remains central to the lives of much of the world’s population.

Hilary Mantel’s reply to me at the time was that perhaps the task was less difficult for her, as a historical novelist, since religion in Tudor times clearly played a key part in affairs of state. It was a characteristically charitable response, but world events down the intervening years simply sharpen my conviction that faith, and the part it plays in the lives of leaders who wield great power, needs to be reckoned with. Not least, so that we can distinguish between those for whom faith provides a useful stepping stone on their path to power and such genuinely faith-inspired leaders as President Jimmy Carter.

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