by Martin Sewell
Trust is a most precious commodity in all walks of life, public private and personal. Readers of the Surviving Church blog will be painfully aware from the stories and opinions shared and discussed in this corner of the internet, how frequently matters of concern are rooted in such breaches, trust is plainly one of our most core values.
It is universal, and even transcends species. Many of us build bonds with our pets; guide dog owners place their very lives in the hands of their trusted companions and even wild ferocious animals occasionally enter into trust relationships with humans. When we see this we marvel at how trust overcomes justifiable suspicion and fear.
Trust permeates most of our human activities; the cheer leading young girl at the top of a human pyramid and the army private each places their trust in others, even putting their lives and well-being at risk. We expect it to be present in commercial relationships, friendships, families and social activities. We routinely trust our medical professionals, our transport providers our gas fitters and a multitude of others with whom we interact. It is the bedrock of civilised societies.
Those of us brought up in the immediate post war years recall those times with a fondness which later generations may find hard to comprehend. As children we would leave home for hours with our parents having little knowledge of where we were or what we were up to. My own father spoke of walking 2 miles unaccompanied to school in East London during the 1920s. This was not neglect but societal trust; there was an expectation of safety and an implied confidence in other adults to help if the infant needed help. If in doubt one was told to “ask a policeman”.
Such a cohesive trusting society was built in part by a community unified by a common faith and shared language but it was also shaped through the lens of two devastating world wars which, for all their destructive horror, had engendered a sense of unity and collective national identification and purpose. Servicemen in peril could not afford to be choosey about who afforded them help support or rescue and one was grateful for every part of the mechanism that was capable of prolonging life and returning one home.
We need to remind ourselves that Europe was delivered from the Nazi threat by a segregated army; nevertheless, young white soldiers from Mississippi or Alabama might not share facilities back home with their black black comrades, but when either did their duty and came to the others’ rescue there was a trust discharged and a shared sense of gratitude and success.
It was the same General Dwight Eisenhower who refused the distraction of desegregating an army in wartime, who as President sent the 101st Airborne to enforce school integration if Little Rock in 1954. Passing through the testing fire – “adversity survived” – brought people together. Those of us who lived in the trust society that continued for many years remember and should commend its virtues.
In sad contrast, we are currently in a very untrusting phase of our national life. There are greats tension across many parts of our modern society because trust has been degraded and betrayed; examples are to0 numerous to list but within the Establishment, the institutions of Monarchy, Church, Parliament, BBC etc there has been a massive undermining of trust within a relatively short period of time.
In part this is attributable to the speed of modern communication which facilitates disclosure, but we appear to be seeing a destruction of public trust at a faster rate than ever before. There have always been failures, but the pig headed refusal to respond adequately in many parts of the privileged culture has been thoroughly unhelpful.
There is another important strand within the problem; the cultural growth of atomised individualism. The philosophy of post-modernism has undermined confidence in our nation, culture and society; this was philosophically deliberate. Simultaneously migration has brought in communities that still operate largely on culturally cohesive principles. If “we Brits” ( whosoever we define that term ) have ceased to have trust in our own institutions and with one another, can anyone be surprised that there is a lack of trust of other communities, whether well integrated or not?
This is a big can of worms, the resolution of which is beyond the scope of one blog post.
It is also way beyond the Church of England, which is but one small part of a wider set of Christian and other faith communities, here and abroad. Unfortunately I do not expect its House of Bishops or General Synod to remain free from the kind performative pronouncements beyond their remit or expertise.
I hope the CofE becomes justifiably modest in what it thinks it can contribute to this debate on the Crisis of Trust in our national life.
There is good precedent for urging such an narrow focus.
It is all very well to point out to the specks in the eyes of other people but when it comes to the issue of trust, the Established Church has multiple beams in its own eye as this blog and its knowledgeable commentariat has well documented.
Speaking personally, and having seen Church of England governance at close quarters over several years at Synod, I am convinced that the this corner of the Establishment has much to be modest about. Drawing from that experience of close observation, my three pieces of advice to Church leaders are succinct.
- If you want to be taken seriously on the national stage, put your own house rapidly in order, with radical secular truthfulness as your core value. Bluntly – trust the Nolan Principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership over partisan theological exegesis.
2) If you want to be trusted – be trustworthy.
3) Be the Humble Church.
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