by Graham Catlin, TCW:

AT the time of writing, both France and the United Kingdom are in the throes of elections with historic implications. Putin is trashing Ukraine, where Zelensky has dictatorially cancelled presidential elections. Fundamentalist Iran is in the process of electing a new president and China wants Taiwan and the South China Seas. Later this year, the USA will relive the angst of the 2020 presidential election – and possibly much worse. Everywhere there is a clash between the new and the old order. Progressives and Conservatives are implacably opposed. The fundamental fault lines of the world’s political geography are being exposed, and the simmering tensions everywhere raise the menace of political earthquakes, by which I mean war.

So how should Christians view these developments?

It is vital to assess standpoint – the position from which we view the world. Perspective determines our grasp of reality and whether that understanding actually makes practical sense.

To take a specific example, the view of western progressives means that they refuse to face the reality the rest of us have to live with – they persist with a human-centred ideological perspective and paradigm which cannot grasp how to handle the real world. In France right now, the hard Left is on the streets issuing threats of actual violence because its ideological bogeyman could form the next government. Even though the peaceful process of elections to settle conflict and avoid war is actually taking place, the hard Left is filled with righteous anger and sees itself as fully justified in refusing the verdict of the ballot box. Its Marxist, materialist inspiration is exposed and it sees itself as fully justified in taking any measures at all to stop the ‘fascist’ Rassemblement National.