Christian MSP Kate Forbes announced earlier this week her intention to step back from the world of politics in order to spend more time with her family.
It has not been an easy ride for her over the past few years, but when she stands down at the Scottish election next year, she will do so with the admiration of Christians across the UK. Politics can be a difficult space to be in, especially as a Christian, but Forbes has shown great courage and grace throughout her time in the public eye.
The Deputy First Minister of Scotland has been one of the most prominent Christian politicians in the UK in recent years, and has publicly spoken of her faith and how it has impacted how she has voted on issues and engaged with colleagues and opponents.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile”Romans 1:16
In 2021, when speaking on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, Forbes said: “To be straight, I believe in the person of Jesus Christ.
“I believe that he died for me, he saved me and that my calling is to serve and to love him and to serve and love my neighbours with all my heart and soul and mind and strength.
“So that for me is essential to my being. Politics will pass – I am a person before I was a politician and that person will continue to believe that I am made in the image of God.”
Possibly Forbes’s biggest test came in 2023, when she came under attack from secularists during her run in the SNP leadership contest. As a member of the Free Church of Scotland, she holds to biblical teaching on sex and marriage, which some claimed made her unfit for high office.
She came second in the race, and encouraged people of faith not to allow fear to push them out of politics. She said “people of faith are a minority” in politics, and “certainly my experience is that they are, by and large, fearful. So they either feel like they have to hide their faith or they have to adapt their faith. And that, I think, is a cause for concern.”
Forbes said, despite the repeated attacks she experienced during the leadership contest, she would not make her biblical stance on sexual ethics “more palatable or politically correct”.
In a later interview reflecting on that heated campaign, she emphasised that the Equality Act 2010 has to protect everyone, including Christians. “If the Equality Act exists it must exist for every role in society. It doesn’t just exist for the cleaner or the teacher. Surely it also exists for the First Minister of Scotland or for those who aspire to be. Religious faith, as with other characteristics in the Equality Act, is protected.”
Christianity cannot be a private faith, it must touch every part of our lives. Having people with a strong faith in Jesus at the heart of our nation’s decision making is a tremendous blessing for society. And for us as Christians, knowing there are politicians who we trust are praying and seeking God’s will in their important roles is a great encouragement.
We pray that many more Christians will be emboldened to follow Kate Forbes’s example and go into politics, not hiding their love of Jesus out of fear of disapproval, but showing how their faith makes them a better leader and elected representative as they follow Jesus’s wise and transformative example.
“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people — for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour”1 Timothy 2:1-3
Humphrey Dobson
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