I must have heard hundreds of church sermons over the years.

Some have been good, some bad, some indifferent.

But the best of sermons are invariably about how the message of the Bible has practical relevance to our life today; crucially, about how we treat everyone else in our society, especially those we don’t like.

That’s summed up by the question posed by Jesus Christ in St Luke’s Gospel.

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“Who is your neighbour?”.

For an answer, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. A traveller is stripped and beaten, left for dead by the side of the road. A priest and a Levite (regarded as “good”) ignore the man, passing by on the other side of the road. To the shock and surprise of Jesus’ audience, the person who saves the traveller is a Samaritan, an outsider, despised by the society from which Jesus came.

So powerful is this story that it’s been absorbed into our everyday, apparently ‘non-religious’ norms for life. The Samaritans, that wonderful charity which has saved so many from imminent suicide (and founded by the Rev’d Chad Varah, who was the vicar of the Holy Trinity Church, Blackburn from 1942-47) takes its name from the parable. Few who in their desperation phone for help will know that. In any event, the Samaritans are not remotely preachy. They do an astonishing job for anyone who is in need, regardless of their faith or none.

I make this point to underline that religion cannot be divorced from the rest of our lives – and especially not from politics.

Yesterday, England’s Anglican Bishops issued a long parochial letter about the forthcoming General Election. Its title “Who is my neighbour?” is drawn from that same parable of the Good Samaritan.

Some have turned on the Bishops, and suggested that their letter is come kind of party manifesto – though I’m glad that none of the main party leaders has done so.

No party has a monopoly of virtue, nor can copyright religious values.

Non-conformist churches, especially, were very influential in the development of both the Liberal, and Labour parties. But there were and are no fewer decent church people in the Conservative Party, and other parties within the mainstream. The Bishops’ letter reflects this, when it says that “Anglicans do not have a single view on which party has the best mix of answers to today’s problems…Most politicians and pundits are happy enough for the churches to speak on political issues as long as the church agrees with their particular line. But Christian engagement with political issues has to go deeper than [that]”.

If this excellent letter were heeded, it’s our politics which would be better. The letter deserves widest audience.