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UK's Close Election: Can Christians Save the Day?

CBN

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LONDON -- With this week's U.K. elections too close to call, candidates have been doing everything they can to sway votes in their favor, including engaging with the Christian community.

Recently, Prime Minister David Cameron addressed 45,000 believers at the Festival of Life all-night prayer gathering in London.

"Let us be proud that this is a Christian country, where we stand for the freedom to practice your faith," he told the audience.

And Labour leader Ed Milliband even promised to protect Christian freedoms if he's elected as the new prime minister.

"We see the persecution of Christians all around the world today. Eighty percent of religious persecution is of Christians. And one of the things that we've said is that we'll have an envoy for religious freedom based in the foreign office," Milliband said.

Not only are political leaders seeking the Christian vote, but Christian groups are encouraging believers to vote their values at the polls. Consequently, the Christian vote could be more meaningful to the outcome than ever before.

In the lead up to these elections many Christian organizations have been providing resources and campaigns to mobilize churches to vote for positive change.

Amelia Abplanalp is the public policy officer for the Evangelical Alliance

"The Show Up campaign is all about encouraging Christians to show up and vote on Thursday, but also to get engaged beyond the election," he explained. "Voting is really just a start of getting involved in politics. And we really do believe that Christians have a valuable contribution to make to politics."

Meanwhile, the organization Christian Concern has been seeking to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the election through their Power of the Cross campaign.

Christian Concern CEO Andrea Williams explained the greatest concerns when it comes to an erosion of Christian values and freedoms in the United Kingdom.

"We've seen a conservative prime minister say he wants to redefine marriage to include same-sex marriage because he's a conservative, not despite being a conservative. And he has been zealous in the pursuit of that," she told CBN News.

"So, in this election it's been vital that we tell the electorate exactly what it is that he's done and was determined to do," she said.

In an unprecedented move, black majority churches in the United Kingdom have united to make their voice heard by launching an election manifesto.

Ade Omoobo, co-founder of the National Church Leaders Forum, explained why it's so important for ethnic minority churches to engage in these elections more than ever before.

"There are constituencies in this election where the black vote could really swing the vote. But it's more to give the value of giving the vote back to our community," he said.

And just hours before the ballot stations opened, hundreds of believers gathered outside parliament last night to unite in prayer for the elections as part of the 7:14 Prayer Movement.

"We're here just to pray for Parliament, for an awakening because we really believe that this nation was founded on Biblical principles," one believer said.

"I'm here tonight to pray. Just being an ordinary come among the crowd and it's great to see different denominations, different groups united in prayer for this nation," another person said.

"We want to give the Lord every chance to move in this nation to bring about the government that He wants," someone else added.

"These elections are very important and I believe that they're a catalyst and a springboard for the will and the kingdom of God to be established in this nation," another believer said.

So as the U.K. elections remains too close to call, Christians are hoping and praying that their vote will make the cross count in returning to the country's Christian heritage.

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