This week three news stories drew my attention. Together they paint a concerning picture of Britain\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
The first was the report from The Health Foundation that healthy life expectancy (HLE) in the UK is falling.[i]\u00a0Overall life expectancy has not changed over the last decade, but on average people are living with good health for two years less than they were ten years ago.<\/p>\n
Overall life expectancy in the UK has not changed over the last decade, but on average people are living with good health for two years less than they were ten years ago<\/p>\n
Worryingly, the UK was ranked 20 out of 21 developed countries for HLE, with only the USA performing worse. The gap in HLE between richer people and those who are less well-off was also pronounced, with a differential of almost 20 years between different parts of the country.<\/p>\n
All Evangelical Focus news and opinion,\u00a0on your WhatsApp<\/a>.<\/p>\n Factors behind the fall in HLE include rising levels of poor mental health in young people, rising rates of obesity, poverty, poor housing, insecure work, and long delays in diagnosis and treatment, particularly for women.[ii]<\/p>\n The second story was the report by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) on projections for the UK population in coming years.[iii]\u00a0<\/p>\n If current trends in births, deaths, immigration and emigration continue, the UK population is projected to grow by 1.7 million in the decade after 2024, reaching 71 million by 2034.<\/p>\n Previous projections were for the population in 2034 to approach 80 million. Immigration is expected to add 7.3 million people in this period, outnumbering those who emigrate by 2.2 million.<\/p>\n But deaths are expected to outnumber births every year, with 6.4 million people being born and 6.9 million dying. Women are having fewer children and having them later in life.<\/p>\n The UK is experiencing a measurable decline in the conditions that sustain a healthy, cohesive, and future\u00a0oriented society<\/p>\n Taken together, these stories paint a concerning picture. There will be increasing pressure on public services, especially social care and end of life care, and on pension funds, with a smaller proportion of the population working.<\/p>\n The challenges for future governments are significant. There is little evidence that incentives to have more children work and the current tensions over immigration and rise in Christian Nationalism \u2013 as I have discussed elsewhere\u00a0[iv]\u00a0– could intensify as the percentage of the population born overseas continues to increase.<\/p>\n I do not want to be a prophet of doom and gloom, but I suggest that these are indicators of a civilisation in decline.<\/p>\n To be absolutely clear, I am not saying that immigration is contributing to that \u2013 such claims fail to grapple with the problems in our settled community and it is clear that we need immigration if we are to avoid a falling population, which would be much more problematic.<\/p>\n Put less starkly, the UK is experiencing a measurable decline in the conditions that sustain a healthy, cohesive, future\u00a0oriented society.<\/p>\n Against this backdrop, the third story was a delight to read. The BBC ran it online under the headline: \u2018Faith, fish & chips and Facebook\u2019 – life at 103.[v]\u00a0<\/p>\n This was the story of one woman, Margaret Norris from Rotherham, who has been able to live independently at home because of community nursing.<\/p>\n This is exactly the kind of care that will be increasingly challenging to provide in the future if the ONS projections prove correct. But what drew me to Margaret\u2019s story was the word \u2018faith\u2019 in the headline.<\/p>\n She and her 74-year-old daughter are both Christians. It is a brief comment in the article, but worthy of note.<\/p>\n Without romanticising the past, I think we can see Margaret as the embodiment of a Britain that is disappearing.<\/p>\n A lady deeply formed by Christian faith, living with hope and love in relationship with Christ, and supported through strong intergenerational family bonds.<\/p>\n A lady who has lived through two world wars and a period of remarkable improvements in life expectancy and general health, whose life is rooted in community and now supported by community care.<\/p>\n She was part of a generation that saw sacrifice and duty \u2013 rooted in accountability to the God who sacrificed Himself \u2013 as the roots of hope for the future.<\/p>\n The advances that drove improving health were inspired by Christian faith. The values that underpinned a caring society, the dignity of every human life and the goodness of compassion, were distinctively Christian too<\/p>\n Margaret\u2019s life is a testimony to the goodness of Christian faith, for the evidence is clear that Christian faith is correlated with better physical and mental health \u2013 both at an individual level and at a societal level.[vi]\u00a0<\/p>\n The advances that drove improving health \u2013 modern medical science \u2013 were inspired by Christian faith. The values that underpinned a caring society \u2013 the dignity of every human life and the goodness of compassion \u2013 were distinctively Christian too. And the decline in those values has coincided with the deterioration in mental health and the fall in birth rates.<\/p>\n There is certainly reason to be concerned about Britain\u2019s future. Declining health reflects the erosion of the social goods that once sustained communities.<\/p>\n Falling birth rates reflect a loss of confidence, stability, and shared purpose.<\/p>\n But in the midst of this picture, Margaret\u2019s God still reigns and the gospel is still powerful. We are seeing varied and repeated signs of renewed spiritual interest among younger people, even if talk of a \u201cquiet revival\u201d proves premature.<\/p>\n Above all, we have the certain hope that Christ is coming again, and in the fullness of His kingdom the challenges that trouble our society will be no more.<\/p>\n The ONS has been careful to stress that its figures for deaths, births, and migration are projections, not predictions. They can extrapolate from the present, but they cannot foresee the future.<\/p>\n Social values may shift. Government policies may change. Unexpected events may reshape the landscape. Their work is necessarily provisional.<\/p>\n Let us live as people of hope, not na\u00efve about the state of our society, but confident in the reign of Christ and committed to the work He has entrusted to us<\/p>\n Christians, however, can make one prediction with absolute certainty: the Day of the Lord is coming. Christ will return in glory.<\/p>\n Peter puts it starkly in 2 Peter 3:10:<\/p>\n \u201cThe day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar\u2026 and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n What lies ahead is not a new policy initiative or a marginal improvement in public services, but a revolutionary remaking of reality. A new creation in which God\u2019s people will live in resurrection bodies.<\/p>\n An imperishable world for imperishable people. No more ageing, no more physical or mental illness, no more death. And, most theologians would agree, no more migration or birth rates to analyse \u2014 for there is no marriage in heaven and the whole world will be one under the reign of Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n Peter wrote these words almost two millennia ago. That may feel like a long delay in Christ\u2019s return, but Peter tells us exactly why God waits (2 Peter 3:9):<\/p>\n \u201cThe Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise\u2026 but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.\u201d<\/p>\n God\u2019s apparent slowness is mercy. His patience gives hope for salvation.<\/p>\n So Christians live with a double posture: certain hope for the future and a mission of hope in the present. We proclaim Christ so that some who would otherwise perish may come to repentance and share in the glory that is coming.<\/p>\n Let us, then, live as people of hope, not na\u00efve about the state of our society, but confident in the reign of Christ and committed to the work He has entrusted to us.<\/p>\n Paul Coulter, author, executive director of the Centre for Christianity in Society in Northern Ireland. This article was first published on the author’s blog,\u00a0Connected Christianity<\/a>.\u00a0If you would like to be informed when the Christian Leadership Integrity Commitments are released, please\u00a0subscribe to this blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n [i]\u00a0https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c20q07w3gl9o<\/a><\/p>\n [ii]\u00a0Healthy life expectancy has fallen in the UK \u2013 here\u2019s who is worse off | The Independent<\/a><\/p>\n [iii]\u00a0https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/ckgpjd2zzl8o<\/a><\/p>\n [iv]\u00a0See my three part series on Christian Nationalism starting here<\/a><\/p>\n [v]\u00a0https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cvgej1p97dgo<\/a><\/p>\n