Membership and Affiliations
Political writers have asserted that the Christian Peoples Alliance wish to create an alternative to the perceived moral relativism of other parties in the United Kingdom, along the lines of Norway's Christian Democratic Party and Sweden's Christian Democrats — rather than a fundamentalist position. Since 2007 the party has been affiliated to the European Christian Political Movement including its Youth Network, an association of Christian Democrat parties, think tanks and politicians across Europe who also advocate a Christian Social view. When the CPA joined, Federal President of the party Stephen Hammond stated; "we want to learn from what other Christian parties are doing in their own countries, but also make a distinctive British contribution ourselves". It also has good relations and has received encouragement from various other Christian democrats, such as Andre Rouvoet of the Netherlands' ChristianUnion, Päivi Räsänen of Finland's Christian Democrats and Senator Rónán Mullen an independent member of Ireland's Seanad Éireann amongst others.
From its inception in 1999, the party has taken the bulk of its membership from, amongst others — Anglicans, Catholics, Evangelicals and the Black Churches. Some of the latter group splintered off in 2004 under George Hargreaves to found the Christian Party, which compared to the Christian Peoples Alliance has more of Christian right perspective. The two parties remain separate entities, but enter electoral pacts with each other as Christian Party-Christian Peoples Alliance. The Christian Peoples Alliance does not limit its electoral appeal to just Christians, it quotes one supporter saying "I don't believe in God, but I do believe in Christian values". It generally looks to a range of people who feel disenfranchised by the stances of existing parties. It has also gained support from some people of minority religions as an opposition to secularism, social breakdown and moral relativism.
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