Yesterday, the citizens of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.
In no particular order, here are a few thoughts on where we go from here.
1. Rebuilding Trust
I was appalled at the campaigns run by both the "Remain" and the "Leave" camps. Both were largely ad-hominem attacks on proponents of the opposing viewpoint, saying whatever would be likely to swing a vote rather than encouraging us to engage intelligently with the real issues.
The referendum debate was a cross-party issue. All of the main political parties had MPs and grass-roots members taking differing sides. This means that, at all levels of community, people who were used to seeing eye-to-eye were on the opposite sides of the debate. And, because of the way the debate was conducted, people were making sweeping and insulting remarks about those who would normally be friends, taking swipes at the proverbial straw man.
This affects churches too. In saying "people who were used to seeing eye-to-eye", I include members of local churches in that. One reason I remained relatively silent in the run-up to the vote was that I could see this was an issue where a Christian conscience genuinely could vote either way. Christian friends of mine who were most helpful in sharing their thinking did not offer their own one-sided view of the matter, but articulated the genuine dilemmas they found themselves facing. Indeed, I did not trust anyone who claimed to offer "the Christian view" on this, if that singular Christian view turned out to point only in one direction. It was a genuine wisdom-call, with strong arguments pushing in both directions.
Recognising that Christian consciences will sincerely pull in different directions should lead to Christians humbly disagreeing over this matter. Sadly, because of the acrimony of the political campaigns, this won't always be so.
The urgent need now is to rebuild the trust that was there before. Friends who took a different view of the referendum question remain friends. And now the decision is made, there is nothing to fall out over.
Indeed, speaking of the Jew-Gentile division of the first Century, Paul could say of the death of Jesus that he "destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14). That "dividing wall" was a very specific one, but nevertheless the death of Jesus unites us into a new humanity in spite of everything that causes divisions in the world outside the church. Christian churches need to be at the forefront of rebuilding friendship, fellowship and trust.
2. Welcome the Foreigner
I've said that the debate was marked by smoke screens, and by generating heat rather than light. More specifically, both campaigns appealed to people's fears. The "remain" camp urged us to vote for them, stoking a fear of economic collapse if we didn't. The "leave" camp urged us to vote for them, stoking a fear of uncontrolled migration.
That means that, in order to try to win votes, the "leave" camp engineered in many people a deep-seated fear of those from other lands.
Whatever the outcome of the vote, migration and immigration would need to be issues we continue to work through in this country. The government will need policies to determine who is, and who is not, allowed to move or live here, on what terms, and for what duration. All we were deciding was what role EU policy would play in that, not in whether or not we would need migration policies.
Unless you work in government for some way, you will not have a role at that level. We do all have friends, neighbours, work colleagues, and maybe family who come from other nations (either as recent arrivals, or second or third generation immigrants).
A key virtue in biblical Christianity is hospitality, the opposite of xenophobia being xenophilia (or, more accurately, philoxenia, but it doesn't quite have the same ring!) - the biblical word for hospitality. You'll find it in Romans 12:13, in 1 Timothy 5:10 and in 1 Peter 4:9, for example. The Old Testament is even clearer. Here's Leviticus 19:34: "You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
Regardless of what migration policies get set by central governments, there will always be foreigners amongst us. The Christian attitude is that we are to welcome strangers, and to be hospitable. Secular pluralism offers only weak and fragile grounds for this; Christian hospitality - which starts with God welcoming us when we were strangers (back to Ephesians 2:19 again, where the same xenos word group occurs) - offers a solid basis.
But there is a massive risk. The risk is that the "leave" campaign of fear has somehow got into our bones, and we find ourselves regarding those from other lands with a fear and a distrust we did not before the campaign began. We must not let that happen.
3. Weep with those who weep
The EU Referendum result was always going to be close. Throughout the campaign, the only thing you could learn from the polls was that it was too close to call.
That meant that, whatever happened, only a little under 50% of the population would be deeply disappointed with the result. As it turned out, 48% voted "remain" and 52% voted "leave" - enough of a margin to make any thought of a recount unnecessary, but close enough. That's 48% of the 70% turnout who did not get what they wanted.
As noted above, feelings have run very deep over this decision. For all that, in good conscience, Christian people could have voted either way, and for all that many Christians voted after much soul-searching and with great difficulties, others were much clearer. Others were much clearer in their own minds - that being true of both convictions.
That means that there are a lot of very bruised, very disappointed, very worried people in Britain today, including in our churches. This is not the time to enter "smug mode". Whatever your own position, it's time to get alongside those who feel disappointed, to try and see things how they do, and even literally to weep with them over what happened.
4. Don't Panic, Pray
There are a lot of uncertainties. There are so many details to be worked through on so many issues - from migration, to trade deals, to tax treaties, to VAT. Then there are policies that are currently set for us by EU policy that will now need working out, one by one, on our own - do we unilaterally adopt the same policy, or do we want something different?
The financial and currency markets have been very volatile today, and will be so for some time. This is in spite of the fact that, today, nothing has yet changed. Indeed, nothing in terms of actual economic policy will change for some months. The markets react to everything that people know about what's coming, which is why the markets have moved already, but most of the actual details are still to be decided.
Then we need to add fear to this uncertainty. If the fears peddled by the "leave" campaign are in danger of making us frightened of foreigners, the fears peddled by the "remain" campaign are in danger of making us frightened about what happens now. Might the "remain" worst-case economic scenario be about to happen?
It's tempting to panic. Instead we must pray. We must pray especially for wisdom for all the policy and decision makers who have a long few years ahead of them. We must pray for our European neighbours who are now facing calls for similar votes in their lands but from quite sinister quarters.
5. The United Kingdom is not Sovereign
Nigel Farage called today "Independence Day". Many have been thinking and talking of this decision as being about restoring our national sovereignty. So, as Christians, we must remember that the United Kingdom and its government are not sovereign. We may have reconfigured our relationship with our European neighbours, but that does not make us sovereign. All national sovereignty is contingent upon the ultimate and unquestioned sovereignty of God the Father, and of his ascended Son Jesus who now sits at his right hand. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him (Matthew 28:18).
This means that, as a nation, we must not start acting with even greater arrogance than we had before. As our government makes decisions, it must always remember that they are themselves under authority. Daniel 2-7 portrays God vividly as the one who deposes and who builds up kingdoms. Lest we think that's only Old Testament language, Mary's song in Luke 1:46-53 says much the same. If we now act as a nation that is "independent" and "sovereign" in a total(itarian) sense, God only has to stamp his foot and the United Kingdom could become yesterday's nation.
More to the point, we Christians must not put our hopes on the well-being of our society — either on our independence from Europe (so that now things really can get better), or on our relationship with Europe (so that we now panic because things are going to go downhill fast). The well-being of our society all hangs on our relationship with the One that Matters. Let's make sure our hopes are pinned there, and then work for the good of our society within that framework.
Postscript
The last word really goes to Roy Hodgson. For as long as we're entitled to play in the European Championships, let's do it. We've just qualified to the knockout stage of this year's tournament. Now let's go and win it.
Add new comment