In trying to form a Christian perspective on today EU’s referendum, it is important to consider the following facts:
* The Abortion Act of 1967 was passed by the United Kingdom Parliament before this country joined the then European Economic Community in 1973. Since 1967 more than eight million unborn children have been killed in the UK. This devastating evil cannot be pinned on the institution that morphed into the European Union. The legislation unleashing it was passed by Members of Parliament elected under universal suffrage.
* The death penalty was abolished in Great Britain by Parliament in 1965, again before the UK joined the EEC. This has very arguably demeaned the value of human life by violating the biblical principle that ‘Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man’ (Genesis 9v6 – King James Version).
* The culture of easy divorce contrary to the Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching in the Gospels about the lifelong permanence of the God-created institution of one-man, one-woman marriage gained momentum in British society in the 1960s, again before this country joined the EEC. This drastic change in social attitude, coupled with the drive by the British State through the educational system to overturn traditional sexual mores, has resulted in untold misery for many millions of children and is arguably responsible to a considerable degree for the profound emotional and psychological confusion experienced by many young Millennials today.
* Prior to EEC membership, socially Marxist multiculturalism, which has allowed the precepts of Islam to gain increasing influence in our country, took ideological root among the fashionable 1960s intelligentsia, spawning the politically correct establishment now running Britain. While many British Muslims do not incline to violence, a minority are prone to jihadism. A minority within this minority do pose a serious threat to Britain as, to quote the Book of Common Prayer, a ‘godly and quietly governed’ nation.
So, the EU is not responsible for these terrible evils in British society. These were self-inflicted during the 1960s.
Could these evils be more easily reversed or at least counter-acted by Britain’s departure from the EU? That is certainly a vital question for the Christian-minded voter to ask him or herself, but it is difficult to be dogmatic about the answer to it. Practitioners of the permissive society as well as appeasers of political correctness seem to be well represented in both the Remain and Leave Camps.
Today’s is unquestionably a vital vote for Britain’s political future, Lord willing, But, whatever the result today, surely we Christian Britons should be determined to commend some serious soul-searching to our fellow countrymen and women and press the question: which is spiritually and morally preferable – the people-loving mind of Jesus Christ our Lord as revealed in the Christian Bible or the destructive post-Christian narcissism of the permissive society?
The Church of England’s Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Trinity (this year June 19th) seems particularly pertinent in this crucial week for our country:
‘O GOD, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal: Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake our Lord. Amen.’
