A silent counter-revolution, and lessons for the church
by Andrew Symes, Anglican Mainstream.
In the early morning of Friday 24th June we learned that the UK had voted to leave the European Union. There has been an avalanche of comment from both sides in the debate, some of it strong but reasoned (see our digest of articles which is regularly updated.)
Ugly and angry reaction is in evidence as well. Social and broadsheet media appears to be awash with accusations and recriminations from both sides. For example, some extremists from Remain are demanding that Parliament ignore or re-run the democratic vote; some Brexiteers are launching into intemperate attacks on the EU when we will soon have to work out new ways of doing business with this institution of which we will no longer be a part!
The response from politicians in Westminster, the vast majority of whom voted to remain in the EU, has been largely impressive. Although the Scottish Nationalists are inevitably using the result to push for another move towards independence (two thirds of Scots want to remain in the EU), Conservative and Labour MP’s unanimously pledged to respect the decision of the British people and to work to deliver the new vision of what our nation will look like.
The Church of England will have a part to play in this. A short statement by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York focused on the need for unity, and to ensure that immigrants living here are made to feel welcome. This is particularly important as stories begin to emerge in the media about isolated racist incidents around the country. It’s right that those Christians who supported Remain should continue to ask searching questions about the detail of vision and plans for the future of the country, and how ways need to be found not to turn our back on our neighbours in our new-found independence. Likewise those who voted “out” have a right to reject unfair blanket accusations of idiocy and xenophobia, and continue to remind the powerful of the need to be accountable to ordinary people.
From both sides while we may disagree strongly (but courteously) about politics, Christians should be able to affirm that according to Jesus (Mark 12:13-17), God is the ultimate authority. So the question of who makes the laws in our nation is only secondary – the primary issue is not whether our Parliament and which party is sovereign in our nation, but whether the triune God is sovereign in my life and the lives of my fellow citizens.
What it this extraordinary event that has happened? Is it a revolution, as some have argued? A fascinating analysis of the results carried out by Michael Ashcroft’s polling organization shows some social trends with which we are now all familiar: The more affluent were happier with the status quo; the less well-off wanted to take their chances with a new system. That’s the normal dynamic of revolution. But unusually for an overturning of power, the majority of young people voted to remain in the EU, while most older people voted to leave. This section of the poll, on social attitudes, perhaps shows the starkest division now in British life. A majority of those who voted ‘leave’ said that they were unhappy about a package of modern ‘socially liberal’ ideas, for example multiculturalism, the internet, globalization, feminism, green issues and gay marriage. Clearly in the minds of many, these ‘politically correct’ axioms have become associated with an out-of-touch elite in London, and the project of European integration. Likewise, a large majority of ‘Remainers’ are socially liberal.
The vote, then, was not just about the specifics of membership of the EU but was about a whole group of concepts broadly and historically associated with ‘left’ and ‘right’ but which are much more about philosophy of life and community identity than politics or economics. Not so much a revolution, perhaps, as a counter-revolution, as a large number of people seem to be demanding an end to the revolutionary experiment of political correctness, rightly or wrongly associated with the EU, and a return to more conservative values.
In terms of the Church of England and its mission, this cuts right against the received wisdom which says that to be effective in reaching the nation, the church has to be ‘relevant’ especially to young people. Influential sociologist Linda Woodhead has long argued that the church is declining because it’s leaders and messages are socially conservative (for example, calling God ‘Father’ and only very recently allowing women to be Bishops), but politically liberal (eg supporting a generous welfare state). This is out of touch with the public, according to Woodhead, who are conservative in their politics, and liberal in their views of how people should live their personal lives.
In terms of the Church of England and the sexuality debate, the Pilling Report, the various documents prepared as background reading for the Shared Conversations, and recently released books (see for example here and here), arguing for the Church’s full acceptance of homosexual relationships all follow this assumption. The vast majority of people in the country are liberal in their sexual ethics, the argument goes, and it is because the Church puts its head in the sand and continues to maintain an old-fashioned conservative stance on sex and marriage, people have left the church and will not listen to the Church’s message on God’s love. In fact some go further, such as Bishop Paul Bayes of Liverpool, who says the direction of mission should be from the world to the Church: it is the sexual revolution of the West which reveals God’s love in a fresh way, and the Church needs to understand and welcome this.
But the Referendum result means that the sociologists, missiologists and Bishops might need a re-think. They can no longer assume that a large majority of Britons are attracted by a church opening up to recent ideas deriving from a cultural leftist agenda, such as celebration of gay relationships. It may be, in fact, that while some may have left the church because of conservatism, others, perhaps more, may have seen the Church of England as lacking confidence in its own beliefs in a transcendent God with his own unchanging standards and Gospel, and instead merely reflecting the politically correct culture – and as we have learned, that may be relevant to less than half the nation.
I perhaps need to say that I am not therefore advocating that the Church of England should alter course by uncritically taking on board a package of ideas associated with leaving the EU, UKIP or the right of the Conservative party. Rather on each issue Christians must let the Bible be their guide, rather than the pronouncements of personalities, parties or factions. It also needs to be said that the Brexit vote will not automatically be good for Christian mission as the reasons for church decline are many and complex, with young people remaining a particular focus. There are massive challenges ahead, but the shaking up of the system may result in a new openness to the Gospel.
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