Thinking Christianly about Brexit
by Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden, CEN:
Donald Tusk, the President of the EU recently began a speech: “Citizens of Europe”. Do such people exist`?
The Maastricht Treaty said “Every person holding nationality of a member state shall be a citizen of the Union”. The Amsterdam Treaty added: “Citizenship of the Union shall complement and not replace national citizenship.”
Identity
“The Europeanization of Citizenship” a term coined by Fiorella Dell’Olio detaches citizenship from culture, and democracy from a nation’s peoplehood and identity. Citizens of the EU would act on the basis of an identity different from that connected to their nationality. Thus the participation of a EU citizen is designed to be disconnected from his/her culture and history, in the belief that democratic participation in civic society does not need culture or history. While an EU citizenship might not replace a national citizenship, expressing both in practice is extremely difficult.
Some feel strongly about their history and culture as a people. This is seen as producing a nationalism that is abused by political interests for their own ends rather than for the common good. So multiculturalism is encouraged as a counter-weight to a nationalism seen as shaped by a majority culture.
Our practical action as citizens emerges from and is shaped by our national identity and habits of life developed over time in a particular historical context that constitutes its substance. Action as a European citizen in on the basis of some extracted universal principles that a community of nations has agreed on. That can at times be in conflict with and even override understanding of rights and the activities as a citizen developed in a particular culture.
Christians in the UK need to relate their Christian identity and their understanding of being citizens of the kingdom of God, their national identity as British and the identity as citizens of a supra national European union. In the recent referendum, the churches did not give adequate guidance as to how to negotiatie these identities.. Many Christians therefore voted on a range of criteria unrelated to their faith. Some leaders focused on universal principles of reconciliation and good neighborliness. The result caught them unawares.
In the middle of Brexit the challenge still remains as to how we relate our citizenship of heaven and our national identity. Brexit challenges us to think Christianly about our national identity and identity as citizens of heaven.
Two categories may inform the necessary reflection.
Citizenship
First, citizenship is about allegiance to who holds power. In Philippians 3.20 Paul writes: “Our citizenship is in heaven, from where we eagerly await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus rules now in heaven and will one day return to earth, as the one who “by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” My citizenship or the expression of my allegiance to a ruling power in this case is to the Lord of Lords. Our lives should reflect such allegiance.
Paul does not disavow his Roman citizenship. A Christian’s heavenly citizenship transforms without devaluing earthly citizenship through a dualistic mindset.
Paul follows his call to be transformed to show Christian love in Romans 12 with his call to be subject to government as God’s servant to do you good. Our ultimate calling enables us to make our civic decisions and be better citizens.
The future
Second our civic engagement cannot be separated from our witness to the gospel of the Kingdom. As a present reality to be consummated in the future the Kingdom helps us to see where history is going. When a political system moves away from what we believe to be the future that God has for his creation, and government is not for our good we need to address it. The exclusion of the religious and Christian heritage of Europe and the sense of the transcendent from its political realities, for example in the exclusion of any reference to its Christian heritage in its constitution, has made many Christians uncomfortable. Witness to the Kingdom means we need to say we cannot go further.
The Kingdom of God is directing history towards the future. This gives us the insights and instruments for political action and decision-making. The Church’s public witness must be clear, unambiguous and powerful.
Brexit challenges the Christian to affirm that while our identity and democracy is rooted in our history, culture and heritage, these should be directed by the coming Kingdom of God.
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