Another Christian's view of the European Union

Some Christians do have a view, including the view of Europe expressed by Tony Bennett, a member of the small UK Independence Party, in the last issue of EN.

He worries about a number of things.

The Catholic influence

This is waning rapidly. Catholics from Spain, Ireland and Italy say that the young no longer go to mass and congregations are dwindling fast. The party with the closest links to the Catholic church, the Italian Christian democrats, has folded completely. But, politically, Catholics can be allies, too. In European debates on moral issues, all professing Christians unite against the secular humanists who dominate today's public agenda.

A threat to the monarchy

There are seven monarchs in the EU (four from Protestant countries) and eight presidents. No one in the EU is going to take time off to try to alter the prerogatives of heads of state. If there is a threat to our next Coronation oath, it will be from within Britain, not from outside.

Unelected commissioners decide everything

This is just plain wrong. The Commission is a civil service appointed by the Council of Ministers and approved by the Parliament. The Parliament actually sacked the last Commission. The Commission is answerable to the Council in private and to the Parliament in public. Council and Parliament are the lawmakers. The Council represents national governments and the Parliament is elected by the citizens of each member state.

If we lost the pound we would lose our sovereignty

Since the devaluation of the pound in 1931, no British government has had sovereignty over its value or exchange rate. In the 1980s, it lost half of its purchasing power. Now its exchange rate has floated too high, making business uncompetitive. So we have lost our three major motor works, the two Welsh steel mills, and thousands of smaller businesses. The farmers are being destroyed (even before foot-and-mouth) and the tourist industry is in deep trouble. As a result, we are now running an annual trade deficit of £47bn. By contrast, the euro-zone has a trade surplus. If sovereignty is the ability to act in the interests of the citizen, there is no sign of it in our present yo-yo currency, even if it does carry the Queen's head.

Pictures of Europe

Then why, we should ask, is there such opposition to Europe in general and the euro in particular? Oxford University Press's symposium, Britain and Europe, comes up with some interesting answers. One is the 'extraordinarily distorted and partial picture of Europe which most educated Britons receive from their newspapers, TV and radio, the newspapers being much the worst.' Another contributor adds: 'Almost unique in the EU, the UK has a considerable body of press and political opinion for which Europe has become an abiding, almost obsessive preoccupation.' I could certainly say 'Amen' to that. The obsession has wrecked the Conservative party of which I used to be a member. Even after a second catastrophic defeat in 2000, fought on the issue of the euro, they hardened their anti-European policy. Shorn of members outside England, they look more and more like an English Nationalist Party.

Nationalism

We Ulster Scots have lived cheek-by-jowl with nationalism and can smell its whiff a mile off. It is obsessive and all-consuming and it is here in England today. Licensed by Mrs. Thatcher's infamous Bruges speech in 1988, it creates enemies out of friends. Her 'European superstate, centralised in Brussels', was a mythical creature made to be attacked. This provoked a parliamentary motion to censure her, which was narrowly avoided, but she had given the green light to the nationalism which destroyed her successor and her party. We are now seen, from beyond the white cliffs of Dover, as the most nationalist country in Europe.

Politicians find this nationalism played back on the doorstep. 'Europe! They should all have been put down after the war.' 'The channel tunnel is the rape of England.' 'You can never trust the French.' It is only too easy to stir up hate. (A senior British civil servant asked a delegation of 'The Protestant women of the Shankhill Road' why, if they were Christians, they did not love their neighbours instead of shooting them. They said: 'We're not Christians, we're Protestants!').

Nationalism ignores all the positive achievements of Europe. This free and democratic community was a model for those trapped in the dictatorships of Southern and Eastern Europe. On our honeymoon in Spain, no Spaniard would tell us the way to the nearest Protestant church. When Spain, Portugal and Greece threw off their dictatorships, they welcomed the religious liberty which went with EU membership. After Greece joined, three Protestants were arrested for 'proselytising'. But the European Declaration of Human Rights insists on religious liberty and they were freed on appeal. A few years later EU influence freed the Protestant churches in Turkey, and, despite sporadic local harassment, they have grown ever since. Ukraine joined the Council of Europe and also gave the undertaking on religious freedom. The influence of the EU reaches beyond Europe. In March 2000 the support of the EU Ambassador to Kazakhstan was critical in securing the freedom of their rapidly-growing Protestant churches.

Variety in heaven

The EU brings people together. Nationalism tears them apart. It does not stop with Europe. The United Kingdom brings together English, Welsh, Scots and Irish. England itself is multi-racial with Muslims, Sikhs, Afro-Caribbean and Africans, Jews, a million Irish and a dozen other minorities. But nationalism carries with it a strong racial element which is highly dangerous to the cohesion of British society, already leading to violence.

Our first loyalty as citizens is to our own country, but God is not an Englishman. We are only 1% of the world's population, and the apostle John sees the saints in heaven 'from every nation, tribe, people and language'. God will give us that variety in heaven and we should start enjoying it here.