I write to you after hearing Angelina Jolie speaking at the BBC about EU migration and before my speaking at the EU Fundamental Rights Agency in Vienna next month about Migration and this got me thinking if there is a religious case for Brexit.
One of the viewers of my BBC Newspaper Review then sent me an article making a Christian case for Brexit.
I’m not saying I agree with the arguments…but it was fascinating. This is a summary and you may think it is a good reason for staying in. (In bold below are the headings of the document I was handed – not my words).
EU Membership is a secular nations substitute for trusting in God.
The argument here goes that Britain hated her Imperial past and so decided to join the EU as a means of moving away from her own values and historic beliefs. (I don’t find this convincing).
Britain must leave because border controls are a Biblical responsibility
The argument here is that boundaries are biblical: Moses said ‘Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmark’ Deuteronomy 19:14.
I thought the teachings of Christ meant we should be loving and caring for our neighbour – but apparently there is another perspective.
Britain must leave because membership means taking the financial obligations of others and that is contrary to the Bible
As is written in Proverbs, ‘He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it’.
Membership is incompatible with Bible based constitution
‘The anti-Christian French Revolution could lay claim to being the inspiration for “the inaliable rights for the human person”.’ Says the document I was handed. Whereas in Britain the Church is legally established in law and indeed the 1688 Coronation Oath Act stated the Monarch shall ‘to the utmost of her power to maintain the laws of God and the true profession of the gospel’.
Britain must leave because membership does not grant security and is against the God-ordained institution of nationhood
Israel is the best example in the Bible of God’s will of a world of nations and people’s separated from each other according to faith goes the argument.
All this proves that in all religions you will find exactly opposing views. What I like about Hinduism is it does not propose one right answer at all. And what is clear to me as they we may well want to stay in, if these are the views of those who want to be out.
