T he UK Independence Party gained an extraordinary share of the votes in last month's elections for the European Parliament. As Christians, we are bound to ask ourselves why this happened, and what is its significance?
There is nothing new about tensions and disagreements in relations between our little islands and the rest of Europe. Whenever Britain has been successfully invaded - by Celts, Romans, Angles and Saxons, Vikings or Normans - it was from Europe that the invaders came. Likewise in the case of the unsuccessful invasions of the past five hundred years: from Spain, the Netherlands, France or Germany. This might cause a certain suspicion of Europe - but for the fact that all of us are by now descendants of one or other strain, if not more, of those earlier, successful invaders.
When the Christian Gospel was first brought to Britain, it came from Europe; first at the time of the Roman occupation, and later by missionaries from Rome and from the surviving Celtic Church of Ireland. From Britain in turn, missionaries carried the Gospel to other parts of Europe: the Rhine Valley, and the heathen interior of Germany. For centuries, when the Europe of Christendom was almost the whole known world for Europeans, the British Isles were a closely-connected part of that world. The whole continent was united by bonds of trade, culture, and the common language of Latin, used by the Church and all educated people. Even without mass communication and swift, easy travel, it was self-evident that Britain was part of this world: there was no other.
The Reformation in the sixteenth century was an earlier, successful attempt to cut the ties between Britain and the rest of Europe. How it would have appealed to the supporters of UKIP, if they had been living then! England breaking away from its neighbours to go its own, self-determining way; exercising its sovereignty in both politics and religion. Though the sovereignty was not the sovereignty of the citizens of this country, but of a self-seeking tyrant monarch and a greedy ruling class. Henry VIII's imposition of political control over the Church still exerts (admittedly less strongly) a stranglehold on the Church of England. Yet even then, where was it that the theological ideas came from, that enabled the English Reformation to happen? From Europe, of course: from German Luther, French Calvin, Swiss Zwingli.
And so through all of history our religious, political, cultural and economic connections have been primarily with the continent of which we inhabit a few offshore islands. Only the brief, two hundred year or so, interlude of Empire, could make us imagine we could manage without Europe. But those days of glory and guilt are gone. We are no longer an imperial power, thank God, and we cannot pretend we can live independently of our neighbours.
Yet somehow the rhetoric of UKIP has captured the hearts of a sizeable section of the electorate, and anti-European sentiment is endemic in many of our attitudes. Politicians have become complacent, and journalists ignore their responsibility of informing the public. Many people do not know the economic and social advantages of closer ties with the EU, rather than looser ones, nor the crippling disadvantages that would result from cutting those ties. There is no debate as such at all: the whole shouting match about Europe is being waged in tabloid style headlines and soundbites. Our politicians have also been guilty of a typically British cowardice. Where much of the strength of European economies has come from a redistributive system of taxation, that pays for good health services and education, both of our main parties continue to mouth the mantra of low taxes. This panders to people's materialistic greed, and chiefly benefits the rich while at the same time making life more expensive for the poor. Once again, our more serious problem is that we have not become European enough.
An important part of the Christian faith has always been the impulse to seek an increase of understanding of others, love and harmony with our neighbours, fellowship between different individuals and groups. If we take this seriously, we will pray and work for closer ties with Europe, and for a better informed, and more politically literate electorate in this country.
Published in the Marston Times, July 2004