Body

UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION

AND A RIGHT CHRISTIAN RESPONSE

A nonconformist minister challenges

the liberal orthodoxy - and the churches' submission to it

Mass immigration is a nation-transforming phenomenon. Politicians occasionally express concern, but nothing radical is ever done, and the inward flow just keeps on continuing. As for the churches, they do not appear to regard it as a problem at all. Instead of providing a unique Christian insight, they have simply conformed, with consummate ease, to the dictates of the liberal establishment.

In May this year there was a large rally in Trafalgar Square calling for an amnesty for all immigrants currently living in the UK unofficially. It was supported by prominent churchmen. One of them, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, declared, "We know that there are up to half a million immigrants who are undocumented, and some way should be found for these people who work in our country ... so that their rights are respected".

So here we see a high profile cleric presenting the issue, not in terms of the morality before God of illegal entry, but in terms of the 'rights' of those who have deliberately bypassed our laws. But purposefully to break the law of the land is sinful in God's sight. How, then, do the churches reconcile their attitude with the Biblical mandate : "Whosoever resisteth the power (i.e. the nation's lawmakers) resisteth the ordinance of God" (Romans 13:2)?

One of the banners on display at this rally read, "Abolish all racist immigration controls", the clear implication being that for the Government to control the nation's borders at all is racist. What is worrying is that this kind of thinking is not far removed from that of so many churches across the theological spectrum.

Quite typical is the following extract from the magazine of a well known evangelical mission working in one of our major cities : "We have had contact with economic migrants from China ... These friends are often exploited, working long hours (and) living ... in fear of arrest and deportation. We have helped with practical issues such as how to arrange medical treatment from GPs and with basic English skills".

Now no one of course should be exploited, but is it a Christian duty to be in sympathy with those who are living in fear of arrest and deportation? Surely only such fear exists, when there is no legal right to be here in the first place? And if people be here illegally, should Christians be helping them, as they continue in defiance of God-ordained laws?

The Bible clearly teaches that all men are equal in the sight of God, and that the kingdom of God, the community of true believers in Christ, is made up of people of every tribe and tongue. Both as an obligation and as a delight the Christian loves his neighbour, whoever he is. These are primary truths, which the writer of this article resolutely upholds.

Such truths, however, are simply not the issue, when considering ongoing immigration into Britain, be it legal or illegal. The real issue is that the levels of influx are now so great as to be bringing about nothing less than the disappearance of the nation as we know it.

Does, then, God require this large-scale inward migration as representing a greater conformity to his will? Does the Bible condemn as sinful the very concept of the tribes of the earth occupying their own homelands? The answer to these questions is, quite simply, No, as Genesis 11:6-8, Deuteronomy 32:8, Judges 11:14-19 and Acts 17:26 clearly demonstrate. These verses plainly teach the integrity of nationhood, along with the need to respect the territorial boundaries of other peoples.

Nationhood was ordained by God to restrain the tendency of fallen men to engage in a God-rejecting human solidarity. This is the message of the Genesis narrative concerning the Tower of Babel. Furthermore, for 2000 years from the time of Abraham, God actually chose the institution of ethnocentric nationhood as the vehicle for his revelation to mankind. So the institution cannot be intrinsically unwholesome.

Yet the churches have aligned themselves with atheistic liberalism by presenting the abandonment of national identity as the ultimate Christian objective. Many now neglect the gospel of personal salvation from sin, and have turned to multiculturalism as a substitute religion. To 'embrace diversity' has become the sublimest expression of Christian endeavour, and the most effective way of displaying one's piety for all to see and admire.

If it be a moral imperative for Britain to welcome yet more and more peoples for inward settlement, then it must be a moral imperative for every other nation on earth to do likewise. So, to be consistent, the churches should be condemning those African and Asian nations, which, to maintain their distinctive identities, operate strict immigration policies; but they do not.

The Government's failure to control our borders is quite simply a failure to do what all governments have had to do throughout human history. It is an abandonment of one of the primary tasks of rulers before Almighty God. There has been no proper border control, because there has never been acceptance of the principle of control. To restrict immigration would conflict with liberalism's obsessive cosmopolitanism, along with its scant respect for Britishness.

The task of the churches in any age should be to confront, on Biblical grounds, the presumptions of the prevailing secular philosophy; yet it appears that many churches today have their feet firmly planted on the New Age - one world - global village bandwagon. We would do well to heed the words of John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, who wrote concerning Christians and nationhood, "We feel in ourselves a strong ... kind of natural affection for our country, which we apprehend Christianity was never designed either to root out or to impair".

It goes without saying that we love and respect our immigrant neighbour, but it must also be graciously asserted that there is absolutely no Biblical justification for encouraging such levels of inward migration as will lead to the submerging of a nation's indigenous identity.