Them v us and the absence of hope

Tomorrow Britain goes to the polls to vote on whether to remain within or leave the European Union. The campaigns leading up to this point seem to have gone on forever and are almost universally acknowledged to be some of the most divisive of our nation's recent political history.

But this campaign is really only the logical outcome of a politics and a society that has become increasingly polarised and confrontational: rich v poor, native v immigrant, men v women. Racism and xenophobia seem to be on the increase. Class divides, which many (clearly naïvely) had assumed no longer existed, are increasingly visible.

So a debate centring on the ‘us’ of Britain v the ‘them’ of Europe is in many ways simply an extension of the day-to-day realities of contemporary British life.

For me, one of the biggest disappointments of the campaigns has been in the complete absence of any attempt to offer a narrative of hope. Both Leave and Remain have been almost entirely negative, focused on apocalyptic doomsday scenarios of imploding financial markets, mass unemployment and the uncontrollable movement of people.

But this negativity has been exacerbated by an obsession with ‘us’: what ‘we’ get out of the EU. Whether ‘we’ has been shorthand for the entire British nation or for each individual within it (and it has been used for both), it has been used to imply that ‘our’ decision to leave or remain should be predicated entirely on what ‘we’ get out of the result. There has been little or no discussion (that I have been aware of) of our obligations to ‘them’ (whoever ‘they’ are: given the tone and content of the campaigns one would be forgiven for thinking that the entire EU is made up of people who are desperate to come and live in the UK, either for our benefits system or our jobs in the NHS).

As a Christian – and, frankly, as a human being – I find this deeply depressing. As a Christian I find it depressing because the Christian community claims to have a hope that is rooted in something far bigger than nations and political systems and yet we appear to have been as bad as society at large at taking a step back from the rough and tumble of politics (although that’s rather too benign a phrase to adequately describe the last few months) and engaging with the impact that our understanding of the hope embodied in Jesus might have both on the debate itself and the decision that we will each take as individual Christians tomorrow.

Whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s vote, Friday will mark the beginning of a new phase in our national life. Whether we’re taking our first steps towards life outside the EU or beginning the process of mending some seriously charred bridges with our European neighbours, as a nation we need to take a long, hard look at ourselves. And the Christian community needs to be ready to weigh in with some hope.