When a member of Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee says of Archbishop Welby: ‘The archbishop should stick to religion and keep out of politics.’ what do we think?
It is a familiar cry, ignoring, as it does, the intimate connection of public religion and politics throughout history. After all, politics are matters relating to how we organise our common life and religion is a significant (although perhaps waning) part of that life.
The MP’s remarks relate to Archbishop Welby’s intervention in the Lords on the Illegal Migration Bill and its inherently draconian measures. A few facts may help here. The Bill:
- introduces a DUTY to remove anyone arriving in the UK irregularly (i.e. without a visa);
- increases the power to detain – immediately and indefinitely – anyone arriving irregularly, including children and pregnant women;
- renders any asylum application by someone arriving irregularly permanently inadmissible.
If this is our politics do we keep out of it?
In a recent Newsletter piece, Wendy Quill described the two processions (demonstrations?) entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday – Jesus from the East and the Roman army from the West. What is interesting to note is that Jesus consciously entered into his journey from the Mount of Olives (organising the donkey himself) knowing full well its political implications and the jeopardy in which this placed him. His Way, the Kingdom we pray for ‘on earth as in heaven’, could not ignore the oppression of his people.
Archbishop Welby’s intervention in the migration debate is faithful to that calling of sticking to religion AND to politics. If we are called to respond in smaller ways to this or other issues of existential importance and find ourselves being faced by challenges, we might remember the biblical encouragement – ‘Do not be alarmed by adversity, but attach yourself to God.’ (Ecclesiasticus 2: 2)
Jim Sikorski
