The appalling events in Myanmar and the treatment of Uyghurs by China make us stop and think about what it means to be a Christian and a citizen. Sometimes the labels are so close they are interchangeable. At other times deep fissures make us wonder whether the two are at all compatible. Followers of other religious faiths have similar questions to ponder.
In its earliest days the Christian faith was a novelty. Complacent polytheistic societies together with nominally polytheistic but probably Stoic states discovered they had a cuckoo in the nest. Christianity was not content to be one amongst many faiths. It made exclusive claims. By the time of Constantine it had acquired respectability and went on to take to itself even more. To be a Christian was to be a civilised person.
So it came about that Europe became familiar with the concept of a Christian nation and the notion of belonging to a holy Roman empire. Pope and bishop became not only shepherds of a flock but national leaders alongside emperor and monarch. In England this meant an Established Church with Beckets and Wolseys as powerful national figures having more than a little input to national policy.
In slumberous times this posed no problem. When the divine right of kings gave place to an English republic and when the British empire came into being, the traditional identity which meant that to be an Englishman was to be a Christian came to be questioned. An alliance between Church and State can prove to be uncomfortable. In South America this discomfort expressed itself in terms of liberation theology. The Bible was read in terms of an unfolding story of freedom from oppression. In the UK today we see Christianity being tolerated in so far as it forwards community coherence. This means that the Christian faith is being stretched to breaking-point. It becomes difficult to be at the same time a Christian and a citizen.
I put the issue to a friend with considerable international experience. He commented: ‘I agree that there is difficulty about being a model citizen as a Christian in a secular age, but are we returning to the situation in which Paul established churches? Arguably that has been the experience of possibly the majority of Christians around the world – Soviet Union, China, Islamic countries. India under the BIP which sees Christians and Muslims as not truly Indian – come to mind.’
Difficult? Yes. Who said the Christian faith was easy?
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