Nations are made up of increasingly diverse populations, and today typically contain a vast range of cultures, beliefs, interests and religions. The UK is itself composed of several national, ethnic, racial and linguistic groups, and its history testifies that nationalism can be both a focus for group solidarity and a tool of oppression.
The United Kingdom constitution rests on many contentious assumptions, for example, that we are a kingdom; that we are united[1]; that Parliament is representative of the people and expresses the will of the majority. Most importantly, perhaps, it rests on the decidedly debatable premise that ‘Britishness’ is reliant upon birth and socialisation within the territory of the realm. And while Britain contains many diverse groups, the claim that we are fully pluralist in a political sense is hard to substantiate.
As certain forms of nationalism strive for homogeneity, so in extreme cases it fuels the kind of ethnic cleansing seen recently in the Balkans and Sudan. However, the same basic desire for homogeneity can also be manifested more subtly in the rejection of others on grounds of gender, race, ethnicity, nationalism, disability, or religion. Christianity has of course played a very important role in developing national and communal identity in Christendom. Increasingly today, religion is yoked to ethnicity and nationalism as a useful identifier of ‘the other’ to be feared, suppressed and /or annihilated.
In constructing a specifically ethnic identity, nations typically invoke a range of amenable cultural traditions and historic, poetic and mythic texts. At present in the UK, it is the English who are experiencing most difficulty in this area, as they struggle to forge a distinctive identity as strong as that of the Welsh, Scottish and Irish. One issue that has prompted heated public debates in recent years has been the use of national symbols. To give one example, tensions have arisen in England over use of the flag of St. George to support the English football team during international tournaments. One reason for this unease has been the ongoing tribal conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Glasgow as played out in the aggressive symbolism attached to Union and Saltire flags vis-à-vis the Irish Triclour at Rangers-Celtic matches. Some local authorities have actually tried to forbid this practice, arguing that it also causes offence to non-indigenous members of the community. In addition, it has been said that such flag-flying has contributed to racial tensions because of its simultaneous promotion and use by the racist British National Party.
Whilst some football supporters may also support the BNP, most simply want to back the national team in a manifest way. Indeed, there is nothing inherently bad or immoral in using a flag to denote a geographical area, as long as such use is inclusive, i.e., extended to all who live there, regardless of their ethnic origin. Even if some who have settled in a particular territory from elsewhere choose not to associate with this symbol, it seems odd to forbid its use because they may feel that it does not belong to them. In many nations, the flying of the national flag is viewed with pride, as something which unites, rather than divides, constituent ethnic groups. A clear American identity, for example, has been successfully created in the USA. Pointed questions could therefore be asked about how a fringe political party like the BNP has managed so easily to subvert the national flag, and how it might be reclaimed as a more positive symbol of inclusive national identity for the 21st century. The history of the English flag is intertwined with Christianity as part of English cultural heritage. Is it discredited because it has its roots in that heritage, or can it move beyond the more negative, exclusive associations of its design to represent the additional strands of faith and culture that characterise contemporary English society? Given Jesus’ own generosity to people of other faiths and cultures in his own land, we certainly hope that it can.
It is important to recognise in this context increasing concern about the apparently uncritical nationalism of American evangelicalism and the supposed Christian Right’s focus on so-called ‘power politics’. It is appropriate to remind Christians across the world that they are mandated to honour the Lordship of Jesus Christ above any national, social, cultural or political loyalties, since any identification of the Christian faith with nationalism and particular political agendas is likely to compromise its integrity.
[1] The United Kingdom came into existence as ‘the Kingdom of Great Britain’ in 1707 through the uniting of the former Kingdoms of England and Scotland. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was created in 1801 by the merger of the ‘Kingdom of Great Britain’ the ‘Kingdom of Ireland’. Upon Irish independence in 1922 when the Anglo-Irish Treaty created the Irish Free State, it became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Arguably, the Protestant religion was a key uniting factor in what constituted ‘Britishness’ between say 1650 and 1950.
