There is a growing use of a campaigning technique by the BNP in these elections which seeks to present the British National Party as the defender of ‘Christian’ Britain. This should not go unchallenged. They use careful imagery in their leaflets designed to scare voters into belief that their traditional values and way of life are under threat. I wish to argue the case that the BNP is the exact antitheses of Christianity and it is they who represent the true threat to Christian values in this country.
In Section 2 (b) of the BNP Statement of Principles we read: ‘The British National Party stands for the preservation of the national and ethnic character of the British people and is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples. It is therefore committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent, the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948.’
There are at least two points here that the Christian would wish to carefully consider:
(a) The BNP is ‘wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European people’ and (b) the BNP is committed to ‘legal changes’ which would ‘restore’ the overwhelmingly white make-up’ that existed in Britain prior to 1948’.
These phrases have a sinister echo in modern history and follow Nazi Party claim that the Germanic and claim to be part of an Aryan race and that the Jews and other non-Aryans such as Slavs and Roma were engaged in a sinister plot to ‘dilute’ racial purity and destroy the Germanic peoples and must be stopped. The eventual result was the Holocaust.
Section 2 (1) of the BNP constitution restricts membership to white people states: ‘Membership of the BNP is strictly defined within the terms of, and our members also self define themselves within, the legal ambit of a defined ‘racial group’ this being ‘Indigenous Caucasian’ and defined ‘ethnic groups’ emanating from that Race as specified in law in the House of Lords case of Mandla V Dowell Lee (1983) 1 ALL ER 1062, HL.’
The response of Christian doctrine on the issue of race is clear: ‘ALL human beings are created in the image and likeness of God’ (Genesis 1:27) Or, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3: 26-28). Or consider the greatest commandments ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:31).
BNP policy on foreign aid states: ‘We reject the idea that Britain must forever be obliged to subsidise the incompetence and corruption of Third World states by supplying them with financial aid.’ Which compares unfavourably with those whom Jesus said will be welcomed into heaven ‘Come you blessed of My Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you...for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me.....I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ (Matthew 25: 34-40)
BNP policy on immigration states: ‘We will also clamp down on the flood of ‘asylum seekers’, all of whom are either bogus or can find refuge much nearer their home countries.’ Which compares with the God’s Law laid down in Leviticus: "And if a stranger dwells in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." (Leviticus 19:33-34).
Of course it may have escaped the ‘theologians’ in the BNP that Jesus was not ‘Indigenous Caucasian’ being a Palestinian Jew from the Middle East who spend the early part of his life on earth as an asylum seeker in Egypt fleeing persecution at home and had their ‘sister’ Party been in power at the time then they would have gladly handed over the new born baby to King Herod at the border.
It’s not just the ‘Christian’ test that the BNP fail, in answer to what makes us British one might suggest: that it is equality under the law defined in Magna Carta, the system of parliamentary democracy, an openness to and interest in other cultures and peoples through trade, a sense of fair play which led to a great sporting heritage, a tolerant, courteous and hospitable peoples who could accommodate a wide range of views, a willingness to speak up for and defend the weak and the defenceless. If this is the case then the BNP are the least ‘British’ of any political party in the tradition of irony in that the ‘Democratic’ Republic of Korea should be the least democratic of any nation.
To this extent the BNP have provided a service to Britain and to Christians: In Britain they challenge us to remember that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance and our mainstream politicians need to do much more to speak up for what unites us than what divides us; in the Christian faith they challenge us to urgently re-discover the true application of the Gospel which is so grotesquely distorted that a fascist party like the BNP thinks it can credibly appeal to its adherents.
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Click here to watch the Nothing British About The BNP video and wider campaign.
