Stornoway Minister’s Blog

The following is a monthly article written by Rev Kenneth Stewart to the Stornoway RPCS congregation…

Dear congregation

Those of us who value the integrity of our nation as a Christian nation are concerned at the vast numbers of (mainly) young men arriving in the country illegally who do not share the Christian faith or its values.

To be clear, any Christian nation should welcome asylum seekers: We should not forget that Moses was an asylum seeker when he fled Egypt for Midian and who could forget that for anywhere between a few months to a few years, Joseph and Mary, with their holy child, were asylum seekers in Egypt until it was safe to return to Israel. And, uncomfortably, neither should we forget the terrible blot upon our own national history when we did not allow Jews fleeing Germany to enter British controlled Palestine during the war or, indeed, after the war when so many of them were housed in displaced persons camps in Europe.

But it is difficult to imagine that all these men arriving in Britain are really seeking asylum. If they were genuine asylum seekers – that is, fleeing danger at home – why are they prepared to leave their wives and families in that danger and choose, for asylum, a nation very far away from these families? Usually, when male heads of households leave their families behind, that is an indication that asylum cannot be the real driver.

Of course, the real driver behind such family separation could be economic. But normally, economic migration will not involve family separation: Abraham was, effectively, an economic migrant when he fled Canaan for Egypt during famine (Gen 12:10) but he took his wife with him. Similarly, Elimelech took his wife, Naomi, and the whole family to Moab in a time of scarcity (Ruth 1:1-4) Admittedly, however, in unusual circumstances, economic emigration could result in family separation: Indeed, it was known to occur in our own islands when emigration sometimes took the form of the head of the household leaving his wife and family at home and providing for them from a distance until he would either return or take the family with him.

However, aside from the obvious and important questions to do with the provision of housing, health care, education, welfare and employment for such people, my concern is to do with the little mentioned or perceived potential threat to the Christian identity of our nation.

Read the rest of this blog post here.