It’s amazing how easily humans can be divided. I downloaded a new navigation app this week in the desperate hope that I might find a new way to fly through the school run traffic. One of my kids loves it because it looks like a computer game. Another hates it because the first day I used it we were sent on a new route, sat in traffic for five minutes and increased the race to school adrenalin rush by an unacceptable amount. After only two days, there are two firm camps in our house and I’ll forever be in trouble with somebody, whichever app I use.
Right now, the media in our nation would have us believe that in order to be a fully functioning UK citizen, you need to fit into one of two camps. Are you flag people or not? The flag people are depicted by the media as angry, racist, narrow minded, with the non-flag people portrayed as blind, protected and removed from the issues at hand.
“The flags in my city aren’t flying in the places of affluence. They’re flying in places where people have been overlooked for many decades.”
It seems that we’re happy to deck our windows and gardens with flags for major sporting events, royal celebrations and cultural days but we’re not so sure what it means to hang a Union Jack or an England flag from a lamppost on a Tuesday in September. The reasons for our confusion are nuanced and complicated, they relate to the specific times that we are living through in our nation right now, to what has gone before and potentially a fear of what is to come.
The flags in my city aren’t flying in the places of affluence. They’re flying in working class communities and estates. Places where people have been overlooked and unlistened to for many decades. In an interview with TWR-UK, Jenny Sinclair, founder and director of Together for the Common Good says ‘Some of these working-class communities that have been left behind as a result of globalisation are feeling very abandoned and humiliated.’
It’s worth remembering that creating division in our nation will create big money for a privileged few. Division and hatred between us all will certainly sell newspapers and fuel targeted advertising. If those in power can continue to stir up bickering and distrust, they might never have to answer for the decisions they are making.
“What if we’re all actually arguing about the same thing? That the system is broken, that those with the least are paying for the mistakes of those with the most.”
What if we’re all actually arguing about the same thing? That the system is broken, that those with the least are paying for the mistakes of those with the most, that too much money is being spent on the wrong things. That our welfare and employment systems are creating systemic poverty instead of relieving them. That people who would love to work and earn a living are instead forced to rely on charity handouts and crisis relief.
The big question we have to ask is where should the church be standing in all of this? Should we be putting flags up or taking them down? In Ephesians 4:1-6, Paul urges us to live as one people in Jesus. “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Have we been completely humble and gentle? What do we think about those on what we consider to be the opposing side of this debate to us? Are we patient with them, looking them in the eye, bearing with them in love? Are we making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace? Jesus said in John 18:36 ‘My Kingdom is not of this world’ and all of us who bow down to Jesus as king of our lives have been called into a new kingdom that does not require us to push others down in order to lift ourselves up. But we can’t close our eyes and ignore what is going on in the world around us.
In Jenny Sinclair’s words ‘The church should not be taking sides, it should be standing in the breach and feeling the pain and the tension that is real in [native and migrant] communities. That’s a very hard position to be in but we are about being a people of reconciliation, that doesn’t mean imposing our way, it means deep listening and solidarity, it means living alongside and feeling the anger, pain and sometimes hopelessness and despair that many communities are feeling.’
Let the flags be a reminder to us of the true unity that we are striving for, an encouragement to pause and pray for God’s will to be done and a catalyst to take our battles to the decision makers and beneficiaries of the brokenness in our nation, not the victims.
Watch the full interview with Jenny Sinclair: TWR-UK
More information on Together for the Common Good: togetherforthecommongood.co.uk