Britons are heading to the polls in a few days to decide on their future in Europe. James McBride, a British-based minister for COGM, formerly with WCG then CGI, has recently opined on the subject. You can read his analysis here.
James' views aren't exactly subtle: "The future of the United Kingdom hangs in the balance, the core question being the vital one of national sovereignty." Surprisingly, "The nation is a divine institution. Nations develop from original family units that have grown large, each developing its unique language, culture, traditions (see Genesis 11)."
But it gets better: "The fusion of disparate nations - different in language, heritage, culture - in a union flies in the face of God's wise decision to establish mankind in sovereign nations."
Uh... where to begin. How about the "United Kingdom" itself. Do we assume James supports independence for Scotland and Wales? On this basis shouldn't the US abandon American Samoa and Puerto Rico?
Then again, might one ask James exactly which "original family units" were responsible for modern nations? In a North American context are we talking about Native American roots? I doubt that's what James means. In a Kiwi context are we talking about the Maori tribes that arrived on great sea-going canoes from Eastern Polynesia? Again, methinks James has something else in mind.
This kind of logic probably made sense in the Europe of the eighteenth century, an age of rampant jingoism. Today, not so much.
4 comments:
More backward jingoism from the COGs. The leaders of the COGs need to educate themselves on this matter and stop promoting shallow, xenophobic ideas such as this. Many have moved on from that sort of thinking. They need to join up and stop causing trouble by insisting on maintaining these antiquated ideas.
Well, the fruit of COG ministers, (who whenever they have a "tissy fit" ) is to create their own COGEXIT.
No surprise with his comments therefore in that regard. However, for entirely economic reasons, I think it is wise that Britain go its own course economically, and avoid having to consistently and regularly have to bail out the likes of Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal.
McBride, as have other Armstrongite writers on this topic, conflates two ideas and comes up with nonsense. First, he speaks of nations as political entities (Britain)and cites language, culture, etc. But then he shifts to the biological origin of nations. The transition seems seamless in his writing but it is not in reality. For example, if you look at a map of haplogroups in Europe, you immediately notice that the biological groupings of people do not correspond to political borders or language borders or cultural borders. These "families grown large" do not now exist, and probably never have, as sovereign nations.
The Armstrongite ministry regards itself as expert in national (racial) categorization. Their confidence in this is reflected in the fact that they are courageously willing to prohibit certain marriages based on racial differences - a very serious matter for the people involved. But the criteria they use is mystifying. For instance, the two populations that represent the highest concentrations of haplogroup R1b are the Welsh and the Basques. Yet Armstrongite ministers would consider the former Israelites and the latter Gentiles. Further, Clan Calhoun in the highlands has North African roots.
I doubt that this ministry can even provide its lay members with a cogent definition of the term "nation".
From the news reports, it seems that it is the older people who are in favor of leaving. And this is in spite of the fact that being part of the EU has stabilized and even increased the standard of living for the average Brit. Even their banks are warning that leaving will have grave financial implications. At least at this point, the other EU nations do not want the UK to secede.
It seems to be more of a sovereignty issue rather than a financial one. The young people who grew up in it seem to favor staying. They love being part of a greater community, and they love multiculturalism. Obviously it must be more complicated than this, and because of the way we were taught it would go down, it seems to differ substantially from the HWA scenarios. It should be interesting to watch next week. I just hope there are no more murders over it!
BB
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