Tuesday 3 May 2016

European Union Referendum Resources


Friends and colleagues in several organisations are producing some helpful information and resources on the forthcoming EU Referendum which seeks to engage with the issues from a Christian perspective rather than perpetuating the battle of ‘fear’ narratives that seems to typify much of the debate elsewhere.

See here for a short post by the Joint Public Issues Team (representing The Baptist Union of Great Britain, The Methodist Church, The United Reformed Church, and The Church of Scotland). They have a page on their website devoted to the referendum here, with a short pdf booklet downloadable here, aiming ‘to encourage individuals and churches to think through Britain's membership of the European Union in the light of the gospel command to love your neighbour’.

Theos, the public theology think tank, have produced some helpful material...

Ben Ryan, A Soul for the Union (London: Theos, 2016) – a Theos booklet, with information here and downloadable as a pdf here.




As has the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, with a special page here, with (to date) the following individual pieces...



This article sets out five biblical principles for political and economic life and finds that the EU currently breaches them significantly. It proposes three conditions for remaining within the EU but, in the absence of other EU countries supporting such conditions, argues that British people should vote for Brexit. The article represents the views of the author and not of KLICE.

The European Union has spent years staggering through a crisis with political, economic, theoretical and practical elements. It has been, in many ways, a disappointment, failing to live up to the standards that were set for it in the 1950s. It stands in need of some redemption. Despite all this it remains the best hope for a genuinely international, voluntary and moral model of governance. This article makes that case for the EU as the body with the potential to be the moral force the 21st century world needs and, therefore, an organisation for the UK to help save, not leave.

Then there is the Jubilee Centre, with a collection of pieces, including four briefing papers, here.

In addition, Christians in Politics have a page here with several links to short articles.

Andrew Goddard has revised a Grove booklet on the European Union first written nearly 20 years ago. It’s available for purchase from here, with some additional resources available here, and a helpful summary gist here.

Finally, here are a couple of friends who have offered their own reflections:


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