From Canon Andrew Bowden
Sir, - So, serious debate about our membership of the European
Union has begun at last. In her excellent article (Comment, 21 February), Sue
Bird makes a well-informed case for Christians to vote in favour of
our country's remaining a full EU member. The members of Faith in
Europe also believe that there are good religious reasons to do
so.
The founding fathers of the European enterprise were devout
Christians. After two wars that had devastated our continent and
much of the rest of the world, their faith inspired them to devise
a practical institution that would make it very difficult for this
to happen again. The Nobel Prize Committee last year recognised
that the European Institutions have indeed played a significant
part in helping to keep the peace in Europe since 1945.
The transition of the former Communist countries to genuine
democracy was bound to be difficult and will take time; but the
European Institutions have played a key part in helping this to
happen. Despite local difficulties, they are, in the long term, a
powerful force for taming dictatorship, corruption, and organised
crime.
The EU is at the heart of our country's involvement in Europe,
and leaving it would diminish our standing and influence in other
European bodies, such as the Council of Europe, which promote human
rights and freedom - especially religious freedom.
Europe has been a force for good in UK women's lives, pushing
reluctant British governments over the years into adopting
legislation, including equal pay for work of equal value, and
giving more rights for part-time workers. Nearly half of all
British women workers are employed part-time, and, thanks to EU
legislation, they now enjoy pro-rata paid leave, pensions,
maternity rights, and access to other company training and
benefits.
Families have also gained from improved maternity and parental
leave, shorter working hours, the right to paid holidays, and equal
rights to a pension.
The European enterprise goes back a long way in Christian
history - to the Imperium Romanum, to Alcuin, and to
Charlemagne; and, indeed, to the core ideal of an international
family of God which all Christian Churches have in common. Faith in
Europe is the official interreligious co-ordinating group of CTBI
(Churches Together in Britain and Ireland); our website is
www.faithineurope.org.uk.
Having regularly studied European faith issues in some depth, we
believe that the UK should continue to take a full and enthusiastic
part in the EU.
ANDREW BOWDEN
on behalf of Faith in Europe
Washbrook Cottage, Caudle Green
Cheltenham GL53 9PW
From Dr David Bunch
Sir, - Sue Bird rightly draws attention to many positives that
membership of the European Union brings. These include
environmental concern, fair trade, peace among neighbours, and some
progressive domestic and international social policies.
Where she is on weaker ground is in underplaying contemporary
problems. The economic well-being of its members is not evenly
spread, owing in part to a Eurozone monetary straitjacket. The
so-called social model is frequently associated with bureaucratic
rules that act as a brake on commercial innovation. The Community's
drive for a centralised and federal Europe hasa democratic deficit
at its heart.
Christians need to avoid the insular nationalism of right-wing
Euroscepticism. It is no service to the common good, however, to
minimise the case for radically changed relationships with and
within the EU.
DAVID BUNCH
53 Rye Croft
Conisbrough DN12 2BD