Brexit and the Sovereignty of God
One week on from the momentous vote and a single word captures the mood of the nation: ‘uncertainty’. Uncertainty about future relationships with Europe, our economic stability and the internal cohesion of the United Kingdom. How are Christians supposed to respond? One theologically-loaded word that resonated around the debates before the referendum is ‘sovereignty’. The brexiteers’ slogan was “Take back control” and some have hailed the result as a demonstration of democracy in action – the people have spoken! Apart from obvious questions about when we will exit and on what terms, the phrase “the people have spoken” is tricky. Which people? What about parts of the UK where clear majorities voted to stay? What about all those who voted ‘remain’ (including 46.6% in England)? What about those who didn’t vote at all? How do we cope with the facts that older people were more likely to vote ‘leave’ while a majority of younger voters were in the ‘remain’ camp, or that working c