Beorn
04-07-2009, 09:38 PM
Celebrating Englishness does not mean you are B.N.P.
ENGLISHNESS is back on the agenda.
One of the consequences of the recent attacks by so-called home-grown terrorists has been to ask what it means to be English?
Can there be an identity we can all share, flexible enough to recognise the new aspects of England while remaining authentic enough to proudly recognise England’s history?
Where there is no awareness of identity, there is a vacuum to be filled.
Whether it be the corrupting ideology behind “Islamic” terrorism, salafi jihadism or the insidious institutional racism and bigotry of the British National Party, there are those who stand ready to fill the vacuum — with a sanitised identity and twisted vision — if the silent majority hold back from forging a new identity.
Uniting
When hateful and vile slogans are shouted at returning soldiers as they march through our towns, Joe and Jane Public should gather in large numbers to demonstrate peaceably that such bigotry has no place in England’s green and pleasant land.
Historically, Christianity has been at the heart of this nation.
In the 8th Century, the Venerable Bede, the father of English history, wrote not only of how the English were converted to Christianity, but how the Christian Gospel played a major social and civilising role in this country by uniting a group of warring tribes and conferring English nationhood upon them.
While it is true to say that such virtues as kindness to neighbours, fair play and common decency are not unique to the Christian faith — just as they are not unique to England — it is equally true to say these virtues have become embedded into our social fabric and heritage as a result of the Christian faith and its influence on society.
We need to become better acquainted with this heritage, be grateful for it and build upon it.
The spiritual wealth that made this country great is to be shared not only with present and future generations in England, but as a free gift from God to the whole of humanity.
Where once there was vision and zeal within this land, there now seems to be a malaise and apathy concerning both our purpose as a nation and our identity as a people.
We may have become richer as a nation, but we have become less happy and less fulfilled.
Without a common vision, the competing interests born of a rampant consumerism take our eyes away from a higher purpose
Some English people don’t like to say anything about their heritage, for fear of upsetting newcomers.
My question to them is simple: Why do you think we came here? There is something very attractive about the UK.
That is why people stay!
As a boy in Uganda, I was taught by British missionaries. Just as foreigners brought the Christian faith to England and the rest of the UK, so British foreigners handed on the baton to me, my family and my forebears.
Grateful
All I am doing is reminding the English of what they taught me.
To be patriotic is to appreciate and be grateful for all that is valuable in the country you live in.
It does not require you to be a xenophobe or a blinkered nationalist.
Has the time not come to make the Feast of St George, the Patron Saint of England, a public holiday for all to share?
Let us recognise collectively the enormous treasure that sits in our cultural and spiritual vaults.
Let us draw upon the riches of our heritage and find a sense of purpose for those who are thrashing around for meaning and settling for second best.
Let us not forego our appreciation of an English identity for fear of causing upset or offence to those who claim such an identity has no place in a multi-cultural society.
Englishness is not diminished by newcomers who each bring with them a new strand to England’s fabric.
Rather, Englishness is emboldened to grow anew.
The truth is that an all-embracing England — confident and hopeful in its own identity — is something to celebrate.
Let us acknowledge and enjoy what we are.
Source (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/article2364060.ece)
ENGLISHNESS is back on the agenda.
One of the consequences of the recent attacks by so-called home-grown terrorists has been to ask what it means to be English?
Can there be an identity we can all share, flexible enough to recognise the new aspects of England while remaining authentic enough to proudly recognise England’s history?
Where there is no awareness of identity, there is a vacuum to be filled.
Whether it be the corrupting ideology behind “Islamic” terrorism, salafi jihadism or the insidious institutional racism and bigotry of the British National Party, there are those who stand ready to fill the vacuum — with a sanitised identity and twisted vision — if the silent majority hold back from forging a new identity.
Uniting
When hateful and vile slogans are shouted at returning soldiers as they march through our towns, Joe and Jane Public should gather in large numbers to demonstrate peaceably that such bigotry has no place in England’s green and pleasant land.
Historically, Christianity has been at the heart of this nation.
In the 8th Century, the Venerable Bede, the father of English history, wrote not only of how the English were converted to Christianity, but how the Christian Gospel played a major social and civilising role in this country by uniting a group of warring tribes and conferring English nationhood upon them.
While it is true to say that such virtues as kindness to neighbours, fair play and common decency are not unique to the Christian faith — just as they are not unique to England — it is equally true to say these virtues have become embedded into our social fabric and heritage as a result of the Christian faith and its influence on society.
We need to become better acquainted with this heritage, be grateful for it and build upon it.
The spiritual wealth that made this country great is to be shared not only with present and future generations in England, but as a free gift from God to the whole of humanity.
Where once there was vision and zeal within this land, there now seems to be a malaise and apathy concerning both our purpose as a nation and our identity as a people.
We may have become richer as a nation, but we have become less happy and less fulfilled.
Without a common vision, the competing interests born of a rampant consumerism take our eyes away from a higher purpose
Some English people don’t like to say anything about their heritage, for fear of upsetting newcomers.
My question to them is simple: Why do you think we came here? There is something very attractive about the UK.
That is why people stay!
As a boy in Uganda, I was taught by British missionaries. Just as foreigners brought the Christian faith to England and the rest of the UK, so British foreigners handed on the baton to me, my family and my forebears.
Grateful
All I am doing is reminding the English of what they taught me.
To be patriotic is to appreciate and be grateful for all that is valuable in the country you live in.
It does not require you to be a xenophobe or a blinkered nationalist.
Has the time not come to make the Feast of St George, the Patron Saint of England, a public holiday for all to share?
Let us recognise collectively the enormous treasure that sits in our cultural and spiritual vaults.
Let us draw upon the riches of our heritage and find a sense of purpose for those who are thrashing around for meaning and settling for second best.
Let us not forego our appreciation of an English identity for fear of causing upset or offence to those who claim such an identity has no place in a multi-cultural society.
Englishness is not diminished by newcomers who each bring with them a new strand to England’s fabric.
Rather, Englishness is emboldened to grow anew.
The truth is that an all-embracing England — confident and hopeful in its own identity — is something to celebrate.
Let us acknowledge and enjoy what we are.
Source (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/article2364060.ece)