Editorial: Minority Report
Anna Rankin

Comment: Racism in Ulster: Up-front and Ugly
Ken Newell

From the Director: Naming Our Sin
David W Porter

Faith in Ulster: Facing Up to Diversity
Stephen Skuce

Faith and Practice
Walter Lewis

Interview with Rose Ozo: Where the Heart Is
Anna Rankin

South Belfast: Chinese Church

Craigavon: Religious Liberty in the Shadow of Drumcree

Small Steps
Tim Foley

Dungannon: Migrant Workers

Embracing the Stranger
Richard Kerr

Review: On Eagle's Wing
Ethel White

Review: Conflict, Controversy and Co-operation
John W Morrow

Review: The Subversive Manifesto
John Kyle

Review: L is for Lifestyle
Claire Martin

Review: It Will Not Be Taken Away From Her
Cary Gibson

Review: Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance
Paul Rankin

Review: Two Little Boys
John Gillespie

Review: Son
David Smith

Coming Soon

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FAITH IN ULSTER: FACING UP TO DIVERSITY

JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS, beside a small church on a dusty roadside 50 miles from Hatton, Sri Lanka the evangelist told me about the threats he and the small community of new believers had received that week. It was a Friday and the worshippers had been warned that they would be attacked if they gathered the following Sunday. Sunday came, and so did the attack. This has become a regular occurrence in Sri Lanka, a rising tide of religious persecution – attacking people because they are different to the majority community.

It happened again last night. Not in Sri Lanka but a bit closer to home. There was another petrol bomb attack on Portuguese workers in my hometown, Dungannon.¹ Of course they aren’t really Portuguese, more likely to be Brazilian or Angolan, or perhaps from East Timor, but to a section of Dungannon, and indeed Ulster, these details are irrelevant. Those attacked were different – maybe it was their skin colour, or their language, or maybe their religion. They were just different.

Ulster has recently risen to notoriety, with Belfast specifically being named as the racist capital of Europe. A quick scan of most weeks’ papers shows attacks on Chinese in South Belfast, perhaps an Asian in Co Londonderry and ongoing disputes over proposals to build a mosque in Craigavon. Beyond the surface details, two main issues seem to emerge: those of racism and religious freedom.

Racism
The Northern Ireland Protestant doesn’t come out too well in the area of racism. That other communities also fare badly isn’t much comfort, but here we are looking at our own general constituency. Within Northern Ireland, historically, there have been relatively few racist incidents or persecutions directed towards non-Christian communities. The sectarian divisions in Ulster made the tiny ethnic and other faith communities an irrelevance to previous generations, but the measure of peace currently being experienced has, somehow, allowed some of this sectarian aggression to become directed at these minority communities. The parallels between sectarianism and racism are obvious.

The Ulster Scots thrived in the new colonies of America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. More than most, they learned skills from the Native Americans and used those skills to their advantage in establishing prosperous new lives. A mark of that prosperity was slave ownership, probably the clearest expression of racism. The Ulster Scots rarely owned large plantations but the possession of a couple of slaves became the mark of success.² That evangelicals were at the forefront of the abolition of slavery movement is beyond doubt, but that many evangelicals, like Thomas Chalmers, accepted financial support from slave owners is also part of the mixed history.3

The Ulster evangelical believer has been sacrificial in supporting missionary outreach across the world. Most of us financially and prayerfully support missionaries and mission organisations with enthusiasm, we still go as missionaries in significant numbers, but are we more interested in others ‘over there’ than when ‘they’ come here? The evangelical community doesn’t have a good history at accommodating differences – just look at the number of different churches in any town. Perceptions of a racial difference based on skin colour, physical features or language are further ways we can categorise people as ‘them’ rather than ‘us’. Racism is arguably the worst form of discrimination as it opposes someone for who they are rather than for what they think or believe. Most of us would strongly deny that we are racist, but do we acknowledge that we stereotype people as different? Which of us would really welcome the arrival of a Traveller community on our doorstep as an opportunity to share the gospel? Since my hometown has Methodists, Free Methodists and Independent Methodists, let’s not be shocked that we allow skin colour to make a difference and that difference results in separation. This is our problem as evangelicals for whom division is part of our heritage.

Ulster evangelicals need to become increasingly vocal in opposition to racism by upholding the biblical principle of the equality of all people. We know that all are created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26), and that all are equal in God’s sight (Gal. 3:28). This has to be a basic understanding that undergirds how we react to others. Equality of all before God is clear. We are all the same, we are all sinners, we all need a saviour. There is no different path of salvation open to the white, Anglo Saxon (or Ulster Scots) Protestant. If God treats us all the same, why do we sometimes try to introduce manmade divisions? The Gospel doesn’t allow this. As an evangelical community we need to stand up for this gospel value.

We need to resist racism in Ulster because heaven will be a multiracial extravaganza! Revelation 7:9 reminds us that heaven will be an experience of people from every tribe and tongue worshipping together. In heaven we will stand beside Africans, Asians, Native Americans and people of more racial backgrounds we can possibly imagine, and they will stand beside us. Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we call for God’s Kingdom to come. In opposing every semblance of racism we have the opportunity to be part of God’s answer to our prayer.

There is a further Christian imperative to oppose racism found in the teaching of Matthew 25:31-46 where the discussion deals with who is acceptable in God’s sight. When we allow unbiblical attitudes and actions to fester we are allowing these attitudes to be directed towards Jesus. That we may not beware of this is no excuse (Mt. 25:44-45). The teaching of this passage is plain. We are to treat all others as if we are dealing with Jesus. There is nothing easy about this task. It goes against human nature, but then so does so much of the Christian message.

So, an Ulster Christian advocacy of the rights of others is important in its own right⁴ but has added importance in giving us a position from which to relevantly share the good news of Jesus with these emerging ‘people groups’. We still spend significant sums of money on overseas evangelism, and as a former missionary in Sri Lanka I’m an active part of this. But perhaps we also need to look closer to home and direct more of our energy in standing up for the rights of the marginalised and the ‘other’ in Ulster. No evangelical would argue that the gospel should not be shared with all. We still support the evangelisation of Africa and Asia, and need to continue to fulfil the Great Commission there but also to do so here. By standing up for the rights of the marginalised we build relationships with communities that make the sharing of the gospel a more relevant option. Paul became all things to all people so that he could win some for Kingdom (1 Cor. 9:22-23); this must include becoming advocates for the rights of others. The Day of Pentecost (Acts 1:1-47) was about directing the gospel proclamation towards all, no matter what the differences. This we must maintain.

Religious Persecution
Racist attitudes, whether acknowledged or not, can spill over in denying rights to those considered to be the ‘other’, including basic religious freedoms. Ireland’s only organised religious persecution of a non-Christian community occurred in Limerick between 1904-1906 where a Redemptorist priest, Fr John Creagh, orchestrated an economic blockade of the small Jewish community, accompanied by violence.⁵ Ulster evangelicals can rest in the knowledge that we had nothing to do with it. Where we can’t rest is over the position of the Muslim community in Northern Ireland. Leaving aside the initial refusal by members of Ballymena Council of a gift from the local Muslim community, the dispute over the proposed building of a mosque in Craigavon is much more problematic.

The problem is over freedom of religion. As evangelicals we oppose restrictions on Christians worshipping in various countries. We were part of successful campaigns advocating religious freedom in the former Soviet Union. We petition Islamic governments over their treatment of Christian minorities and I look for every opportunity to plead the case of the increasingly persecuted Christian believers in Sri Lanka. At the time of writing an anti-conversion bill is being debated in the Sri Lankan parliament, designed to stop the freedom of Christians to evangelise. Persecution of Christians is far from just a problem in some Islamic countries. Evangelicals in parts of Buddhist Sri Lanka and Hindu India suffer every bit as much. A largely unknown persecution is of Christian converts in the Islamic Maldives. This should be considered when browsing the brochures looking for that paradise holiday destination. We were part of campaigns for freedom for Christians in East Timor, but now that some have moved to Ulster our enthusiasm has grown a little muted.

Freedom of religion – the freedom to believe and practice your religion – is a world principal enshrined in United Nations and European charters on human rights. Are we in danger of stepping beyond the bounds of what is considered acceptable in our lack of support for freedom of worship for Ulster’s Muslims? Whatever the arguments over a specific location, by not supporting Muslims rights to worship in the way they wish are we denying to them what we argue for Christians elsewhere?

Rather than world opinion, it is biblical and Reformation perspectives that carry more weight in the evangelical community. Luther argued for the freedom of the individual to believe based on Scripture rather than having beliefs forced upon him or her.⁶ Calvin had a mixed view, at times enforcing his religious understanding on others, but sharing with Luther an understanding of two kingdoms. The believer exists in both spiritual and earthly realms at the same time. Christian conscience should not be forced to comply with civic commands if they counteract Christianity. His 1536 edition of The Institutes of the Christian Religion had a preface arguing for religious and political freedom for Protestants in France. Thinking Biblically, we distinguish between the need for religious purity for God’s people (Deut. 6:14-15) and the command to welcome others (Lev. 19: 33-34; Ex. 22:21). As Christian believers we cannot compromise what we believe to fit in with political correctness or current trends. When Daniel was expected to bend to political expediency he refused again and again (see Dan. 1:8-17; 6:1-28). His stand was personally costly but it wasn’t designed to gain him popularity or help him progress in his profession. Wanting to ‘fit in’ just isn’t a Christian characteristic. God’s people have to maintain purity but also an openness towards others. Our welcome to the stranger in our own land is rooted in Israel’s experience of being a stranger. How non-Christians view us is important and so we have the injunctions to gain a ‘good reputation with outsiders’ (1 Tim. 3:7, see also Col. 4:5; 1 Thes. 4:12). How do Ulster’s Jews, Muslims and Hindus view the evangelical community?

Jesus demanded purity of worship for God’s people when he cleansed the temple (Mt. 21:12-17) yet showed great tolerance to those beyond the boundaries such as Romans and Samaritans (see Jn. 4:1-26; Lk. 10:25-37; 17:11-19; Mt. 8:5-13; 22:15-22). We have a personal purity to maintain, both in doctrine and ethics, but also need to allow freedom to others. Recent laws in France and Germany forcing school students to remove any religious symbolism are part of a secularisation agenda. Restricting the freedom of others is not a biblical way to promote our own values.

We don’t have to agree with a religious viewpoint to allow it to exist. Evangelicals don’t agree with the beliefs of Islam. We never will. But evangelicals need to allow Muslims in Ulster the same freedoms we want for Christians in Islamic countries, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. Freedom to live, freedom to worship, freedom to share their faith with others. We treat others as we want to be treated (Mt. 22:39; Gal. 5:14; Jas. 2:8), and if we want freedom of worship for ourselves and for Christian believers in other countries, we need to support the rights of others to worship in Northern Ireland. Deuteronomy 27 contains a list of people cursed by God for sinful actions, included on this list are those who ‘withold justice from the alien’ (Deut. 27:19). Inaction, as Matthew 25 reminds us, is no excuse. We cannot hide before God behind the defence that we personally were happy for others to worship in Ulster, that we weren’t stopping ‘them’ and so surely we maintained our witness? Our failure to actively advocate the principle of freedom of religion will be our condemnation.

Conclusion
Racism and religious discrimination mix together in strange ways in Ulster. ‘Protestant’ youths in south Belfast, stoning Filipino nurses on their way home from worshipping in Donegal Road Methodist Church in late 2003, exhibit a racism that unites with an Ulster loyalism that is opposed to biblical standards and basic Christianity. The end result is secular Protestants attacking freedom of religion for believing Christians. If one of those youths were to be injured he may be treated by those same nurses he attacked and visited by the minister of the church whose members he was stoning.

It is clear that elements within Ulster society are becoming more racist and seeking to oppose the religious freedom of others. Evangelicals are human and we are as capable of sinning as anyone else and some of us will share this overt racism. We are also in danger of being included in this segment of population by inaction. We need to be activists for biblical standards, always conscious that we are to be increasingly different from the society around us (Rom. 12:2). Let’s stand up for the dignity of all people in Ulster and the freedom for all to live out their faith. I attend a Methodist church in Dublin where people from over 20 nations in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas worship together. It’s a Revelation 7:9 thing, let’s live it out.

NOTES
1 7 June 2004. Dungannon is now over 10% Portuguese speaking.
2 See Rolston, B. & Shannon, M., Encounters: How Racism Came to Ireland, (Belfast: Beyond the Pale, 2002), pp. 35-38.
3 Rolston, B. & Shannon, M., Encounters, pp. 80-81.
4See Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Race Relations Committee, Report to Assembly 2003 entitled ‘Policy on Asylum Seekers and Refugees’ available at www.presbyterianireland.org/index.html.
5 See Keogh, D., Jews in Twentieth Century Ireland, Cork: Cork University Press, 1998
6See Martin Luther, On the Freedom of a Christian(1520).

STEPHEN SKUCE is Methodist minister working as a chaplain in University College Dublin, lecturing part-time at the Irish Bible Institute and Queen’s University Belfast. He has served in Methodist circuits in Ireland and as a mission partner in Sri Lanka.