Yesterday's clerics' errors

 Lord Harries of Pentregarth, former Bishop of Oxford                                Picture credit: Endeavour Public Affairs

The former Bishop of Oxford, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, features in the Oxford Times "weighing in on EU vote". He is among 37 "faith leaders" who in an open letter to the public have called on Britain to stay in the EU. Lord Harries is a former collaborator of the Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan who together with Dr Morgan's predecessor and former Archbishop of Canterbury, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, signed the open letter. Considering this trio's judgement on the ordination of women and their liberal agenda resulting in the parlous state of Anglicanism, particularly in Wales, it is difficult to afford much credibility to their opinions on the European Referendum.

As for the former Bishop of Oxford, an ardent promoter of same sex marriage, his opinions would be better left in the ivory towers of Oxford. This is the cleric who suggested that the Coronation of Prince Charles should be opened with a reading from the Koran, as a ‘creative act of accommodation’ to make Muslims feel ‘embraced’ by the nation.

There will be plenty to 'embrace' based on report from Migration Watch, "The Refugee and Migrant Crisis in the EU – The Potential Implications for the UK". It claims that up to "half a million refugees and their relatives" could move to Britain after 2020 in a "secondary flow of refugees" because of EU rules on the free movement of people. While Germany, Greece and Italy had borne the brunt of Europe's refugee crisis, those granted asylum could settle in the UK in the coming years once they had acquired EU citizenship.

Based on his 2015 Christmas plea the Archbishop of Wales will be thrilled to read that Cardiff, Swansea and Newport have been named as three out of 10 places in the UK with the highest number of asylum seekers per head of population.

The 2011 census recorded 45,950 Muslims in Wales, far more than the 30,468 average Sunday attendances in 2014 reported by the Church in Wales. Most of the Muslims in Wales are spread between Cardiff (23,656), Newport (6,859) and Swansea (5,415) with smaller communities in the valleys and across rural and North Wales.

In their appeal to the electorate the faith leaders claim that "faith is about integration and building bridges, not about isolation and erecting barriers. As leaders and senior figures of faith communities, we urge our co-religionists and others to think about the implications of a Leave vote for the things about which we are most passionate."

TOSH! As the former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks rightly pointed out on the BBC Newsnight programme last night, "multiculturalism has been a failure". He referred to the warning by Trevor Phillips, the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, that "British Muslims are becoming a nation within a nation". Trevor Phillips said we are "in danger of sacrificing a generation of young British people to values that are antithetical to the beliefs of most of us, including many Muslims".

The Remain campaign has lost much credibility by basing their claims on scare stories, foggy forecasts and guesstimates. There may or may not be problems if we leave but these pale into insignificance compared with the ramifications of uncontrolled immigration which have not been properly addressed.

Still in denial of the genocide of Armenian and other Christian minorities in the years 1915 and 1916, Turkey hopes to join the EU. That would result in 78 million mainly Muslim people, and rising, eligible to go where they please in Europe compared with Turkey's population of less than 30 million in 1960.

As Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan says, "Family planning not for Muslims". In Great Britain Census figures reveal a ‘startling’ shift in Britain’s demographic trend with almost a tenth of babies and toddlers born in England and Wales being Muslim'. Combining immigration figures with the higher birth rate it is understandable that some forecasters predict that Christianity is set to be a minority religion in Britain by 2050 as Islam and atheism rise.

The Justice Secretary Michael Gove has claimed that he has been forced to allow terror suspects to enter Britain because European Union rules left him powerless to intervene. During his time in the Cabinet Mr Gove "experienced frustration" at Britain’s "inability to refuse entry to those with a criminal record and even some who are suspected of terrorist links".

The only way to bring order to our borders is to "quit the EU", says former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith.

Postscript [06.06.2016]

From the Rev Dr Peter Mullen: Bishops are no laughing matter