The Church of England has embarked on a rather noble and doomed attempt to pressure the government into admitting refugees from the catastrophe in Iraq. This isn’t very organised but it doesn’t need to be. Almost all the bishops and even the clergy who take an interest in government policy think we should be doing something about the Christian and Yazidi victims of the advance of Islamic State (Isis). The latest manifestation was a letter from Nick Baines, the bishop of Leeds, to David Cameron, written with the knowledge and approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
Baines wrote that “there has been increasing silence about the plight of tens of thousands of Christians who have been displaced, driven from cities and homelands, and who face a bleak future. Despite appalling persecution, they seem to have fallen from consciousness, and I wonder why. Does your government have a coherent response to … these huge numbers of Christians whose plight appears to be less regarded than that of others?”
He pointed out that the government had failed to answer questions on the matter in the House of Lords. Other bishops have made their own protests, as have Roman Catholic leaders. The pope has said that Isis “gravely offends God and humanity”, which is remarkably strong language from a man cautious about Christian-Muslim relations.
The bishops’ reasoning is simple enough. They look at the horror in northern Iraq and see that it fulfils all the conditions for a just war against Isis. The only snag is that we no longer have the means to wage such a war, largely owing to our earlier unjust invasion of Iraq, which contributed to the present catastrophe. So the simple principle of restitution demands that if any Iraqi refugees do manage to make it here, they should be welcomed.
The government’s position, which of course the bishops understand perfectly well, is that it is only eight months to an election when it will be fighting Ukip on the issue of immigration. The grownups are busy and don’t want to be distracted with prattle about justice.
This can’t be said out loud, which is why the government is ignoring all the hard questions. But they won’t go away. If there really is a global threat to British interests from Islamist ideologues, we need a coherent and consistent policy to deal with it – and that will sometimes involve succouring its victims.
The bishops are for once entirely right. If we will neither relieve the suffering of Iraqi religious minorities nor come to their aid with an army, we are in effect treating them as the Egyptians treat the inhabitants of Gaza, though rather less forgivably because no sane person would prefer Isis to the Israel Defence Forces. The only thing that does not make this morally apparent is that the barricaded frontiers are thousands of miles from our shores.
Christians in this case may merely be wringing their hands, but this is preferable to washing them.