Ultimately the question is not going to be: Did you hate Britain?

Did you hate Jesus Christ?

You may think that that is a strange question. When you consider the life of the Lord, Jesus Christ, many people will say how could you possibly hate him? He went about doing good, teaching people, healing people, casting out their demons. Even the liberal theologians, Arians of a variety of colours, races and ethnicity, and atheists acknowledge that he was in every, or at least many, respects a remarkable person who deserves no little respect for how he conducted himself whilst he walked upon this earth in his mortal flesh.

But to show someone respect is not the same as to love them. And to hate someone does not preclude the giving of respect to them.

What then is the answer to the question?

Before going there, what was the point of asking whether someone hated Britain or not? Why did they think it mattered? Is the answer not something to do with nationalism – or as the Italians are not ashamed to call it nazionalismo – whether the answer to the question is yes or no, the very asking of the question derives from nazism. If my answer to the question Do I hate Britain? is No, then I may quite rightly be called a nationalist, that is to say a nazi. In the late twentieth and now the 21st centuries that has become an epithet which no English speaking man would want to be written on his memorial. ‘He loved his land. He was a nationalist. Era un nazi[onalista]. He was a nazi.’ But if my answer is Yes, then what? I am villified by the press as a man who has no right to live and remain in that land.

You wish to quibble with me, don’t you? To be a lover of your country is not to be a nazi. I am sorry, but it is. There is no getting away from the fact that that is what a nazi is and is what is a nazi. He loved his nation. Amava la sua nazione. Egli era un nazionalista. He was a nazi.

The point of this, is not to prove whether or not you are a Nazi, in the much more narrow and restricted sense in which the word has come to be used in the English language, but to show that ultimately the question Do you love Britian? or its counterpart Do you hate Britain? or indeed any other country, land, nation, sovereign state, federation or empire for such things are not coextensive, there are nations within federations and nations across countries, and even nations within nations, is not of such significance that it really matters, for whatever the answer to the question there will be others who will give a different answer for different reasons, though they may both enjoy the same rights, privileges, upbringing ethnicity and legal status.

So to return to the real question: Did you hate Jesus Christ?

I have already suggested that it is difficult not to give him respect and recognize his goodness, but to say that I love him? Well that is an entirely different matter indeed. But unless you love him, you do in fact hate him. Why do I say that and what evidence is there to support and prove that?

Do I love him?
How do I know?
Am I against him?
Am I for him?
What did he say?
If you love me…
Many will say to me….

Now you may dispute with me and say, but did he not himself say: he who is not against me is for me?

Finally, there is a connection between this question and the one asked in the press: do you hate Britain? The Lord said to Cæsar’s captain: Is that what you say or have others told you? My kingdom is not of this world. If it were my disciples would rise up and fight.

My kingdom is not of this world tells us that he does have a kingdom, and so the question becomes: do you hate Britain or do you hate his kingdom? A man cannot serve two masters. He cannot own allegience to two countries¹. So do you owe allegience to the kingdom of the Lord, Jesus Christ, or do you refuse him allegience and prefer one of the kingdoms of this world? If you prefer this world, you do not love him. If you prefer his kingdom then you have in the strictest sense of the word, hated this world and the kingdom into which you were born.

So then, a better eulogy for your memorial than ‘He loved his land. He was a nationalist.’ would be ‘He loved the Lord. He loved the kingdom of God. He hated Britain.’ but no-one would ever write that, would they?

The psalmist, speaking of the kingdom of God, wrote:

¹His foundation is in the holy mountains. ²The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. ³Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God! ⁴’I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know me; behold, O Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia: ‘This one was born there.’ ‘ ⁵And of Zion it will be said, ‘This one and that one were born in her; and the Most High himself shall establish her.’ ⁶ The LORD will record, when he registers the peoples: ‘This one was born there.’ ⁷Both the singers and the players on instruments say, ‘All my springs of joy are in you.’ Psalm 87