It’s not the landscape, containing some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe. It’s not the blue sky or the green sea, or the ready banter on the busy streets. It’s not the widespread influence of gospel ministry, or even the comparisons that must be drawn between the evangelical churches of today and those caught up in revival almost 150 years ago. Instead, it’s the latent assumption among many people on both sides of the border and the sectarian divide, that Protestantism and Unionist politics must go hand-in-hand.
This assumption has been given its classic expression in the motto ”For God and Ulster”. The motto means many things to many people. In fact, a recent book contained dozens of contributions from a range of church leaders illustrating exactly that fact. But gable-end murals in towns and villages repeat the theme that the gospel will stand or fall with the link with Britain.
This assumption does not serve the best interests of either of the parties it claims to represent. Unionism -the political philosophy that argues for the continuation of the link between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK- is entering a period of profound crisis. With the British and Irish governments setting a deadline for the resumption of the power-sharing assembly in Stormont, the Unionist population has to come to terms with the fact that the party they overwhelmingly elected into power -Ian Paisley’s DUP- may well be guided by the voices of political pragmatists to enter government with Sinn Fein, the political front of the IRA.
Many Unionist voters are realising that their political strategists are driving rapidly up a dead-end street. The case for the Union must be made more cogently, and more urgently, than ever before. As the population statistics of Northern Ireland no longer reflect a Unionist majority, so Unionist leaders must make the case for the Union to a population broader than the conservative Protestants whose votes they have traditionally taken for granted. Unionism must become bigger than Protestantism.
Simultaneously, Protestantism must become bigger than Unionism. If it is to be taken seriously on either side of the border, Biblical evangelicalism must step back from the popular culture of Ulster Protestantism to adopt a prophetic voice as to its strengths and weaknesses. Ulster evangelicals must be reminded of the reality of their heavenly citizenship, of their spiritual weaponry, and of the transience of all earthly kingdoms. Too often, the religious nationalism of Ulster protestants slips into something closely akin to the deification of the state that lay at the heart of the emperor worship that plagued the earliest churches. The gospel does not depend for its success on the continuation of any political agenda. Protestantism must become bigger than Unionism.
Of course, the motto ”For God and Ulster” has always simplified a more complex series of relationships between Unionism and the Gospel. But if either Unionism or evangelical witness are to advance, the link that many have drawn between them must be systematically re-thought.
The author is lecturer in Renaissance literature at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
