National borders needs to be respected, says church minister

Christian minister Peter Simpson has taken issue with the Archbishop of York’s claims that the mass deportation of asylum seekers lacks compassion.

Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, told The Mirror that Reform UK’s planned mass deportations are “beneath us as a nation”.

“It is the Christian strategy to meet those asking for help with compassion and understanding and it has long been the British strategy to give shelter where we are able to to those escaping violence and conflict abroad,” he said.

“It should remain that way.”

However, retired street preacher Simpson, argued in The Conservative Woman that such a lax attitude to upholding the laws and borders of the country goes against scripture.

Simpson wrote, “Yes, in fact the Christian loves his neighbour whoever he’s, but that love doesn’t require the abandonment of divinely ordained national boundaries, nor the condoning of deliberate criminality by those searching for entry to the UK.”

Far from being helpless victims, Simpson argued that many migrants who enter the country illegally have broken numerous God’s commands in doing so, the primary of which is the command to respect the laws of the temporal power.

He went on to say that there was “the problem of the morality of claiming asylum when one just isn’t fleeing for one’s life, as migrants coming from France are most definitely not”.

“France is a protected country,” he noted. 

He argued that, having arrived in Britain under false pretences, it will be a breach of God’s commandment against stealing to simply accept taxpayer-funded largesse in the shape of hotels, food and other services.

He concluded that “national boundaries are the ordinance of God and have to be respected as such”.