Sell out. Treachery. Mendacious. Toxic. Wreckers. These are but a few of the words I have either read or heard over the past few days. And that's not to mention the scary scenes we witnessed on the streets of London last week.
To quote Gabriel Pogrund in the Sunday Times, "Anti Brexit demonstrators were condemned for 'abusing, intimidating and screaming' at MPs."
Jacob Rees-Mogg and his eleven year old child needed police protection as they made their way home amidst shouts of 'shame on you', 'traitor' and 'Nazi'. Similar fates befell Andrea Leadsom and Michael Gove.
As I've spent time thinking about these depressing developments in the excruciating Brexit saga, I've found it helpful to return to the story of William Wilberforce. Wilberforce, of course, is best known for his long and ultimately successful fight against slavery, and there were times when he need protection too.
But, as Martin Robinson points out in his superb book, "Invading Secular Space", Wilberforce realised it was not enough to change the law. He knew the core values of society needed to change. Time and time again, for example, he was told that if he didn't want to get involved in the slave trade, there were plenty of others who did. Indeed cynicism and selfishness set the tone to such an extent that Wilberforce concluded that people felt they had to pretend to be worse than they actually were to gain any sort of credibility.
It was for this reason Wilberforce embarked on his campaign to make "goodness fashionable", or to put it another way, to persuade people that telling the truth, listening to others with respect, and treating others as you would want to be treated yourself is the best way to live.
The apostle Paul summed it up in these words: "Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too."
And, because he was a Christian, Wilberforce worked on the premise that God was on his side and would help him win the argument. Consequently he and his friends in the Clapham Sect took prayer so seriously.
There are those who are doing that today too. I was forcibly reminded of this recently when I was invited to Lambeth Palace to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the Neighbourhood Prayer Network. The concept is very simple: Christians assume responsibility for praying for those who live on their particular street. And it's proving a phenomenal blessing, with more than five and a half thousand streets now covered in regular prayer.
The Bishop of Lambeth was particularly encouraging. He spoke of a village in Dorset where a small local church decided to keep a watching brief on houses that went up for sale. As soon as they saw one they began to pray for those who would eventually live in them. Things didn't change overnight of course, but change they certainly did. The church grew but, just as importantly, the atmosphere in the village changed markedly.
Stories like this should drive us to our knees and prompt us to pray much more fervently for our disunited Kingdom at this crucial time in our history. Brexit is not the cause of our problems; it has merely highlighted them.
Rob James is a Baptist minister, writer and church and media consultant to the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is the author of Little Thoughts About a Big God.
