The Bishop of Leeds has called for an end to the Brexit 'mudslinging' as he urged Christians to offer an alternative message.
Writing in his blog, the Rt Rev Nick Baines said Christians needed to give hope to people in the 'current dangerous circumstances of division and insecurity and growing fear'.
With Britons remaining sharply divided over Brexit, he said that it should be a 'priority' for everyone, including the nation's leaders, to pay attention to their language.
'I have repeatedly pleaded for our legislature to watch its language and do something to redeem our articulated common life,' he said.
'Everyone agrees, but many then promptly revert to the categorising and mudslinging.'
He warned that the rise of populism not only in the UK but across Europe and in the US risked reducing public discourse to 'the trading of competing slogans devoid of substantive vision' and creating a 'culture that confuses patriotism with nationalism' .
Days away from a key Brexit vote in Parliament, Bishop Baines said the Brexit debate was no longer about political vision or substance and had instead become 'visceral and emotional'.
'Poor people might well get considerably poorer, but many would still vote to leave, anyway,' he said.
'But, Christians are not driven by fear; we are drawn by hope. A hope that comes to us from the future – resurrection. It is a hope that should not be confused with fantasy.'
He urged Christians to question the 'dualistic language being used to perpetuate a common sense of crisis, and to divide people according to notions of who is in and who is out'.
Instead, he said the church needed to consider the voiceless and 'resist those who offer simplistic (but emotionally appealing) solutions to complex questions'.
'We must question what we are being fed through media, and question which values are being driven by which people, especially when charismatic leaders are involved,' he said.
'We must insist on integrity, on consistency within clear moral frameworks, on the place of head over heart when making big decisions that have consequences for many people.'
