An Englishman’s home is his castle

“An Englishman’s home is his castle” or so the saying goes. The saying came from politician Sir Edward Coke in a 1604 common law ruling. He stated that “the house of every one is to him as his Castle and Fortress as well for defence against injury and violence, as for his repose”.

There is certainly some truth is this, I am British, and more specifically English and I know we are not known as the most hospitable, welcoming nation. It’s not this aspect that I want to explore.

I would like to reword the saying ” An Englishman’s finances are his castle”.  What do I mean by that?  Having been the UK Financial Sozo director for a number of years I have noticed how hard we find it to open about finances and even how defensive we can be about this area.

Why is this? If we lived in China discussion of our salary would be open. Or for those in Nordic cultures public tax registries make it completely normal—and legally accessible—to view exactly what friends, neighbours, and colleagues earn. These are just some examples of openess about finances in other cultures.

If you are from the UK – stop and think how many people do you openly talk about finances with? How many people know your income or do you know the income off?  How many people see your finances- incomings and outgoings?

My guess would be that for most British people we wouldn’t share these details even with our dearest friends. I can count on one hand the close friends that would discuss this openly.

I am not going to give some pop psychology reasons for this but I have seen the affect it has.

We are told that we should “Seek first the Kingdom of God” Matthew 6 v 33.  We want to see the Kingdom of God come in every area of life – education, healthcare, media, and all the other mountains. To see this happen money is needed- money to run charities that bring change, money to create opportunities, money for buildings etc. Yet most ministries, charities and Churches I know are struggling to have enough money to do what they feel called to do.

We need to be able to talk about money freely and openly if we want to see God’s Kingdom come. Maybe it’s time to challenge our the British cultural norm.