In a comment on my most recent post reader Steve links to a reply to an open letter apparently signed by the entire religious Establishment of Britain, condemning “Christian nationalism” in the form of the spontaneous expressions of Christian faith at the Tommy Robinson rally a couple of months ago. Since my blog mentions the forthcoming mass carol concert in London, also organised by Robinson’s people, it’s worthy of further comment.
First, let me quote the list of signatories to the original open letter:
Rt Revd. Philip Mounstephen, Bishop of Winchester, Gavin Calver, CEO, Evangelical Alliance, Bishop Mike Royal, General Secretary, Churches Together in England Revd. Richard Andrew, President, Methodist Conference 2025/26 Jude Levermore, Head of Mission, Methodist Church Matt Forsyth, Vice-President, Methodist Conference 2025/26 Commissioners Jenine and Paul Main, Territorial Leaders, The Salvation Army United Kingdom and Ireland Revd. Lynn Green, General Secretary, The Baptist Union of Great Britain, Bishop Tedroy M. Powell, National Presiding Bishop, Church of God of Prophecy Trust. (U.K.), Rev Fiona Smith, Principal Clerk of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Rt Revd. Dr Rowan Williams, Honorary Assistant Bishop, Llandaff Rt Revd. Dr David Walker, Bishop of Manchester, Rt Revd. Christopher Chessun, Bishop of Southwark, Rt Revd. Toby Howarth, Bishop of Bradford, Chine McDonald, Director, Theos Revd. Lucy Winkett, Rector, St James’s Piccadilly, Dr Christopher Baker, Professor of Religion and Public Life, Goldsmiths, University of London, Debra Green OBE, Executive Director, Redeeming Our Communities, Revd. Canon Dr Jennifer Smith, Wesley’s Chapel and Leysian Mission. Rt Revd. Dr Rosemarie Mallett, Bishop of Croydon, Dr Anthony Reddie, Professor of Black Theology, University of Oxford Dr. Robert Beckford, Professor of Black Theology, Queen’s Foundation, Kat Osborn, Co-CEO, Safe Families and Home for Good, Dr. Krish Kandiah OBE, Director, Sanctuary Foundation, Tania Bright, Co-CEO, Safe Families and Home for Good, Very Revd. Dr Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark Paul S Williams, Chief Executive, Bible Society, Ven. Dr Rachel Mann, Archdeacon of Salford and Bolton, Raymond Friel OBE, CEO, Caritas, the Catholic Social Action Network, Lord Rees of Easton, Rt Revd. Rob Wickham, Group CEO, Church Urban Fund, Rt Revd. Alastair Cutting, Bishop of Woolwich, Ross Hendry, CEO of CARE (Christian Action Research and Education), Revd. Dr Sam Wells, Vicar, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Rt Revd. Dr Martin Gainsborough, Bishop of Kingston, Revd. Canon Steve Chalke MBE, Founder of Oasis Charitable Trust
If your own denominational leadership is not represented here you’re probably non-denominational. From the order of signatures, the initiative may have originated from the Evangelical wing of the Church. But it includes liberal, Anglo-Catholic, progressive, social gospel, Pentecostal and, in fact, a whole range of views one would think to be fundamentally incompatible.
For example, the Bishop of Winchester’s Wikipedia page mentions his firm stand on traditional marriage, whereas a number of the other bishops have been keen advocates of not only gay marriage, but gay priests. Some non-Anglican denominational leaders have expressed a leaning towards LGBTQ in the face of the contrary opinion of a majority of their denominations. Some of the clerical signatories are in same-sex relationships.
On more crucial theological matters, too, mutually contradictory views seem not to matter. You may remember that Steve Chalke has achieved notoriety within the Baptist Union and the whole Charismatic movement not only for his advocacy for LGBTQ issues, but for his denial of the substitutionary atonement of Christ as “Cosmic Child Abuse.” But the more liberal Anglicans would also deny the content of the gospel embraced by the Evangelical Alliance folks and the Anglo-Catholics.
There are recipients of National Hate Crime Awards, regular contributors to The Guardian and Channel 4, advocates of Black Theology, deniers of the existence of race, activists for open borders, and more.
My point is that this is an assemblage of people who differ fundamentally both on the essentials of the Faith, and on the “hot-button” topics of the moment. Yet these issues, it seems, pale into insignificance compared to the one doctrinal shibboleth – the misuse of the cross for nationalistic purposes, as they perceive it.
There has been no similar united voice from all corners of Christendom on the systematic rape of young girls across our cities to which Tommy Robinson has been trying to draw attention for two decades. There has been precious little advocacy for the ethnic cleansing of Christians across nations in Africa and Asia. There has been little concern for the economic hardships of British working people under a succession of governments. There has been no united effort to reverse decline in church attendance.
Most of all, there has been no show of solidarity on what the New Testament teaches as the central truths of Christianity – that all men everywhere should repent, and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord of all. Funnily enough, though, that appears to be exactly what a majority of the Deplorable Christians on the London March have been saying in their informal evangelism.
And those non-Christians recognising, at least, that Christianity is what has created most of what is good in politics, were waving crosses that have been “misused” for nationalistic purposes for many centuries on the flags not only of English, Scottish and Irish states but by Scandinavian, Greek, and other Christian nations represented on the march. The letter should, to be consistent, have condemned the “In hoc signo vinces” which, in abbreviated form, has hung from so many pulpits for 1700 years.
There were, it is true, a very few (actually one) questionable calls from the stage of the London rally to close down all non-Christian places of worship or expel those of other faiths from the country. These came from obvious representatives of the Dominionist programme arising from the Pentecostal Latter Rain movement. But I was gratified to hear Tommy Robinson subsequently distancing himself from such ideas, which came unforeseen from church groups flying in from abroad. And if the trad-marriage Bishop of Winchester is happy to share a verbal platform with those calling for its abolition, I can’t see how the genuinely grass-roots desire that Christ should be given priority in the institutions of this nation should not be cut some slack for diversity of opinion.
So, whilst the reply to which Steve linked maybe overstated the case that the writers were all Champagne Socialists and Guardianistas, his basic point was, in my view, valid. The “Christian consensus” letter came not from a consensus based on the Christian faith, but on a consensus fully compliant with the zeitgeist of our ruling elites.
And that reminds me, in closing, of a song I wrote forty years ago, with a funk vibe:
The Holy Bible tells me
The people Jesus won
He spent his time with prostitutes
With madmen and with scum
But now we’ve teas for ladies
And clubs for gentlemen
I don’t think we’d like Jesus’ friends
If he came back again.Chorus:
What do you see
When you look at Jesus
When you look upon that tree (brothers and sisters)?
What do you see
When you look at Jesus
When you look at Calvary?As those crowds in Galilee
Saw Jesus walk along
They wept for hatred of their sins
And turned from doing wrong
But guilt’s a dirty word for us
We all do what we please
Everybody’s born again
But no-one’s on their knees.Listen to me Christians
There’s something that’s not right
Jesus gave his life to make us
Pure and holy light
Jesus gave his life to make us
Salt to feed the earth
Look around and tell me
If you think that’s what we’re worth.
