The move will come from the political side. The risk is not that religious leaders will use the faith to gain political power….extremists on the Right will do what Anderson and others sought to do at Easter time.
There was one particular sacrificial lamb worth noting over Easter…
The photograph of Liz Truss wrestling a poor beast with about as much compassion as she showed while joining Steve Bannon lauding Tommy Robinson. This stood alongside the cultivated use of Easter in imagery and word from others, including Lee Anderson, whose home is currently the ‘Reform’ party. Anderson tweeted a Good Friday greeting, depicting the cross – a symbol of love – in an advert for a party with Reform’s record.
Anderson’s use of Good Friday resembled his similar use of Christianity in an attempt to peg his “want my country back” populism to the faith. Writing in the Daily Express”[1] Lee got a bit upset at Ramadan lights being put up in London, bleating:
“The last time I checked Britain is a Christian country, it is enshrined in our law. So why is it that one of the most important religious festivals in the country is not proudly celebrated in the nation’s capital?”
He ascribed this to: “A disastrous mix of uncontrolled low-skilled immigration and a well-heeled woke elite in our institutions” resulting in “rapid cultural change.”
Of course sending an Easter message is generally a fine thing . It’s just that using the faith that opened wide the arms of love as a means of promoting a party of xenophobia is a bit ironic.
Such faux-faith also featured on the GB News coverage of Ramadan lights, in which the presenters made it clear that, while not of a religious hue, they wanted cultural Christianity.
Someone enlighten me: when did we ever put up Easter lights in this country? Is Easter that sort of festival? Maybe it is in “cultural Christianity” but in the churches across the capital that all celebrated the weekend, there is a journey from darkness to light.
However, the appeal of populist Right wingers to Christianity is worth a careful watch, particularly if we are about to enter one of those times when a party that has been in government goes into opposition.
Here’s a prediction: in the coming years, the extreme Right wing of politics will exploit the turmoil they enter after an electoral defeat and attempt to manufacture, something similar to the grotesque effigy of Christian faith that has been on the rise across the Atlantic for some years now.
Disturbing links are already there. The recent investigation of Paul Marshall, owner of GB News and major contributor to the Conservative Party, listed some of the hateful extreme material he has been re-tweeting. The Newsagents Podcast and Hope Not Hate catalogued Marshall’s sharing of disturbing, extremist opinions, such as “Civil war is coming. There has never been a country that has remained peaceful with a sizeable Islamic presence” (You can find his other tweets here).
This has just been followed up by Andrew Graystone’s excellent article for ‘Prospect’ magazine, highlighting Marshall’s influence and connection within the powerhouse of a church that is Holy Trinity Brompton, including his influence within the Church of England’s national strategic development and within Lambeth Palace itself.
Graystone meticulously explores the theological roots of Marshall’s activity. He calmly suggests: “we’re not likely to see the emergence of a religious right in Britain comparable with the evangelical movement in the US any time soon.”
His reasoning is that “The historic social liberalism of the Church of England means the identification between evangelicals and the political right is nowhere near as potent.”
However, it’s worth remembering that when Trump first promoted his candidacy for the presidency he was given a somewhat cool reception by the mainstream fundamentalist Christian leaders. It wasn’t long before they were chasing him for photo-ops.
Just to be clear, the move will come from the political side. The risk is not that religious leaders will use the faith to gain political power. That actually seems less likely than the more potent possibility that extremists on the Right will do what Anderson and others sought to do at Easter time and use Christian faith as a means of gaining support. In the first instance, this won’t involve identification between evangelical leadership and the political right but rather, in a manner akin to the way such populist thinking infected the voters of the Red Wall, church leadership may find their congregations change in this direction – and this, before they wake up to that shift. As with the rise of Trump, it will come from below and surprise those who lead.
The risk is not an embrace from conservative Christianity towards the political right; its in the potential of the latter to use the former.
If this is worth keeping a look out for, where is it worth looking?
One place to watch was already indicated by Anderson and others over Easter. Watch out for a creeping Islamophobia that has little to do with Islam but a lot to do with misguided definitions of a “Christian country.”
In an echo of the bonkers Great Replacement conspiracy theory, “I want my country back” will be made to sound like a place that needs to displace to be regained.
The other hook baited to catch Christianity will be the various culture wars. Watch as the emerging right first whip up and then exploit matters surrounding gender, race and tolerance. These will get tied up with a nostalgia for the way things were when kids were smacked and criminals hung.
“I want my country back” will be made to sound like a clock that needs to wind backwards.
Interesting to note that the church in the background of Truss’s photo is closed and derelict. In the years ahead Christianity in this country will see a few more buildings go the same way. There is a need to guard against false religion that sees such shifts as the fault of others, rather than something that we need to explore within our own faith – the possibility that weakness and actual dying of some of that cultural or national religion may be how we renew this faith. The possibility that this is the way to renewed life, the possibility of Resurrection. That may be the Easter message.
Huw Thomas
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If this was of interest then this one on migration may be and this one is a bit sillier, about that Reform moment when they ran away.
[1] “Britain is a Christian nation – it is time to demand our country back, says Lee Anderson” 28th March 2024
Huw Thomas 