The Bradford taxi driver was insistent – despite my sceptical questioning: “Yes, they’ve burned down two churches – and nobody can say anything about it since you will likely be called racist … Bradford isn’t any longer Bradford – the Muslim influence is just too strong.” That conversation a decade ago got here to mind this past week after I read of two political proposals to ‘make Britain Christian again’ or ‘keep Britain Christian’.
Rupert Lowe, the leader of the newly launched Restore party, tweeted, “Britain is a Christian country, and under a Restore Britain Government – it would remain a Christian country.” Meanwhile Reform UK stated that it will grant some 40,000 UK churches listed status to stop them being converted into mosques. Zia Yusuf, who acts as Reforms ‘shadow home secretary, promised that this could prevent alterations affecting their historic character and would restrict change of use. What is intriguing is that Mr Yusuf, a Muslim, argues that that is required to revive Britain’s Christian heritage and to make sure that Britain stays Christian to its core. All that is deemed mandatory due to “the sheer quantities of folks that got here to the country in a brief time period”.
There were various Christian responses to this. Some welcomed it, seeing it as a great and mandatory intervention in what may very well be termed the ‘religious culture wars’. Others regarded it as a cynical move by what they perceive as ‘the Far Right’ in search of to capitalise on Christian symbolism in pursuit of their political ends. A standard response from not a couple of evangelical leaders was along the lines of the MP, Stuart Anderson, who tweeted, “Christianity isn’t about buildings. It is about having a relationship with Jesus. Knowing He is the way in which, the reality and the life and sharing this glorious news.”
That is after all true. But it’s also a truism which falls into the trap of constructing an either/or case when the situation is more complex. The proven fact that there may be a greater truth doesn’t mean that there should not lesser ones. While Christianity is about having a private relationship with Christ and sharing the wonderful news, it’s also in regards to the implication and outworking of that news – at a private, community and national level.
No true Christian would argue that Christianity was about buildings – but there are only a few who would say it has nothing to do with buildings. I find buildings very useful and would find my evangelism much hindered without the nice old constructing that’s Scots Kirk, Newcastle, where I’m currently minister.
I assumed of Mr Anderson’s remarks on a stopover in Istanbul when recently travelling between Australia and my homeland of Scotland. I had desired to go and see the Hagia Sophia, probably the grandest church constructing ever built. But sadly, I couldn’t – not only due to time constraints but additionally since it has been changed into a mosque and since 2024, Christians haven’t been permitted to enter the lower hall. Maybe it’s my relationship with Jesus Christ, and my desire to see him glorified, that I feel greater than just a little upset that his church and other people have been so colonised in this fashion?!
Others noted that Islam was not the issue, it was the rejection of Christianity by the native Brits which was the true reason that Britain was losing its Christian heritage. We would only get to be a ‘Christian country’ if nearly all of people were truly Christian. Again, there may be great truth on this. But it isn’t the entire truth. You don’t require nearly all of the population to be truly converted (how would you measure that anyway?). Most of us are in churches where we cannot really determine the true percentage of real Christians are – the wheat and the tares grow together.
This also applies by way of Islam. I’m told that nearly all of Iranians not frequently attend mosques. Does that mean Iran isn’t really a Muslim country? My own view is that when a town or city within the West becomes greater than 15-20% Islamic, then the entire community is greatly modified. Give me 10% of a community becoming clearly Christian and there isn’t any doubt that that community can be turned the wrong way up!
To argue that we would wish a majority of true Christians is to argue that Britain was never Christian. In a purist sense I suppose that might make sense, but by way of historical and practical reality it’s not true. Anyone who doubts that our foundations and culture are fundamentally Christian should read Tom Holland’s Dominion. What I call the pietist approach sounds right since it uses all the precise evangelical buzzwords, and it has the advantage of us not having to fret in regards to the state of society – because in any case Jesus will sort it out ultimately; but I’d argue it’s a lazy and unhelpful strategy to interpret Scripture. Just because the so-called Christian Nationalists veer an excessive amount of in a single direction, so the Christian pietists swing too far the opposite way.
Meanwhile the church progressives have also had their say. The Baptist minister Steve Chalke appeared on LBC to argue as a self-appointed ‘Christian theologian’ that those that desired to make Britain Christian again were mistaken. Chalke began by arguing his usual mantra – ‘Jesus wasn’t a Christian’. Rather than being the sensible ‘wow’ point that Chalke thinks, it’s a moderately irrational argument. Of course Jesus wasn’t a Christian – a Christian is in any case someone who follows Christ and worships him. Jesus doesn’t follow and worship himself! The trouble is that Chalke seems to see the term Christian as much like a racial identity – just as Jesus doesn’t care about what color your skin is, so he doesn’t care about what religion you’ve gotten. That’s about as far-off from the Christ of the Bible as you possibly can get.
If Chalke meant Jesus welcomes everyone from whatever religious background, so long as they turn to him in repentance and faith, then what he says can be true. But he’s using the term ‘inclusive’ to suggest that Jesus would don’t have any problem with someone being a Muslim – someone who de facto due to their religion denies who Christ is (the Son of God) and what he did (died on the cross for our sins).
And here we come to the elephant within the room. How strange it’s that a Muslim like Yusuf seems to know it greater than a ‘Christian’ minister like Chalke! The query that each Lowe and Yusuf are referring to is the rise of Islam, and the decline of Christianity inside Britain. While it’s true that the rise of Islam has not caused the decline of Christianity, it’s also true that the rise of Islam in Britain, together with its (for now!) political allies, the Green progressives, will speed up the death of Christian Britain, and can end in discrimination and persecution against real Christians.
There are church leaders who’re rightly concerned in regards to the use of faith in politics by some on the political Right. But if that disturbs them, wait until they see what the rise of Islam in politics has coming for us all! This is because Islam is as much a political system because it is a faith. Islam means submission – and it brooks no rivals. There isn’t any separation of ‘church and state’ in Islam; Islamic law must prevail. And to that end there appears to be an increasing willingness amongst Muslims – within the UK no less than – to ally themselves with those that on paper can be their enemies. Think of the strange alliance between the progressive Greens and the novel Islamists. Only within the postmodern suicidal West could you’ve gotten ‘Queers for Palestine’ supporting an organisation like Hamas that wishes to criminalise and kill queers. The one thing that binds them together is hatred of the West – and Israel and the Jews.
It is effective, and right, for Christian leaders to warn about too close a link between Christianity and the political Right – so long as they’re equally vocal in difficult the link between progressive Christianity, Islam and the political Left. But I actually have noted far too often a deafening silence or sometimes even worse. Some evangelical leaders even speak of the similarities between Christian ethics and people of Islam. Again, there may be some truth to that, and I can see the attraction of it – which is why it’s so dangerous.
As I type this, I’m on a protracted Turkish Airlines flight to Sydney and it’s fascinating to look at that every one the ‘naughty’ words (swearing, sex references) have been bleeped out of The Big Bang Theory (and I assume other programmes). Very ‘family friendly’. But does that mean I actually have to disregard the sexual abuse and denigration of ladies in some Islamic cultures (the results of which have been clearly seen in some parts of the UK)? Does that mean I actually have to maintain silent in regards to the intolerance and abuse of Christians – and homosexuals – in Islamic regimes? Because I like Turkish Airlines, should I stay silent in regards to the 300 missionaries, pastors and Christian staff recently expelled from Turkey, our NATO ally? What fellowship does light have with darkness?
And should we ignore the federal government cutting the budget for listed church repairs from £42m to simply £23m for the 12 months within the space of two years? Although the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme was not exclusively for Christians, the overwhelming majority of listed places of worship within the UK are the truth is historic churches. When your view of buildings and the spirituality of Christianity leads you to disregard the injustice of a government giving £40m to guard mosques, and just £5m to guard churches (and that’s to be shared with Hindu and Sikh places of worship!) then perhaps it is advisable to tweak your pondering just a little? I do know the Church isn’t a constructing, but are you able to really see nothing unjust in the federal government cutting funding for churches, while at the identical time increasing funding for mosques?
And what would you say to the recent incident in Whitechapel where a Christian preacher was told by a bunch of Muslim men that he couldn’t preach there since it is “a Muslim area” (in response to Tower Hamlets Council, within the last census Muslims accounted for 42.4% of Whitechapel’s population)? Thankfully on this instance a brave policewoman stood as much as them and explained about free speech. In many other instances the police have simply cited ‘community concerns’ (i.e. upsetting Muslims) to justify closing people down.
What would those that are so sanguine about Britain being Christian say to my Bradford taxi driver? Would they call him a racist for worrying that Bradford now has over 168,000 Muslims (a 3rd of the population)? Would they dismiss his story of churches being burned as a conspiracy theory?
The late great Christopher Hitchens warned years ago that individuals needed to talk out about Islamism before it was too late. He was particularly referencing Christian leaders who appeared to be either ignorant or silent in regards to the dangers facing the Church on this country. Maybe an atheist like Hitchens was not the very best spokesperson in defence of the Church. Maybe Restore and Reform should not the very best people to talk up for Christianity. But if not them, then who will?
David Robertson is the previous minister of St Peters Free Church in Dundee and a former Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland. He is currently the minister of Scots Kirk Presbyterian Church in Newcastle, New South Wales, and blogs at The Wee Flea.
 The Bradford taxi driver was insistent – despite my sceptical questioning: “Yes, they've burned down two churches – and nobody can say anything...){kind=link}