from Christian Today
The CEO of the Centre for Government Reform has denounced the Church of England’s “Project Spire” reparations plan as a “foolhardy” crusade that “risks politicising and disunifying the church”.
Ameer Kotecha, who previously served as a diplomat for the British government in Russia, said in an article for Spiked that he had an interest in the matter “as someone who spends ever more time in church and is probably on a slow and steady path to Christian worship”.
As a potential member of the Church of England, Kotecha said, “Nothing in Project Spire appeals to me or what I want from church.”
He said that calls for reparations for the transatlantic slave trade appeared to animate “self-flagellating white liberals in the developed world” far more than they did the average African.
Kotecha disputed the motivations behind the project, which will commit £100m to groups alleged to have been impacted by the slave trade.
On a recent visit to Ghana the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, reaffirmed her commitment to Project Spire. She prayed for God to “bring justice and reconciliation to all who are still impacted by its legacy,” and framed the Church’s plans as part of a “journey of repentance”.
Far from being a spiritual act of repentance, Kotecha said he suspected the real motivation to be a “mix of guilt, partial historical knowledge and weakness in the face of shouty activist groups”.