by George Owers, UnHerd
Jesus Christ was famously not choosy about the company he kept. Despised tax collectors, women of easy virtue, lepers: he would eat and drink and be merry with all of them. Famously, this did not make him popular with the religious authorities and purists of his day. The Pharisees asked Christ’s followers, on seeing him dining with some such undesirables: “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” Jesus had no respect for existing status distinctions or ideas of ritual purity, and it shocked them.
Who are the sinners and publicans of today? The liberal establishment of the Church of England would unambiguously answer that the most despised and lowly are the refugees languishing in migrant hotels — and they wouldn’t be entirely wrong. However, it is also increasingly clear who, in the Church’s view, are the villains, the sneering Pharisees or baying crowds shouting “crucify him!”: the “far-Right” protestors who are behind this month’s “Unite the Kingdom” rallies.
A statement this week from the presidents of Churches Together in England condemned the rallies and stated that “the Cross and the Gospel of Christ must never be co-opted to support the messages that breed hostility towards others.” The statement referred to the fact that some of those rallies used Christian imagery to promote their anti-immigration message, and was signed by many Anglican bishops, leading Baptists, Methodists, and representatives of other denominations.
There’s no doubt that some of those involved with these marches were genuinely racist and “far-Right”. However, the tone and emphasis of such statements invariably point to condemnation not just of actual racists, but of broad swathes of provincial opinion that dissents from the shibboleths of the progressive elite. As a result, Christian leaders — and particularly the Church of England — are in danger of making very clear their distance from precisely the despised and low-status “hoi polloi” with whom Jesus was so keen to engage.
Watch: Why woke church leaders are trying to control who carries the cross with Gavin Ashenden