With God on their Side – review
BLOOD AND FIRE
Opposition to Christian faith is nothing new. James Gardner, a local historian of the south coast of England, carefully documents the organised opposition to the work of the Salvation Army by ‘the Skeleton Army’ in towns and cities in the south and west of England in the last two decades of the 19th century.
‘WITH GOD ON THEIR SIDE’:
William Booth, the Salvation Army and the
Skeleton Army Riots
By James Gardner
Lutterworth Press. 267 pages. £70 (hardback,
paperback due in September 2022 – £20)
ISBN 978 0 718 895 914
The account of this ‘forgotten history’ is rich in details of who did what, when, and the results in terms of court cases and sentences of prison or fines. It is of particular note that towns and cities where this opposition was significant are where there are now significant evangelical Christian congregations, for example, Exeter, Basingstoke, and Eastbourne. Churches in those communities will be interested to know of the efforts of and opposition to the Salvation Army almost a century and a half ago.
The Salvation Army is an interesting example of the continued need to express the Christian faith in appropriate cultural form without at the same time compromising it. The Salvation Army was a rebranding of ‘The Christian Mission’ organisation. It recruited members as soldiers, spoke of beginning mission in an area as going to war and opening fire, and established buildings as ‘citadels’. It deliberately sought to attract attention by parading with a band through the streets of poorest areas prior to holding its meetings. It was these parades that prompted opposition and riots, though the High Court ruled that those mounting a demonstration were not responsible for the disordered response it provoked and so it was not unlawful to provoke unlawful acts in others.
The Salvation Army pioneered the leadership of women in religious organisations and its processions established legal precedent for free public religious processions in the streets.
We might critique the expression of Christian faith in militaristic terms: army, soldiers and war. Gardner attributes some of its success to involving all of its members in this way in its work. Today Christian faith is expressed in Western society in marketing culture, courses, and use of the internet which can depersonalise and reduce the faith of the Christian community to a set of personal preferences. Cultural expression cannot be avoided.
The author seeks to explain the roots of opposition in the conservatism and some vested interests in southern towns and resorts. Opposition was much less in the north of the country where nonconformist denominations were much stronger. While these may be factors, is there not also a certain inherent opposition in fallen humanity to the call of God, displayed irrespective of social class, status and wealth? Was the recent persecution of the Dean of Christ Church Oxford, forcing him to leave his post last month a decade before retirement, not to a significant degree due to opposition among academics to their Head of House being appointed by the Church of England, since the post is also of Dean of the Cathedral?
There are parallels with current orthodox witness to Christian marriage which focuses on where sin is having devastating effects on people’s lives. There is organised opposition through abuse on the internet and rent-a-crowd letters. There is recognisable success (see for example the witness of x-out-loud – Christians who have voluntarily moved away from an LGBT identity www.xoutloud.com) which is disparaged. The Church of England hierarchy is by and large disdainful. Yet where the Salvation Army had major impact is where there are significant evangelical Anglican congregations now.
No one now remembers the Skeleton Army. The Salvation Army has a presence in 130 countries and a membership of 1.7 million. Might lessons be drawn here for the future of organisations currently undertaking organised opposition to Christian witness especially about faithful man/woman marriage as a foundation for good parenting, strong families and a healthy society, which has a similar aim to the Salvation Army in seeking to address the spiritual roots of practices that hinder human flourishing?
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