The Guardian reported this morning that:
The Church of England is to launch a poster campaign aimed at challenging the anti-migrant message of Tommy Robinson, whose “Unite the Kingdom” movement has urged its supporters to join a carols event next weekend to “put the Christ back into Christmas”.
Yaxley-Lennon (Robinson's real name) is apparently planning to promote “God, faith, family, homeland” through Christmas carol services.
I am most definitely not here to preach, and won't, but this is deeply depressing. If Jesus is Christ, then nothing about the story he told is about hate, and yet everything Yaxley-Lennon does is all about just that.
Jaqueline and I discussed this during a walk this morning, and talked about Christmas music, agreeing that as we are in Advent right now, this piece by John Rutter is the most sublime Advent carol:
We then began discussing Rutter, and his massively distinctive writing, and ended singing this to no one but ourselves by the River Ouse:
The lyrics are:
Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the gentle night to you
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you
Deep peace of Christ the light of the world to you
Deep peace of Christ to you
The style does reflect Gaelic Christianity, its thinking and its liturgy.
It is as far removed from the politics of hate as you can get.
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I think Rutter will be in Ely cathedral on Christmas morning.
I have heard so…
I wonder if Yaxley-Lennon will remind his followers about the visitors from the east who brought gifts to the child Jesus, or the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt as refugees from Herod’s targeted local genocide, and even when they did repatriate later, when their country became “safe”, still had to relocate as displaced persons, too scared to live in their home town again?
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%202%3A13-23&version=CEV
Will he ask a woman to read them the Magnificat? https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201%3A46-55&version=CEV
I suspect not.
The problem is, the English nationalist additions that Stephen Y-L tacks onto the story of Jesus, all but obcure the Christ he claims to want to put back into Christmas.
Does Yaxley-Lennon not realise that the violent nationalists who joined Jesus’ travelling band of disciples 2,000 yrs ago in Roman Occupied Palestine, found their brand of violent nationalist “we want our country back” rebellion, challenged by his message and example. Simon the Zealot (a violent political activist) was dramatically changed by the experience of being with Jesus, transformed by the man and his message, but Judas of the “Dagger Men” (the Sicaari), was so disillusioned by Jesus’ lack of violent hate even towards the brutally oppressive Roman occupier, that he betrayed Jesus, hoping his arrest would force him into Judas’s idea of what a good Messiah SHOULD be doing, restoring the kingdom to Israel, by supernatural violence.
Cultural Christianity, British values, national flags, crosses and racial purity wont save this Kingdom.
But loving God and loving our neighbour will, especially when we remember how Jesus showed us what neighbourly behaviour looked like, in his parable about how a Samaritan took care of an unknown stranger, who isnt even identified by an ethnic or religious label.
I don’t know what Y-L thinks about Jesus. But if he did meet him during his last criminal sentence, then I look forward to seeing a massive change, as he turns away from divisive violent rhetoric, and starts paying his own bills, and wiping the hate off his social media.
I wish him well, but not his nationalism, “Christianity-branded” or not.
Meanwhile, having overcome a new computer (transferred everything over with only minor sense of humour failures – not bad at 80!), I spent 3 hours this afternoon in St John’s Church Buxton, listening to a variety of music – the Church has an 1897 William Hill Organ (magnificent) and a tutor (Simon Mercer) from the RNCM played Bach’s Toccata and then Widor’s Toccata – wonderful and the acoustic in this church are excellent. Then the Junior Choir from Peak District Music Centres entertained us with some songs, ‘Take Two’ (a local duo of singer and keyboard) gave us further entertainment, the audience joined them in ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ and the final offering was from a local acoustic band (not young people!) – all was organised by Rotary Buxton and raised £2100 to be split equally between a local RDA (Riding for the Disabled) group, Blythe House Hospice, Connex Community Support and Zinc (High Peak Food Bank). I will now finish off the day in Buxton Opera House with “Christmas – The Candlelight Concert”. It has been deluging with rain (I have to walk down Water Street to get to the Opera House), but this all lifts the spirits! So ‘Advent’, ’Peace’ (and no hate) – cheered by your Rutter reflections and music – thank you.
Enjoy your music.
And I am pleased the computer is sorted – such things are always stressful.
Think of the Job Guarantee is a ‘proof of burn’ system. You have to give up permanently some of your finite lifespan and in return you will be issued with some currency so you have access to the output of somebody else’s finite lifespan.
It’s putting your own time out of use for yourself that is the key sacrifice required so others will accept that you have contributed as they have.
The Job Guarantee: it’s about time!
It is a very clever PR use, being employed more and more by the most dubious forces, to give their messages the flavour of the old, accepted, biblical (in this case) causes. So people will now be thinking it is a God-given cause that Robinson is leading.
It’s been done for so long by the likes of the Tories who so many followers believe are the Christian leaders of ‘family values’ – while they are actually as far away from Jesus’ socialist teachings as can be imagined.
How do we counter this?
I wish I knew, except by calling it out.
John Rutter was on BBC Radio4’s Front Row the other evening. He sounded such a lovely chap. I am completely atheist but I would like to sit and chat with this man. Honest, refreshing, kindly. Do listen: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002n0j9
Someone pointed out that the students at Eton sung or said the Magnificat in chapel every week, while having no intention of seeing the rich sent away with nothing or humble people in places of power.
I suspect they sang it in Latin, which helps avoid the moral and social force of the words.
https://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/b017rpMagnificat.htm
For many Christians this make up your mind time. Where do I stand in relation to these Ch I N Os?
That time passed a long time ago – colonialism, slavery, segregation, the right wing ultra-conservative takeover of Southern Baptists by Richard Land, the rise of Gerry Falwell, Christian Zionism especially among independent (and unaccountable, behaviourally and financially) charismatic churches in USA – now flowered into full MAGA fascism, via the Republican Party and Trump, with the co-operation of the Democrats.
All much later and milder in much less religious UK, different, but heading the same way, with less political significance.
First you have to decide how you define a Ch-INO? A slightly racist occasional or nominal Anglican (Christmas & Easter & Remembrance Day) who votes Reform (that’s the research)? Jayden Francis or Tommo, or Yaxley-Lennon waving a cross or talking about Christian civilisation? Or the independent lively full on Zionist church, where standing for Israel means supporting genocide?
I can’t, won’t and don’t police faith, but I will challenge and try to teach and persuade, and I have scars on my back to prove it – I always taught against this poison publicly, and now I oppose it one to one, and in print. But I would rather persuade than alienate.
The C/E bishops have just produced a Christmas poster campaign to challenge Christo-nationalism,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/07/church-of-england-campaign-challenging-tommy-robinson-put-christ-back-into-christmas-message#img-1
and the Free Churches (Baptist, Methodist, Salvation Army etc) have also made formal statements over recent years and devoted resources to it.
https://jpit.uk/joyforall
Rev Helen Paynter at Bristol Baptist College puts a lot into challenging right-wing distortions of Christianity, and also tackling Christian-Zionism.
https://religioninpublic.leeds.ac.uk/2025/02/03/two-events-with-revd-dr-helen-paynter-the-far-right-and-the-claim-to-christianity/
But those “Ch-INOs” are not an easily identifiable group, more a spectrum or part of a Venn diagram, inside and outside conventional Christianity, some never even attend churches or read bibles.
A bit like the Labour party and LINOs – how to identify the progressive hearted member hoping for change, as opposed to the one whose racist heart is warmed by references to an island of strangers and Shabana Mahmood’s latest offensive speech? I wouldn’t want to throw the baby out with Luke Akehurst…
It’s easy to end up scapegoating, which sort of defeats the whole object of the exercise.
Thanks
This music is a long way from what we are being funneled toward now – and a relief!
I was reading a bit more about Ivan Ilyin – the right-wing Russian who has been resurrected/reformed by former KGB man Putin, because I have often found it peculiar as to why the Fascists evoke God so much and with so much conviction ‘Gott Mit Uns’ as the Nazi’s trouser belts used to have inscribed.
It transpires that Ilyin’s position was that God had made a mistake when he made man. God and especially Jesus exhorted man to love his neighbour and also gave him/her the ability to feel and respond to grace and beauty etc.
The Fascist mindset sees this as a weakness, even effeminate or too sensuous. Since God has therefore made a mistake, the Fascist sees it as their job to set the record straight, to help God correct him/herself – to be more…well….God-like. To do that one must conduct oneself as a strong man/woman of some sort and instead of relying on Jesus to atone for our sins, sacrifice yourself in making the world God failed to make. The Fascists felt that God allowed too much individualism into the mix and the society should be reformed to this purpose wholesale. By doing that, the fascist would bring God to earth through struggle, discipline and war – nothing else.
This version of Christianity is quite appalling. We could compare it to over-radicalized Islam – it is no better and yet again we see a puritanical ethic driving it as to who can be the best and most pure kind of believer in something.
As an atheist, I find it amusing that a mindset sets out to correct a mistake made by God. My observation of religion is that most of the mistakes in religion are made by man.
Back to Fascism though – this is why Yaxley-Lennon evokes God (although I wonder if he actually knows it) in his primitive fascism. He is just yet another man joining a long list of reprobates using God as a cover for inhumanity for personal gain, so that he can be a God – a self approved one of course.
Every time I say “because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only Thou, o God” I reflect that the other side (whatever other side) has the same sentiment. It’s obvious how partial and incomplete our view of God must be.
I have a former colleague who is an evangelical Christian. She is appalled by the spread of ‘Trumpism’ amongst other such Christians, including her own family. Any effort to counter this must be applauded.