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POLITICAL NOT SPIRITUAL
By Campbell Campbell-Jack
https://www.christianstogether.net/Articles/560427/A_Grain_of.aspx
August 19, 2024
The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, is no doubt a good hearted, kind and well meaning man. One can even feel sorry for him that it has fallen to his lot to do the well nigh impossible job of trying to hold together an increasingly fractious Anglican communion.
However, it is in his main responsibility, one far beyond denominational matters, that we find him failing lamentably. It is the task of a Christian leader, at whatever level, to help his people understand the Christian path in life, to help them know how a Christian should react when difficult decisions have to be made. This requires a deep understanding of Scripture and how it applies to daily life, and a deep understanding of and compassion for his people.
In his interventions in the recent riots in the UK, particularly in England, the leader of the Church of England gives no indication that he understands why the riots have happened or has any compassion for England's increasingly resentful white working class. His leadership has been political and not spiritual and has only served to deepen the gulf between the church and the working class people of England and the underclass who inhabit the poorest areas of our cities.
Welby has taken the position of the radical progressive left who constitute our establishment and control our institutions. Writing in The Guardian on Monday in response to the rioting he said, 'Let me say clearly now to Christians that they should not be associated with any far-right group -- because those groups are unChristian.' This parroting of the establishment narrative demonstrates how far this Christian leader has been co-opted by the powers that be.
Who are these far right groups? They are non-existent, a figment of the establishment imagination. The only group ever mentioned is the English Defence League and they have been defunct for a decade. Instead of speaking biblical truth to power the archbishop has functioned as a mouthpiece for the elites.
Welby has joined in with the lazy demonising of the white working class normally used by the woke left. For the woke left anything which is not left is hard right. There is little mention of those who disagree with them being centre-right, or even right-wing, it is always hard right, if not fascist.
Welby has spoken on behalf of the establishment rather than providing sober reflection on the Word of God to a hurting people. There is no attempt to seriously examine the motivation of the rioters and those who didn't riot but understood their reasons.
The fear of unrestricted immigration, both legal and illegal, the blatant evidence of a two-tier police and judiciary and a media which reports whilst wearing blinkers all builds up resentment. People instinctively want things to be fair and resentment boils over at injustice.
Condemnation without understanding helps no one and makes matters worse. Clamping down and giving harsh sentences may calm things down for the moment, but if there is no attempt to confront the problems which gave rise to the riots then the next time will be even worse. There will be a next time, as Dr Martin Luther King said, 'Riot is the language of the unheard.'
It is Welby's opinion that these criminal acts, and they are criminal and should be punished, are 'underpinned by hatred and violence', they should not be 'dignified' with the 'treasured' word, protest. The riots were, 'detonated by lies and fuelled by deliberate misinformation, spread quickly online by bad actors with malignant motivations.'
When the police and media described the suspect of the Southport murders as being 'from Wales' and it turned out that although he had once lived in Wales his family came from Rwanda, trust in a Muslim sheltering media and police force went down even further.
When the police and the media fail to provide information it is no surprise that people fill in the blanks, even incorrectly at times. The establishment shy away from using the word 'Islam' and sometimes even 'Islamist' in the midst of terror related outrages. If there is anti-Muslim sentiment in the UK much of it lies at the door of the establishment's automatic defence of and support for Islam, it simply makes people suspicious.
Although an archbishop the only biblical source Welby alluded to was his use of the story of the Good Samaritan. The Archbishop related the story of: 'an imam in Liverpool bringing food to a small group of far-right rioters.'
This is the type of imagery which goes down well with Guardianistas, but would cut little ice with white working class men and women throughout England who are justifiably angry at 100s upon 100s of white working class girls, some of them barely in their teens if that, who had been subjected to systematic rape and degradation by mainly Muslim rape gangs. It would take more than a sandwich to calm the anger at the betrayal and sacrifice of their children by police, social workers and politicians who were afraid to be thought racist or anti-Muslim.
As far as many are concerned the establishment supports the wrong group. It is surely the task of a church leader to defend Christian culture in the face of attack and oppression. Instead Welby has shown that he has swallowed the left's narrative hook, line and sinker.
It is the radical progressive left who hold anti-Christian principles and put them into practice. Their actions show that they are anti-sexual morality, anti-marriage, anti-family, anti-personal responsibility, anti-freedom of speech. They are also pro-Muslim, who when we consider Muslim majority countries and their treatment of Christian minorities, are anti Christian. It is their position which Welby has adopted with no attempt to provide a demonstrably biblical critique of the riots.
I may be criticised for publicly opposing a Christian leader personally. Normally I would never do this but Welby has made public pronouncements and the response has to be public.
