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Welby fails working class Britain

Welby fails working class Britain

By Judith Sture
Special to VIRTUEONLINE
www.virtueonline.org
August 12, 2024

Our beloved Archmuppet of Canterbury has spoken again!(https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/11/far-right-unchristian-archbishop-of-canterbury-justin-welby-condemns-riots)

Has he been proclaiming the Gospel? Has he been encouraging British Christians to keep their collective chin up and hold to the faith? Has he been supporting the majority group of people in the UK from his own strong Christian faith and beliefs?

We might classify all these queries as 'questions to which the answer will always be "no"'.

Readers across the US will be familiar with the problems currently facing us here in the UK. No doubt you will be in receipt of news from the usual suspects, sorry, news channels, purveying the approved version of events here in the Old Country. Let's have a look, shall we?

For the last nearly thirty years -- since 1997, when one T. Blair came to power -- the working class of the UK have been virtually abandoned. For those in the US who don't understand our British 'class thing', the working class can be quantified as follows:

Nearly half of all Brits (49%) consider themselves working class and just over a third (36%) think of themselves as middle class and just one per cent upper class. 78% of those who grew up in a working class family classify themselves as this now.

(UK Government Social Mobility Barometer).

Back in the day, it was a typical working-class aspiration to 'ascend' to the middle class -- office work, and other well-paid positions requiring higher educational skills -- careers, rather than jobs. For years now, this aspiration has no longer been necessary or beyond reach in the UK, as personal wealth and opportunities for 'social mobility' have increased. Many people who could be identified as middle-class on the socioeconomic spectrum are happy and proud to still call themselves working class. And why not?

The working class itself has been defined, by other writers, as the social group consisting primarily of people who are employed in unskilled or semi-skilled, manual or industrial work, and people who are supported by jobs that provide low pay, require limited skill, or physical labour.

The working class is the backbone of the economy and the social fabric. They may not all be the most educated or well-paid in the world, but our society cannot do without them and their contribution. Until 1997, that is.

Since then, our society has changed almost beyond recognition. Unfettered immigration is only part of the cause. We have now had decades of minority rights trumping those of the majority, and of the downplaying of the values that most of the population of the UK hold dear. Plus, of course, the constant revising of our history and culture, which are responsible for all the world's ills. Critical Race Theory has been telling us for years that non-white is good, and a victim, and white is bad, and an oppressor. At the same time, we have seen the growing failure of our institutions, many of whom have been captured by wokeism, to the detriment of all. The NHS, the police, the justice system, the national and local authorities have all chosen to prioritise anybody and anything other than the working-class man and woman in the street (other genders are available).

It is against this background that the recent unrest has occurred. Sadly, but predictably, the usual rent-a-mob yobs with nothing better to do than collect their welfare money and smash up shops, have jumped straight to it. These idiots don't do politics -- thinking is above their tiny minds. Yet in calling them 'far-right thugs', and then referring to anyone who disagrees with the current ruling narrative as 'far-right', the powers that be are clearly lumping these idiots together with the genuinely concerned, peaceful and fed up mass of people in the UK today.

There have been several gatherings of well-behaved, concerned working people, who have simply had enough and 'want the country back'. Much of this sentiment has been voiced online. Of course, we barely see these gatherings on the news. If we do, it is only to show the one or two nutters who were present around the fringes to cause trouble and get arrested. The well-behaved but voiceless majority do not fit the narrative of white bigotry and racism. Plus, we can now be arrested for saying the wrong things online, even though it is impossible to prove that saying something online results in someone else doing something bad.

Now, belatedly, we see the ABC open his mouth to pour forth wisdom. What has he done? I'll tell you. He has alienated the working class by joining the mainstream media in referring to them as 'far-right' (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/11/far-right-unchristian-archbishop-of-canterbury-justin-welby-condemns-riots).

He has accused them of being racist, anti-Muslim, and anti-refugee. He has told then that Christians cannot be associated with 'far-right' groups.

But here's the thing: who are the far-right groups? Care to name any, Archbishop? No, thought not. Care to define exactly who these 'far-right' people are? Would you like to call out the actual rioters who caused all the damage, or would you prefer to lump them together with all the ordinary working people who have had enough of being ignored?

Welby has simply chosen to join in the disparagement of millions of ordinary, Britain-loving, patriotic and unrepresented people whose interests are not even on the list whenever the funds and the rhetoric are doled out.

Why has he not addressed the fact that all the unrest has come to pass in the very areas where economic stagnation and discontent has been accompanied by a huge rise in immigrant populations locally? We're not seeing riots in leafy Surrey, or the shaded groves of Hampstead, are we? Why might that be, Justin? Could it be that those who enjoy the green and pleasant lefty-dominated areas of the country where socialist millionaires choose to live, simply have never had to face the repercussions of their own policies?

Justin, you are as bad as all the other champagne socialists who live in a world that doesn't exist for the majority here. You are supposed to be a man of God, a pastor, a shepherd, a comforter and a counsellor. You are none of these. You are a politician, thinly disguised as a clergyman. You have led the Church of England to disaster. You have castigated the very members of the population who most need your support -- the poor, the ignored and the politically abandoned. Apparently, you can't come into those categories if you are white. You have chosen to follow the logical fallacy of the straw man -- arguing against riots caused by a small number (relatively) of hooligans, lumping good people in with them, when you should be addressing the problems behind them, and the concerns of working men, women and families who are in need to of spiritual support.

When you say "Christians ... should not be associated with any far-right group -- because those groups are unchristian" what you mean is, "Anyone who disagrees with the ideology of the current ruling classes is a far-right thug and cannot be a Christian."

You are not fit for office. Sadly, your legacy will be one of failure, division and the abandonment of the true Christian faith and values in the Church of England. And you are certainly not fit to lead a so-called Church in support of those who need it most -- the ignored masses of the politically abandoned in the post-industrial areas of Britain. You know -- the ones whose forebears built our country.

Prov. 14:31 "Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honours God. "

Prov. 29:7 "A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge."

Matt. 25:44-45 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'"

Judith Sture is a retired academic, researcher, and writer. She is the author of Living In The Lighthouse: How To Survive Daily Life As A Christian. She is now Roman Catholic, having given up on the Church of England years ago.

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