General

With a general election tomorrow, called early by Sunak, the predictions are grim. To be blunt, how any thinking, theologically sound Christian can vote Labour is unfathomable given their stance on the family, sexuality, Islam, the unborn and assisted suicide. Saying that, we’ve had 14 years of the Conservatives, who have simply acted like a socialist government.

Back in the 1990’s, Barry Smith was right, it matters little as to who is in power, as they all follow the ‘script’ they are given. The evidence of this can be seen in recent history. Look back over the last 20, 30 or 40 years and you can chart a direction of travel that is unaffected by differing flavours of government in No.10. Yes, there will be small discrepancies based on whether it’s a tory or socialist government, but overall the direction of travel does not change.

To back this up, the former UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss wrote the following in the Wall Street Journal

“Across the West—especially the English-speaking world—there has been a shift of power away from democratically accountable officeholders to unelected bureaucrats and technocrats. The administrative state undermined Mr. Trump’s first term and undermined my tenure as Britain’s prime minister, forcing me out of office after 49 days. I assumed that I would be able to drive through the agenda on which I was elected. How wrong I was. The opaque British bureaucratic state undermined my proposed reforms, and their American equivalents will have Mr. Trump in their sights if he is victorious in November. The deep state will attempt to undercut him even more than it did in his first term… As soon as I announced plans to institute a range of supply-side reforms, I was marked by the technocrats for political extinction.”

The Deep State Lies in Wait for Trump – Liz Truss

This is why many bold manifesto pledges do not come to pass once the people who promised them reach power, because they come to learn where the real power lies. This is before we even get onto the tyrannical reality of Stakeholder Capitalism.

The truth is that Labour and Conservative are two sides of the same coin. Voting Labour will fast track us to tyranny. Voting Conservative is the same direction, but a little more slowly. A vote for Reform UK, will slow that journey down the most, although the destination will be the same (unless the deep state, globalist machine is disabled first).

We are living on ‘borrowed’ time in the UK, a time of extended grace, but this may soon run out. For the Christian, the need is now critical to be awake and alert to what is happening and to live accordingly.

This video by Dave Brennan is worth a watch and will stand the test of time, should the worst happen and a Labour majority be delivered tomorrow.

Can you really vote Labour? As a Christian I believe the answer to this is a resounding no, but then the Conservatives are not much better either. Is this the point where the only viable options are either spoil the ballot paper or vote Reform UK? I think it is, but I also think this is the point where we need to spur one another on and get serious about what it means to follow Jesus in a country that has turned it’s back on the Gospel.

These days, when something is presented as being ‘unacceptable’, a pile-on quickly ensues. A recent example is the kissing of Jenni Hermoso by Luis Rubiales whilst Spain was celebrating at the Women’s World Cup final. It was a fleeting moment; he was giving her a hug then a kiss on the lips and that was it. Although it wasn’t. Amidst calls to resign, it was reported that even Rubiales’ mother went on a hunger strike to protest the “witch hunt” against her son. Certainly, there is lots wrong with football and much wrong with women’s football but by any objective measure, this has been blown out of proportion.

However, this is not about football, but about a troubling trend that we see in the wider church that concerns truth and faithfulness. There is a well known media organisation based in the UK called Premier that has a wide reach and influence with many Christians and Christian organisations. Premier describe themselves as “Europe’s largest Christian media organisation” and cover a wide range of content through their magazine, website, podcast and radio stations. They have established what could be described as a ‘BBC-esque’ position in the Christian media world, giving the appearance of balance whilst holding to a subtle bias that too often aligns with the mainstream. In essence, neither hot nor cold.

“God’s Word is not there to prop up a mainstream media narrative”

With the Rubiales furore, an article appeared on the Premier Christianity website by Jane Chevous that serves as a good example of Premier’s editorial approach. The piece takes the reader swiftly from a kiss at a football match to talk of church abuse survivors in a matter of paragraphs, the intention being to conflate the behaviour of Rubailes with serious sexual abuse. The danger with this approach is that it runs the risk of minimising genuine abuse along with the associated hurt and confusion that comes with that. The BBC did a (predictably) similar thing and Rob Slane (The Blog Mire) puts it very well when he said “By describing a 1-second kiss during celebrations as a “sexual assault”, the term “sexual assault” is flattened to make it meaningless. This could have been dealt with by the man apologising & the woman saying “forgiven”. But we must have our witch hunts.”

In her article, Chevous makes the outlandish (and revealingly mainstream) claim that the “Church is another chauvinistic and patriarchal institution…”. On its own, that’s a weighty statement about the Body of Christ, yet Premier would appear to stand by it through their active promotion of her piece. Chevous goes on to mention Jesus’ words on justice and how God is for truth and judges with equity. She then quotes Psalm 72 out of context, like a kind of Biblical flag wave for Jenni Hermoso. But God’s Word is not there to prop up a mainstream media narrative as Chevous implies and Premier facilitates. It’s almost as if Premier is wanting to be a broad road for Christians to travel down comfortably, without any real consideration as to the destination.

Near the end, Chevous writes, “Hermoso’s experience symbolises the oppression of women in a misogynistic culture; she has come to represent every woman who has been ignored or threatened when they have stood up to injustice.” This dramatic overstating, complete with a reminder that we live in a ‘misogynistic culture’ (yes, here in the west) would be bad enough, but the author goes on to suggest that God is there in solidarity with Hermoso as if the ‘#metoo’ movement is high on God’s agenda.

It’s clear that Premier Christianity tries to be all things to all people. Their website is weighed down with content that all too often adheres to the mainstream narrative whilst wrapped in ‘Christianese’, although occasionally there will be something good. With articles like “AI can write a great sermon. But should you use it?”, “Christian leaders’ silence on animal welfare is scandalous”, “Why it’s time to build a truly diverse Church”, “What Christians can learn from Just Stop Oil” and “Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech is often misunderstood. He wanted reparations”, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve stumbled onto the faith section of The Guardian. The problem runs deeper however, as author and podcaster, Nick Franks highlights so well in this video.

Premier Christianity claims the following “Our editorial approach emphasises the beliefs and values that Christians generally hold in common. We believe that throughout the years that God has blessed Premier with resources and media platforms to communicate through, that our mandate is to be there and report on all those who would say ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’.”

So, if I say “Jesus Christ is Lord” and then state (for example) “that the practice of homosexuality is not a sin” then is that ‘ok’ by Premier? I suspect they gloss over their theological shortcomings in order to try and hold a perceived middle ground and that, perhaps, is the issue. As a Christian media organisation, surely Premier should stand for and seek the truth whilst faithfully holding to what the Bible teaches?

If they did, they would not be as popular, but those that follow hard after Christ never are.