England was always a ‘Christian nation’, it was Catholic until the reformation of Henry VIII, when he replaced the Pope with himself as head of the church. Which later morphed into the Church of England (the head of which is now King Charles).
Of course today we live in a multi-cultural society. But the majority of people in England still identify themselves as Christians. And as a tolerant and peaceful bunch, there should not really be many issues (likely the only one that many of us have issues with is Halal and Kosher meat (where against the advice of vets at Compassion in World Farming), food animals are not stunned before slaughter.
The good news is that it’s perfectly possible for both Muslim and Jewish religions to be vegan, it’s kind and find within both faiths. The Middle Eastern Vegan Society even has its own v-label for plant foods!
But now something ugly has reared its head, first in the USA and increasingly in England. White Christian Evangelism. What is this? It’s the kind of Trumpian politics that is creating such division and hate, that it’s almost now causing civil war over the pond, and could do here too, if nothing is done.
It’s basically a blend of far right (not conservative with a small c) politics, combined with some idiotic notion that somehow it’s following the teachings of Jesus Christ. Who these ‘followers’ seem to either don’t know or have forgotten that Jesus Christ was a peaceful, simple man who preached to love and forgive everyone.
And if alive today, would no doubt be protecting the downtrodden people, innocent animals and saving the planet.
We are in really dangerous territory now. President Trump and his vice-president are both always ‘thanking God’ for their right to support arms sales, war, hunt polar bears, drill for oil, deny climate change, insult others who don’t share their beliefs, and then ‘hijack Christianity’ to do all this, in the name of Jesus.
This is now veering into other areas like homophobia, not doing anything about genocide, cosying up to world dictators and groping women. We have a situation where the monarchy (head of our Church of England) used money to pay off a young woman who has now committed suicide, due to being groomed by sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, who appears linked to many high powerful ‘Christian’ men worldwide.
It’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them. Gisèle Pelicot (whose husband drugged her to be raped multiple times in France)
Yet anyone who opposes these dubious morals are accused of being anything from ‘far left radicals’ to ‘antisemitic’ if questioning the genocide in Gaza. One Green MP in New Zealand was even recently thrown out of parliament, for daring to question the genocide in Gaza, and asking politicians to do something to stop it.
Now in England, we are starting to get more of the same. Many people feel worried (not just due to politics) but because this message of Christianity does not match the message of love, acceptance, and peace found in the gospels.
Here are real steps people can take or support to push back against harmful trends and help Christianity return to its roots, showing kindness and respect to everyone.
JD Vance is wrong. Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others. Pope Leo XIV (in response to a quote by vice-president JD Vance).
A few years back, leading Catholics in England wrote an open letter to Iain Duncan-Smith (a Catholic Conservative MP who was in charge of reforming benefits, which appeared to be hurting the vulnerable – former MP Jacob Rees-Mogg is also a devoted Catholic). Here is an excerpt:
We urge you to abandon further cuts which are likely to cause more damage. To become seriously ill or disabled is bad enough. To then have to wait months for help whilst unpaid bills mount up, perhaps fearing eviction or needing to use a foodbank, is distressing and damaging.
We know you place great faith in Universal Credit to restore fairness to the system, but would ask you to reconsider halving of the disabled child’s allowance. Families with disabled children, are already more likely to be living in poverty.
We have constructive proposals on how to make our welfare system work better, and in a way that is more compatible with Catholic and Christian values.We remain your sisters and brothers in Christ.
Support Values of Peace and Acceptance
Quakers and others who follow the heart of Jesus’ teachings know real Christianity is about peace, forgiveness, and understanding. Trumpian politics and white evangelical movements often promote fear, division, and even support for guns and racism. That isn’t what Jesus preached.
Speak out clearly for compassion and non-violence as Christian values. Share real stories about people who show these principles, highlighting voices from Black, LGBTQ, and immigrant communities inside faith groups.
The Quakers have always stood for nonviolence, social justice, and rejecting hate in any form. Their example—rooted deeply in the earliest Christian message—contradicts the loud, political version of white evangelicalism.
Boost their perspectives in the media, books, and churches. Help more people see the link between Christ’s call for peace and the modern fight for fairness and respect.
Challenge Racism and Xenophobia
White Christian evangelicalism often ignores racism or tries to justify it with selective Bible passages. Real Christianity, as seen in the early church, stands against racism. Join and support groups fighting for racial justice within faith communities. Jesus Christ was from the Middle East, not the USA!
Call for transparency from church leaders about their beliefs, funding, and alliances with far-right figures, especially in the UK where US-style politics are gaining attention.
Did you that St George (the patron saint of England) was actually a Roman soldier born in what is now Turkey? He was a Eurasian immigrant!
Combat Homophobia and Exclusion
Many evangelical churches still preach against same-sex relationships, leaving LGBTQ people feeling unsafe or unwelcome. That goes against the message of Christ, who included those seen as “different.” Raise awareness of inclusive Christian communities.
Use social media and public campaigns to challenge churches to welcome everyone, just as Jesus did. Include stories from LGBTQ believers who live out their faith without shame. Read more on why it’s best to ignore homophobia in both politics and the media.
Speak Up About Climate Science
Some white evangelical groups question or attack climate science, claiming a divine right to use nature as they wish. This attitude endangers the planet’s future and the most vulnerable communities. Share facts about climate change, rooted in faith-based respect for creation.
Highlight churches that take real action to cut waste, protect green spaces, and support clean energy—following the Christian call to treat the Earth kindly.
Reject Guns, Hunting, and Violence
In the US, some evangelicals claim gun ownership or hunting is a God-given right. Now, this thinking is creeping into British discussions about national identity and Christian values. But Jesus never supported violence or weapons.
Support campaigns that keep guns out of churches and promote safe communities. Share voices from Christians who are against hunting for sport or power.
Encourage Media Accountability
Media often gives too much space to loud, extreme voices. Press for more balanced reporting that highlights peaceful, inclusive Christians. Write to broadcasters and newspapers, asking for more diverse religious perspectives.
Byline Times (a citizen-funded newspaper) reports that the Lib Dems have recently launched a Balance the BBC campaign, due to providing months of ‘wall-to-wall’ coverage of Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party, which is fanning the flames of dangerous populism a la Donald Trump.
Compassionate solutions to the ‘boats crisis’ already exist, if only politicians would listen to the experts.
As our national broadcaster, the BBC should offer balanced news coverage. The Lib Dems report that despite only having 5 of 250 MPs in opposition, Nigel Farage accounts for 60% of the BBC website’s mention of opposition leaders (over Kemi Badenoch, Ed Davey and the Greens).
Empower Young People and New Leaders
Many young Christians reject the politics of hate and want churches to be welcoming, honest, and forward-thinking. Support youth groups, summer camps, and leadership programmes that focus on peace and justice.
Let young voices shape the future of faith communities, making sure kindness and fairness win out over outdated, harsh rules.
A YouGov study found that 25% of under-30s said they would never vote Labour. In the year since the general election, Labour has gone from dominating the youth vote, to being a three-way race with Greens and the Lib Dems. Reform (despite the headlines) isn’t even close. University of Exeter
Demand Clear Church Policies Against Hate
Ask every church or faith charity to make their policies public. Insist on real action against hate, bullying, or exclusion in their buildings and online communities.
Follow up on bad behaviour and call for change when it’s needed. Support churches and leaders who put kindness at the centre of what they do.
Separation of Church and Hate is a book by the son of a former Catholic nun and Franciscan brother, a Biblically correct takedown of far-right Christian hatred – a book for believers, atheists, agnostics or anyone who ever has had to deal with a Christian nationalist.
For over 200 years, the US constitution has given people the right to a society where church and state exist independently, but now this is being hijacked by far-right groups and politicians who seek to impose their narrow views on government, to justify oppressive and unequal politics.
These extremists who weaponize the Bible for earthly power, are not on the side of Jesus. This informative book by comedian John Fugelsang takes you through the issues. To be fair, abortion is a personal ethics issue and one that should be respected, but other issues like immigration and homophobia are far less clear-cut.
Whatever your faith or views, this book is about fighting for the love, mercy and service that is supposed to make up Christianity.
This book is a rallying cry for compassion and clarity, for anyone or any faith, who’s sick of religion being used, as a cloaking device for hate.
As you know, nice Christians don’t get the airtime. You don’t see the Christians on cable news, talking about how war is bad, and how homophobia is bad. You see the other kind – because villains make for better TV, than nice people. John Fugelsand
Wild Faith is a book again on how the Christian Right is taking over America, by investigative journalist Talia Lavin, who lays out the grim vision that Evangelicals are trying to enforce on our democracy.
From book bans in school libraries to banning gay rights. She also investigates the Christian Patriarchy movement (with a desire to place all women under male control) and the twisted theology and ‘deliverance ministers’ that leads to rampant child abuse.
The President just used a Bible and one of the churches of my diocese, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus, and everything that our church stands for. Mariann Budde (Episcopalian bishop, angered during a campaign against peaceful protestors in 2020).
Even many Americans are appalled that the US Republican Party (a bit like our Conservatives) has been taken over by a leader whose entire vocabulary seems to amount to ‘he’s doing a great job’ or ‘she’s doing a terrible job’.
Bring Back Your People is an extremely important book, to stop the public being scared into voting for far-right politicians that whip up nasty politics that scare not just immigrants, but also people who have grown up here. With no mention of the really serious issues like climate change and pollution.
The author is sa second-generation preacher and leader of the Poor People’s Campaign in the US, who has watched some loved ones get sucked into the new kind of politics. And says, the price of gas is not the reason to spew politics of hate.
In the US recently, one bereaved father called out Trump and Vance for mentioning (without his permission) the name of his son, who was accidentally killed by a Haiti immigrant. He asked them to stop using a genuine accident which involved the tragic death of his son, for political gain.
I wish that my son was killed by a 60-year old white man. I bet you never thought anyone would say anything so blunt. But if that guy killed my 11-year old son, the hate-spewing people would leave us alone. Nathan Clark (father of Aiden Clark speaking alongside his wife Danielle).
In this book, the author answers questions like:
- Who are White Christian Nationalists targeting? (most white folks and beyond)
- How do I talk to my hairdresser about it? (carefully)
- Why is it gaining steam so fast? (it’s not, you’re just catching up)
He also offers a counter-history of white people who organised for social justice. If you’re frightened by what’s happening, read this book, grab a lifeline and hang on tight.
The same thing happened in England, when Boris Johnson used the tragic killing of two kind people to spew his own agenda:
Jack would be seething at his death (and his life) being used to perpetuate an agenda of hate that he gave his everything fighting against. What Jack would want from this is for all of us to walk through the door he has booted down. Where we do not slash prison budgets and where we focus on rehabilitation not revenge.
Jack believed in the goodness of humanity. Borrow his intelligence, share his drive, feel his passion, burn with his anger and extinguish hatred with his kindness. Never give up his fight. David Merritt (father of Jack Merritt, who with Saskia Jones was killed in a London Bridge terrorist attack)
Books on Real Christianity (love, peace!)
God Didn’t Make Us to Hate Us is a lovely uplifting book of 40 devotions, to liberate you from your fear of God, if you have a faith. It features devotions to help you and your church heal and restore community, to embrace the heart-healing forgiveness of Jesus.
Move beyond ‘rigid religion’ with this devotional that includes everyone in its loving arms (whether you are a ‘sinner’, someone who is excluded from mainstream religion (say you’re gay) or simply someone who grew up fearing God, instead of loving Him.
Author ‘Father Lizzie!’ is the vicar of a church in Texas, which she planted in 2022 (yes, they ‘plant churches’ in the USA!) Known for her trademark phrase ‘beloved babes of God’, she uses her platform to unravel ‘toxic theology’ and reveal the abiding love of God. Her husband is also a preacher.
Why This Book is Timely (and needed)
Not so long ago, to believe in God was optional. And if you went to church, you mostly would find a kindly priest or vicar to offer advice, and offer prayers.
Now we have ‘born-again’ Christians (who know little of the religion they preach, due to being new to it) now scare people witless if they are gay, transgender, immigrants or even do a bit of yoga to heal their achy joints. Yet don’t call out people living lives of excess, flying around on private jets to meet world dictators.
Years ago, Gandhi was considering becoming a Christian. However he then met racists who were ‘Christians’, so decided not to join the religion, but keep ‘all the good bits’ about Jesus.
There is apparently a story of a Christian preacher in India, who was scaring local Hindus that if they did not follow the way of Christ, they would suffer in the next life.
With no takers, he asked Gandhi why this was happening, why they were not scared? The story is that Gandhi replied: ‘Once you start behaving like a real Christian, people may start listening to you!’
If you know anyone who’s racist, have them watch the 1958 film The Defiant Ones. It portrays a white and black man on the run from chain gangs, and can’t separate due to metal holding them together.
Highly reviewed, Tony Curtis (who took the role after Marlon Brando had to pull out due to contractual obligations) was warned not to do the film in a racist USA at the time, but he did it all the same. And insisted Sidney Poitier’s name took top billing, unheard of at the time.
If God Were a Great Big Bear is a meditation on the nature of God in the world. Through the eyes of a child, this picture book imagines God creating each element of nature, for the benefit of the creatures and plants that God lovingly made.
If God were a mighty whale, we would have vast mysterious oceans, wouldn’t we?
If God were a wiggly worm, we’d have fallen leaves, rotting trees and rich earth, wouldn’t we?
Rushing streams, mountains full of caves, sun to warm flowers, trees blazing red and orange and seas full of friends in every shape and size. God created them all! God is all of creation, and God is in you and me.
God made a perfectly balanced and interconnected world, to please not just humans. But every plant and animal, every planet and star in all creation.
Evangelicals, Politics & Firearms
In Guns We Trust is an important and and timely book, focusing on the USA but could be applied elsewhere (if England had as many guns, it’s likely we would be seeing the tragedies more often, that are happening in the United States).
In the week of writing this post, Charlie Kirk, a young right-wing political activist (who was married with two young children) was shot dead, while giving a rally – in front of his family. No matter what differences people have in their political beliefs, free speech is something everything should be entitled to. Safely.
But when you have over 100 million people in one country owning guns, you get tragedies like the Sandy Hook shooting, when a gunman massacred 26 people (20 children and 6 staff members) at a primary school in New England. Before that, he had shot his mother, and then shot himself dead.
One young teacher (Victoria Leigh Soto – the daughter of immigrants) was just 27, who died by placing her body in front of the children, to try to save them.
Just like teacher Gwen Mayor did in Dunblane – her daughter won’t let her own children play violent video games, instead she teaches them about hedgehogs – her mother’s favourite animal).
The American killer’s gun had been legally bought by his mother. And all of the UK’s mass shootings have been carried out by licensed gun owners. They passed all the checks needed to carry guns, before their terrible crimes.
One good thing to come out of this was Sandy Hook Promise, a website that is dedicated to preventing gun violence, and has free resources for councils and schools and police forces worldwide.
Millions of Americans also hunt animals, both at home and abroad. President Trump’s own sons are big game hunters and in 2011 went on a hunting trip that included killing a buffalo, leopard and elephant (they were seen smiling, the now-infamous photos including one holding the cut-off tail of the dead elephant).
Trump himself does not hunt, but when in power, he relaxed laws on trophy hunting imports, showing that their pastimes had influenced policy. And at least one of the sons has suggested he may be interested in becoming President in the future.
Note this book is about preventing loss of life through shooting humans. For more on the wrongs of trophy hunting, read our post on choosing compassion over tradition.
What’s This Book All About?
It’s basically an unsettling investigation into the ‘unholy trinity of so-called ‘white evangelicals’ who fuse the Gospel of the Bible with guns (something that Jesus Christ would never use) in order to ‘bear arms, and create politics that stands in the way of preventing school shootings and more.
The author has personal experience of the Sandy Hook shootings, as he was the New England bureau chief on the day it happened. He asks why it is that ‘white evangelicals’ are more likely than other Americans to own weapons, and how did his own Christian faith (rooted in Jesus’ call to ‘turn the other cheek’), get hijacked?
But he also introduces us to Christians across the world who would never own a gun (think of the Amish village whose residents forgave a killer of schoolchildren (which led his parents to campaign against gun violence) and even helped pay for (and attend) the funeral of the gunman, to help his young widow and family.
Most of us could never imagine being that forgiving – but they were following in the real teachings of Christ.
He even meets activists who are ‘beating guns into garden tools’, and nuns who bought company stock, so they could force a gun manufacturer to do more, to prevent gun violence.
William J Kole is an award-winning veteran journalist who has reported worldwide, and also served as bureau chief in Vienna and New England. A former lay missionary for the Assemblies of God and worship leader at churches in Europe and New England, he also served as board president of an international Christian relief agency. He lives in Rhode Island, USA.
