Fascism is on the rise in the UK, a Church of England bishop has warned, condemning the “twisted theology” of the self-described “Christian patriots” who demonstrated at ports on the south coast last weekend.
The masked, black-clad, anti-migrant agitators – led by Daniel “Danny Tommo” Thomas, a former bodyguard of the far-right influencer Tommy Robinson – were heard chanting: “Christ is King.”
Arun Arora, the bishop of Kirkstall in Leeds, said the incidents in Dover and Portsmouth were part of an increasingly worrying and disturbing rise in attempts “to tear the social fabric of our country” this year.
Arora said the disorder that followed the “evil” killing of Henry Nowak in Southampton earlier this year, the subsequent racist firebombings in Belfast, anti-migration protests in Thetford, Norfolk, and a recent incident in Lancashire – in which the BBC reported that a six-year-old boy had a racial slur scrawled on his forehead – were “the first steps on the journey to open fascist nationalism that takes pride in conflict, hostility and division”.
Arora added: “The biggest threat to England’s fabric today is to be found in the tidal wave of nationalism that threatens to destroy the foundations of community, to devastate social cohesion and threaten any sense of unity within this United Kingdom.
“What we have seen on our streets in Southampton, in Belfast, in Thetford, in Portsmouth, in Dover is the playing out of a new machtpolitik – the ideology that argues that might is right – that threatens not only those of us who are likely to be targeted or attacked but threatens our way of life as a country.
“This goes beyond the racism that many of us grew up with in the ۱۹۷۰s. Rather it is a return to the ۱۹۳۰s, where those dressed in blackshirts gathered on the streets under the banner of fascism.”
Arora said the church had to challenge the “sinful idolatory” and “twisted theology” of so-called Christian nationalists, saying they were using the cross of Christ as a fashion accessory, with no understanding of Jesus’s message of love.
He added: “We need to be consistent and unequivocal in our theology that there is no national flag that sits atop the cross …. Fascism is on the rise.”
Arora made the speech at a Lambeth Palace event this week, hosted with his co-lead bishop for racial justice, Rosemarie Mallett, and the archbishops of Canterbury and York, to celebrate the the contribution of the C of E’s diverse clergy, ordinands and lay ministers.
Asked about how people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK were feeling increasingly threatened and the misuse of Christian symbols, the archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said: “I think we’re all becoming aware that we have created a society where people feel that it is acceptable to intimidate others.
“I think there is an increasing responsibility on Christian leaders to speak up and not be silent, because silence itself encourages a society in which people think it’s alright to intimidate in this way.”
The event came five years after the publication of From Lament to Action, a landmark report to address institutional racism in the church.
Referring to a recent incident in which a vicar, Rev Canon Dr Richard Frith, was surrounded by anti-immigration protesters inside Doncaster Minster after claims church bells drowned out their rally, Mallett told the Lambeth Palace event that “conflict is being brought directly into our sacred spaces”.
She added: “In the same week that hundreds of masked vigilantes marched on Dover and Portsmouth, and a vicar has been surrounded by anti-immigration protesters at Doncaster Minster, it is clear racial justice is more needed than ever.
“Fear of the stranger is being performed as a public spectacle. The church can tell the truth about history, protect the dignity of radicalised people, and offer a theological vision of belonging that lives out Jesus’s call to welcome the stranger.”
