Jubilee and Growing Nationalism in British Evangelical Circles

This only about eight weeks late but it doesn't really matter. As much as I might enjoy doing so I'm not running a news site or current events blog. If it were up to me I would publish a couple of articles a day along with other essays and what I'd really like to do – more doctrinal and Scriptural studies. But work and other obligations means that's not possible. And as this year is proving to be one of the most difficult I've had in almost a decade, there's less time than usual as I'm putting in extra hours in an attempt to make ends meet. And in terms of writing, I'm playing catch up.

In reference to the UK Jubilee (which was back in June) I received a note from a friend talking about the growing zeal in Evangelical circles for the queen and expressions of patriotism and nationalism. To me it was not just disappointing but a sure sign of how much things have changed even since the 1990's when I was last there and interacted with nonconformist chapel circles.

In the Anglican Church one expects this sort of thing. I remember attending services on Remembrance Sunday (their version of Veteran's Day) at the Anglican Church in Rome – I spent a fair bit of time there and stayed with the vicar on several occasions. I recall plaques to Anzio and the like in the 'sanctuary' and for the patriotic holidays, they laid it on pretty thick, singing 'God Save the Queen' and all the sort of thing.

But again, the Anglican Church is an Established Church. It's always been the empire at prayer and after all, the monarch is the head of the Church. It's wrong but it's to be expected.

As such Evangelicals (at least historically) have always been a bit ambivalent about such expressions. The Bible Believers I knew were all affiliated with Labour and didn't care much at all for the Tories – who were viewed as connected to the Establishment (and as such the aristocracy).

The only exception to this that I encountered (at least in Britain) was among the heavily Unionist Scots population around Glasgow. They were all ultra-royalists – their Church bulletins had the queen on the cover, and I remember being in a pastor's office with a larger than life portrait of Elizabeth II behind his desk. But such royalism (as misguided as it might be) has to be understood in relation to the Irish question and even gets tied in with things like the Rangers-Celtic rivalry.

But with regard to England proper, the nature of such questions has changed and it would seem that today there's a growing sense of nationalism and alliance with Tory politics. Not all like Boris Johnson, but (as hard as it is to understand) some clearly do. And yet as I've expressed many times, the chapel-going Bible believers I knew in the 1990's could not hide their disdain for Thatcher and her legacy.

Is the concern on my part about politics? No, both of the major parties are thoroughly corrupt and disgusting but the shift is noteworthy because American-style Dominionism (which was already at work in the 1990's) has all but triumphed and has politicised the chapel-evangelical community and has (it would seem) rapidly shifted thinking in a Right-ward direction. Internal politics regarding the EU and questions of economics have also played a part to be sure. The phenomenon is taking place all across the Western world but a politicised Church context will certainly open the door to such influences.

As I'm opposed to Christian politicking this concern over Rightward drift is not to suggest that a Leftward orientation would be better but it's interesting that the older generation of Sacralist-minded Evangelicals and chapel goers viewed Christian politics in terms of things like the NHS, progressive policies in terms of labour and the like, and certainly they had no interest in celebrating the aristocracy or the Establishmentarianism as represented by Canterbury and the monarchy. The people I knew spoke highly of Oliver Cromwell – not exactly a favourite in royalist circles.

Under the influence of American Dominionism, not only has politics been embraced, but Right-wing politics and Neo-liberal economic policies. I don't believe the Libertarian ethos has (or even will) catch on. Practically speaking the UK is too densely populated for that kind of ethic to even be flirted with and such wanton and self-indulgent individualism has no roots in their socio-political traditions. There was no 'frontier' in the UK and if there was it was found in seventeenth and eighteenth century Ulster and many of those people left around that time and came to the American colonies.

Right-wing Dominionism involves a set of basic ideas and principles but it will manifest itself in different ways depending on the context. What we're seeing with the shift toward Toryism and Royalism is the fruit of this ideology run through the British political filter. It makes no sense historically but repeatedly we've seen these movements engage in revisionism and romanticism with regard to history and in this case the British monarchy, empire, and all that go with it. It's all about power and so whatever sells and gets the people 'fired up' is all that matters.