The Church of England, Christo-Nationalism, and Two Robinsons

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4p42kydx9o

Now that the BBC has put up a paywall, it's hit or miss as to whether or not you'll be able to read this - that is unless you have an account. I don't and as such my BBC reading and website visits has plummeted. I still utilise their podcasts but I wonder how long they will remain available without a subscription? 

This article displays in very clear terms how some forms of revivalism have nothing to do with the gospel or the Holy Spirit but are instead tied to culture war and politics. Now I know men like John Stonestreet will argue this is nevertheless a good thing because it gets these people into churches where they will hear the gospel - that is assuming that they will in fact hear the Scriptures preached. I wouldn't count it - even in many so-called conservative churches.

And yet, there are many more who will become twice the children of Hell when they either reject the gospel out of hand or out of frustration quit attending church. It will be that much harder for them to be converted in the future.

God has chosen the foolishness of preaching and the testimony of the Church in the world - not the dubious methods, sleight-of-hand trickery, or the manipulative tactics of confused culture warriors. They can come up with all the end-justifies-the-means arguments they want, but it only reveals their poor understanding of apostolic teaching, the power of the gospel, and the way the Holy Spirit works.

Further if the Christianity in question is simply wed to nationalism and Right-wing politics - then the end result is this - a proliferation of unregenerate people who indulge their fleshly desires for power, but now think they have some kind of transcendent or spiritual stamp of approval on what they do.

In the article, one Gareth Talbot is worried about British identity which he ties to the Church of England. It's all a package. This may be the gospel of Tommy Robinson, but it's not the gospel of Christ or the apostles. In fact (I contend) that the Biblical gospel would not only repel the likes of Gareth Talbot and Tommy Robinson, but the majority of today's Evangelicals as well. If Paul or Christ appeared in the midst, they'd call their security teams and run them out, and probably gun them down in the parking lot.

The Christian religion keeps our values and freedoms, says Talbot. In other words it provides that transcendent affirmation for British identity. This same way of thinking underlies a great deal of church attendance in the United States. We're capitalist, gun-toting, American patriots, and guess what? So was Jesus.

But again, this is not the gospel. The gospel identifies the Church as the Holy Nation and it's identity is in contrast to the world, which includes Britain, the British Empire, the American Empire, etc. There's no room for divided loyalties and thus no place for patriotism or nationalism.

At this point I usually hear Matthew 22 and 'Render unto Caesar' quoted at me - and yet this pro-patriotism and pro-civics reading actually turns the passage on its head. Christ is teaching the exact opposite and drawing a line of demarcation between the world and what it represents (such as the sword and coin) and the Kingdom of Heaven.

As a Christian, I can meet someone from Africa, Asia, and South America and if we're fellow believers, then we are brethren, of the same nation, and all my affections and allegiance is due them - not a tribal-based nation of people that look like me, nor one that forms an identity on the basis of Enlightenment idealism at odds with New Testament doctrine. I speak of course of Liberal Democracy and in my immediate context American idealism and values.

If that's what makes an American, then I'm not one - despite the fact that elements of my family have been present in these lands for more than four centuries. It's a tribal heritage I count but dung. And if the Christo-Trumpites want to deport me on the basis of rejecting either framework - please do. An honest person can't get ahead in this society and so I'm broke and can't afford to leave, despite my desire to do so. Please deport me and I will happily go and never return.

This kind of sold-out Christian identity and Kingdom allegiance is something that Gareth Talbot sadly does not understand, nor Tommy Robinson, nor most of the leadership in Evangelical and Confessional circles.

The post-war Church of England is torn in that it has embraced ideology that functionally negates the power upon which it has historically been wed, represented, and is built upon. They want to keep this status and its trappings and yet can only do so by re-writing history, closing their eyes to the present nature of British society and its circles of power, and through an abandonment not only of its historical identity, but anything in that past identity that approached Biblical teaching. As an institution it has become a schizophrenic absurdity - akin to the left-leaning activists who want to capture and re-write the history at America's Ivy League schools, as if they could clean up the heritage of the American Establishment.

Canterbury's task is to affirm an ever-evolving British society (which is why Sarah Mullally is now Archbishop), raise transcendent questions in an ecumenical framework, and (at best) offer some ethical commentary - which given the previous commitments means affirming everything from fornication to sodomy. Obviously the Church of England caved on the question of divorce some five hundred years ago.

It has no gospel and this has been abundantly clear since John AT Robinson was allowed to retain his bishopric after his 1963 publication of 'Honest to God' - an admission of his agnosticism (or atheism according to Alasdair MacIntyre) and rejection of historic Christian Theism. But it would be a mistake to date the Church of England's fall into apostasy to only the 1960's. The cancer had already metastasized long before. Robinson's work was simply the moment it broke through the skin and could no longer be hidden.

The vicar Derek Jones speaks of what Talbot 'thinks' is the Christian faith, and he's right to do so. And yet we must say the same with regard to Jones. As such, we have what can only be reckoned a ridiculous situation - an impossible knot the journalists at the BBC cannot hope to untangle, all the more because they are unqualified and incapable of doing so.

While Tommy Robinson and all Christian Nationalists co-opt the cross (as Jones charges), the same is true of the Church of England. I was reminded of this in the starkest of terms while watching Justin Welby during the coronation of Charles III - I thought Welby the most absurd figure in the whole affair and the most compromised in terms of the Christian faith. The Erastian nature of the Anglican Church was on full display that day - and its bankruptcy.

The Church of England condemns the excluding others - which when we're speaking of figures like Tommy Robinson - yes, he and his followers are undoubtedly racist and understand Christianity in those terms. As such, they need to be rejected by all churches. They are welcome to repent, but cannot be recognized as Christians while holding such beliefs.

But the Church of England also excludes those who hold to the historical faith and (in total ignorance of the New Testament) fail to take into account its teaching and the reality that many are in fact excluded from the Church within its pages. Otherwise the Church has no identity or meaning. Their gospel of inclusion is just humanism dressed up in Christian clothes - just as the other group dresses up their nationalism in Christian clothes. In both cases we have false religions that are attempting to hijack Christianity, its terms, and symbols - and both most be rejected in the strongest of terms.

I'm afraid this report doesn't give me a great deal of hope when it comes to the Confessing Anglican Church either. The bishop in question exhibits some of the same confusion.
What a tragedy! I think of the poor souls out there who are genuinely turning to the faith and yet where are they to turn? The Church of the New Testament is hardly to be found and those that would find it have to dig through the weeds, brush away all the filth, and wave away all the smoke - and it's no small thing. It's no wonder that many are just caught up into this or that camp or after a short spell of frustration, end up abandoning it all and never coming back.

Even the Confessing Bishop Dewar exhibits confusion in his exhortation. On the one hand he expresses ultra-conservative and Right-wing views - he's anti-woke and anti-Labour after all. We are duly impressed. But then he speaks of the Church of England's need to get out there and hear what people are saying and 'listen to their concerns'.

Since when has any ecclesiastical hierarchy committed to tradition and conservative ideals worried about man-on-the-street populism and democracy? Is he going to pretend that the the Merrie Olde Church of England that he wishes for was an advocate of Jeffersonian Democracy?

It sounds to me like a lot of these people will readily manipulate history, making it into whatever is most convenient for their political platform.

As the Iranian immigrant Amir discovered, even a conversion to Christianity is no guarantee of acceptance. Christianity is in this case but a veneer, a smoke-screen, a means to an end. What the Robinson-Right is all about is race and culture. It's not about the gospel and a genuine Christian stamp on society - whatever is meant by that.

While I might be glad if the Robinson-ite Gareth Talbot leaves the apostate Church of England, I will not rejoice if he falls into the clutches of Bishop Dewar and his Confessing body. Either way, the gospel is lost, buried, or confused.

This is a frustrating moment and a sad one. There's an opportunity for the faithful to speak out and with clarity, but as I look at my inbox and all the articles flowing in from the various Evangelical groups in the UK and United States - I'm not seeing the discernment or the wisdom. It's just more partisan framing driven by culture war. Until this is dispensed with and hearts (and loyalty) are changed, there's not a great deal of reason for optimism.

But I do know this - God is at work and whether the stage is being set for a return to the gospel in ways these people cannot foresee - or for widespread apostasy, I don't know. Some figures might be used by Providence despite their confusion. Others are unwitting tools of the enemy and yet others (who sincerely believe they are serving Christ) are in fact God's judgment - either way, the result will be the undoing of the world-bound hopes and aspirations of today's Evangelical leadership.