In his sermon which we have been looking at, Christopher Wickland tells us that he wants to nuance the argument he is making. Specifically he claims to have had a prophetic dream where he saw an uprising of some, not all Muslims and the population of the UK became afraid of Muslims generally. The result in his dream is that an authoritarian government arises and this clamps down against Muslims and begins deporting Muslims, cheered on by the population. His nuance is that Christians should not join in the cheering on. I welcome those words.
However, I would argue that there is a way, now, to work to try and prevent the things from happening that should not happen. You see, the problem is fivefold. First, Christian Nationalists over the past few months have been joining in with language that dehumanizes and demonises immigrants as a dangerous, angry invasion. It is no good to single out one or two asylum seekers in your church as good immigrants if you mark out the vast majority as wicked.
That blanket demonisation is part of the very climate where the public learn to fear all immigrants, not knowing who they can trust. It is part of a situation where the far right happily stokes up fear. They do so because it suits the very agenda of bringing in authoritarian rule and being able to remove immigrants. So, not marching with them, sharing their platforms, repeating and amplifying their message is the second thing that Christians can do to reduce the chances of bringing this about.
Thirdly, this is why it matters that we check our facts before repeating them. If we have spread the message that people are an unacceptable burden, if we repeat the arguments of Enoch Powell then we should not be surprised to discover that refugees are no longer welcome.
Fourth. You can help by handling God’s word correctly. Too often over these past few months I’ve seen Scripture handled so badly as with yesterday’s example
Fifth, have a look at how Christians have been treated. Look at how those of us who have warned that rhetoric leads to actions and Christian Nationalist rhetoric is taking us towards such an authoritarian situation. We have a situation where dividing lines are drawn between a pure and faithful, nationalist church and those of us who because we are standing against nationalism are defined therefore as impure, profane, compromised. This is a world where on one side you have patriot preachers and on the other you have traitors who at worst according to one author are Sanballats and Tobiahs and at best are naive, useful idiots.
What matters in all of this is both the words that have been said and the actions taken by Christian Nationalists and their failure to act and speak. It’s not just about not saying certain things yourself. It’s being aware that the words you have used to create space for the kind of thing that matters. It”s about your silence as people use the rhetoric you say we shouldn’t support in blog posts, on platforms at rallies and in the comments under your own posts without challenge or correction.
We don’t have to end up in Christopher Wickland’s nightmare but he and those who are part of the Christian Nationalist movement need to share the burden of responsibility.
Faithroots 