Recent newspaper articles have tried to discredit Christian Voice and its campaign to stop Jerry Springer the Opera by suggesting that the British National Party were supporting our campaign against the production. In fact, the BNP fully support the right of theatres to stage this blasphemous piece of work and the right of people to pay money to go and see it. This is hardly surprising as the BNP are an avowedly secular political party and are ‘freedom of expression’ allies of the National Secular Society.
The articles nevertheless prompted us to take a closer look at the BNP. We found a racist, white supremacist, paganist, volkist, anti-Christian, evolutionist and anti-semitic organisation. Angry, chippy and defensive are words which characterise a website lacking in Christian humanity. The British National Party has also cynically spawned a pseudo-Christian offshoot, the so-called ‘Christian Council of Britain,’ members of which had the audacity to stand outside the De Montfort Hall in Leicester on the first night of Jerry Springer the Opera alongside the legitimate protest of the Stop Springer Christian witness.
Lancaster United Against Fascism said on their website: ‘The Christian Council of Britain, replete with one or two hundred rabid members of the BNP …, was set up by the BNP as a so-called balance to the Muslim Council of Britain. They claim to represent the Christians of Britain, which of course, they don’t. They actually represent a racist though supposedly Christian offshoot of the BNP formed solely so that the party could almost-legitimately jump on the back of the anti-‘Jerry Springer – The Opera’ campaign. The real Christian group who actually are organising the campaign have stated clearly that the BNP is unwelcome.’
Lancaster UAF are right. We want nothing to do with either the white-supremacist BNP or the racial-separatist CCoB. Just for the record, we read that God has made all nations ‘of one blood’ in Acts 17:26 and Paul tells the early church in Ephesus: ‘I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.’ (Eph 3:14-15) We welcome the presence in the UK of Black and Asian Christians, and can learn from and be encouraged by their willingness to stand up for the Christian Faith and for the holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So far as the BNP is concerned, so much has been written about their racism and links to far-right groups that it almost seems superfluous to add anything. However, just to confine ourselves to material on the BNP website, mainly from its 2005 General Election Manifesto, it would be enough to object to the following:
The BNP’s Racism
‘The British National Party exists to secure a future for the indigenous peoples of these islands in the North Atlantic which have been our homeland for millennia. We use the term indigenous to describe the people whose ancestors were the earliest settlers here after the last great Ice Age and which have been complemented by the historic migrations from mainland Europe.
‘We also call for preference in the job market to be given to native Britons (which the BNP also refer to as ‘white Britons.’)
‘15% of the UK’s male prison population is black, despite black people accounting for only 2% of the total population. … It is an inescapable statistical fact that immigration into Britain increases the crime rate.
‘On current demographic trends we, the native British people, will be an ethnic minority in our own country within sixty years.’
Its White Supremacism
‘We demand the right to be proud of Britain again, and for the English, Scots, Welsh, Irish and Ulster peoples to be allowed to celebrate their identity and heritage with as much right as is accorded to other native peoples.
‘We, as the sole political representatives of the Silent Majority of the English, Scots, Irish and Welsh who formed and were formed by our island home, have one overriding demand: We want our country back!
‘In order to guarantee the continued existence of our British democracy, we also intend to take long‑term steps to guarantee the continued existence, as the clearly dominant ethnic, cultural and political group, of the native peoples of these islands ‑ the English, Scots, Irish and Welsh ‑ together with the limited numbers of peoples of European descent, who arrived as refugees or economic immigrants centuries or decades ago, and who have fully integrated into our society.’
Its Nazi-Like Volk-Worshiping Romanticis
‘We will introduce the requirement that all children will be taught English as their first language in Britain, but also learn about their local ancestral language as well. This will apply to Welsh, Cornish, Manx, Scots Gallic, Doric or Lallans in Great Britain, and Ulster Lallans and Gaelic in Northern Ireland. English children will also be given an appreciation of the language of the Anglo‑Saxon folk and to appreciate the beauty of Anglo‑Saxon culture, such as its poetry, art and the meaning of citizenship.’
Its Hankering Back to Our Shameful Pagan Past
‘We value the folkways and customs which have been passed down through countless generations. We enthuse with pride at the marvels of architecture and engineering that have been completed on these islands since the construction of the great megaliths 7,000 years ago.
‘Schools in England will be encouraged to celebrate May Day and other ancient festivals, whilst the other folk nations of the British Isles will be encouraged to resurrect their ancestral folk traditions.’
Its Weird ‘Iona’ Project
‘Project IONA is a treasure trove of information about the people and places of these islands, a journey of discovery through the myths and legends which have their origins in the early beliefs of our ancestors about their place in the never ending wheel of nature and a tribute to the talented, brave, bold, determined, men and women who have bequeathed to us our own very special place in the universe.’
Its Evolutionism
‘Scientists studying various primates have now discovered that murderous ‘wars’ against different groups of the same species are as frequent among our non‑human relatives as they are among us.
(We also received a telephone call from a BNP official in early 2006 during which he tried to convince us of the theory of evolution and the proposition that black people were less highly evolved than white people.)
Its Rejection of Human Equality
‘We do not accept the absurd superstition ‑ propagated for different though sometimes overlapping reasons by capitalists, liberals, Marxists and theologians ‑ of human equality.
‘… a misty‑eyed post‑Christian fantasy about ‘equality’,’
‘Taking these facts into account, we believe that it is far more likely than not that the historically established tendency (and we do not claim that it is any more than that) of the peoples of Western Europe in general ‑ and of these islands in particular ‑ to create and sustain social and political structures in which individual freedom, equality before the law, private property and popular participation in decision‑making, is to some extent at least genetically pre‑determined.’
Its Anti-Semitism
Runs all the way through, with references to ‘Zionists’, ‘Zionism’, ‘the Zionist government of Israel’ and ‘the war-torn West Bank and Gaza inhabited by millions of displaced, poverty-stricken and persecuted Palestinians’ in which Israel is obviously the bad guy. Also from the BNP website: ‘It is the perceived wisdom, one which the BNP obviously shares that it is the existence of the State of Israel which is primarily responsible for the lamentable state the world is in right now’ (Leslie Dale) and ‘Israel is big enough, and bad enough, to look after itself.’ (Nick Griffin)
Its Criticism of Christian Voice
‘Christian Voice get ‘cold feet’.’ (We never had slightly warm ones.)
‘The recent unworthy utterances by some in Christian Voice, clearly anxious to distance themselves from the BNP in a futile attempt to make themselves more acceptable to a hostile media, does them no credit.’
(We’ll let Almighty God be the judge of that.)
The BNP on the So-Called ‘Christian Council of Britain’
‘The Christian Council of Britain has become the centre of news in Christian circles in the past few days. Visitors need to be aware that the CCoB is NOT part of the British National Party and it is separate entity with its own bank account, contacts and set of objectives.
‘Some nonsense stories have appeared in the mainstream Christian press stating that the BNP is secretly supporting the CCoB as if to give the organisation a sinister touch. Well we can be quite honest and open about the reality and that is this. There is no secret; the BNP will help any group of people who feel threatened, unrepresented …
‘So there are the plain and simple facts of the matter. The CCoB is now up and running and while some members of the British National Party may decide that they wish to continue the association and work with the Council that is a matter entirely for themselves to decide.’
(Quite a few seem to have done – Leicestershire representatives of CCoB quoted in the press have all been BNP activists. Curiously, the statement appears to have vanished from the BNP’s website and is now only lurking on another white supremacist website: www.nationalvanguard.org )
From the Christian Council of Britain’s Own Website:
‘Our aims are to promote understanding of Christian values in Great Britain (Er, what about Northern Ireland?) and to develop efforts for the benefit of Christians throughout the country.
‘The Christian faith is inextricably twined with the very fabric of Britain, it has historical influence, helped determine settlement patterns, bequeathed a rich architectural heritage and helped determine our very laws.’ (We agree with much of that, but …)
‘Above and beyond all those very visible and tangible aspects, the faith itself has helped define who we, the people of Britain are. For over 1500 years (Is that all?) the faith has molded (sic) our national psyche and spirit, defining our values toward life itself; our families, neighbours, animals, the natural environment and the wider society. Although the majority of English, Irish, Scots and Welsh no longer still attend church or recite prayers daily these islands are still Christian nations.’ (The UK is constitutionally Christian, that’s true.)
‘The Christian Council of Britain is a non‑denominational, non‑proselytising body of Christian ladies and gentlemen who have come together to ensure a healthy future for Christians in Britain.
‘At this time of moral crisis and faced with the very real prospect of the spiritual void being filled with dangerous creeds and cults, now more than ever, is a strong voice needed to reconnect church with the lost congregations.
‘The CCOB will aim to:
‘1. Promote conditions enabling Christians to speak with one united voice on matters of social justice, equality under the law and freedom of expression.
‘2. Work towards the removal of barriers to the expression of our faith and all forms of discrimination faced by Christians.
‘3. Strengthen the position of the Christian faiths as the foundation stones of life in Britain.
‘4. Raise awareness of the threat to our ancient faiths, values and our very existence by false prophets.’
‘The site is still under development and additional pages will be added in due course.’
(All reproduced exactly as is on christiancouncil.org.uk. Add the http://www bit at the start if you wish to look them up. We are deliberately not posting a hyperlink to their site. What do they mean by ‘Christian faiths’ and ‘ancient faiths’ though? Are we back with the BNP’s Volk-worship?)
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_060314bnp.shtml
The above link to Jonathan Bartley’s Ekklesia site carries quotations from Rev Robert West, spokesman for the CCoB, who said things like:
‘There is a link in that the BNP has encouraged and facilitated the formation of the Christian Council of Britain. They are working as facilitators. They are supporting what we do.’
He denied however that he himself was a member of the BNP. But, he said, the church ‘arose in connection with the Nick Griffin trial.’
The presenter then asked him (Rev Robert West) whether his views coincided with those of the British National Party.
‘The CCoB believes in the biblical teaching of nations. We should live in nations as nations’ West said.
‘If we are to exist as nations then we are to have our own national homelands. In our own national homelands in which our own identity has priority. The BNP doesn’t want the British people to be homeless. Each race should have its own space.’
When asked whether he would support the view of the BNP that people should be repatriated he said; ‘Yes. Provided it was by consent. Not by force.’
He said that he believed that the BNP’s repatriation policy was ‘in line with the scriptural doctrine that races are divided into nations and homelands.’
‘The mixing of races challenges the glory of God’ he said.
Last month the BNP placed online a video of a speech by West, who stated that a multiracial society is “a transgression of God’s will.”
A summons for a private prosecution for blasphemy against Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, and producer Jonathan Thoday in respect of Jerry Springer the Opera was refused late on Friday 12th January by Horesferry Road magistrates.
