Sri Lanka NGO Equal Ground is a foreign agent working for Western governments and foundations
Sri Lanka NGO Equal Ground is a foreign agent working for Western governments and foundations
A local NGO pushing for decriminalisation of unnatural acts and gross indecency in Sri Lanka is a foreign agent, Christian Voice can reveal.
The pro-gay non-profit Equal Ground, which also promotes the destructive ideology of transgenderism, is financially supported by the High Commissions of the UK, Canada, and Australia and the Embassies of the United States, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Equal Ground is also funded by the wealthy UK-based Sigrid Rausing Trust and the overtly-homosexual GiveOut.org. On the website of the latter, we read: ‘In 2021, GiveOut’s grant will support Equal Ground’s core costs as they continue decriminalisation efforts in Sri Lanka.’
West uses agent to meddle in Sri Lankan politics
Equal Ground’s ‘decriminalisation efforts’ have been targeted at the courts, in what is now known as ‘Strategic Litigation’. That device uses the courts to force changes to civil and criminal law. ‘Strategic Litigation’ is now a well-developed tool of foreign-funded pro-sodomy activists all over the developing world.
Let us be clear. Western foundations and governments are using a local agent, which they have set up, to interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. Imagine the row if Sri Lanka was meddling in the politics of the UK or Canada.
Equal Ground also lists the UK-based Kaleidoscope Trust as a ‘partner’ alongside US-based ‘InterPride’, the ‘Fund for Global Human Rights’ and ‘Sysco LABS’ (‘the innovation office of Sysco, the No. 1 foodservice provider in the world)’ together with the pro-trans ‘Equality Fund’, which is itself funded by the UK and Canada.
The Equal Ground NGO is now working with a Sri Lanka MP, Hon Premanath C. Dolawatte, who is attempting to garner support for a bill to decriminalise unnatural acts and gross indecency. It would be no surprise if foreign actors have already sought to channel funds to the campaign of Hon Dolawatte.
Be that as it may, foreign governments and foundations are meddling in Sri Lanka to force that nation to legalise unnatural acts, alien to family, culture, decency and the eternal laws of the Almighty:
Lev 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Article 365 of the Sri Lankan Penal Code, which dates from the time of colonial British Ceylon, like its Kenyan (Art 162) equivalent, criminalizes ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’. Article 365A prohibits gross indecency. The former offence carries a sentence of ten years while the latter is punishable by two years’ imprisonment. The offences follow divine law, but are anathema to modern Western thinking.
Sri Lanka’s Equal Ground NGO turn a beach into no-go area for families
UK-based organisations are pushing sodomy onto Sri Lanka through funding of other projects as well. The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), boasts on its website that it funded a series of pro-LGBT short fictional propaganda films. These, it says, ‘premiered in the country in late 2021 and will go on tour around the country in 2022.’
Furthermore, the project was ‘funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and implemented in partnership with Kaleidoscope Trust (KT).’ The UK Foreign Office is caught once more interfering in the affairs of a sovereign country.
And of course the foreign-funded pro-gay Sri Lankan-based ‘Equal Ground’ NGO was a ‘local CSO partner’ in the enterprise.
NGO transparency
Speaking on transparency, ‘Equal Ground’ say: ‘We will not withhold information about our activities or finances from our donors. If we make a mistake, we will own up to it and find a way to correct it.’
What they will not do is admit to is how much their donors give or the sum of their total income and operating expenses. Their Equal Ground 2021 annual report does not name any donors. Only on page 5 of their latest 2022 report do we find some ‘funding partner’ logos, to which our research has added more.
The glossily-produced publication and the activities of Equal Ground certainly indicate that the funding they receive from the West is immense. If a Sri Lanka MP were to move a Transparency Bill, the funding for this foreign agent and others like it could be revealed.
Matt 10:26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
Note that the funding of Equal Ground is all from the woke white Western nations. No Eastern-European, Asian or African Embassy, High Commission or NGO is funding Equal Ground. Nor are any Sri Lankans, with one strange exception.
Surprisingly, Equal Ground say Sri Lanka’s biggest conglomerate, John Keells Holdings PLC, is also funding them. To what extent is not clear and it could be a lie, for the NGO is not listed in John Keells PLC accounts.
The Wall Street Journal puts JKH PLC’s latest turnover at 276,640m SL Rupee, or $940m. Its directors will no doubt bump into company directors from the West as they jet around the world, and with wokeness now endemic in Western business, groupthink may have overcome decency. Whatever the reason, John Keells PLC recently launched a ‘OneJKH’ initiative to show how ‘diverse’ and ‘inclusive’ they are.
Under ‘Human Capital’ they say: ‘LGBTIQ: In September 2021, another key milestone was reached with the completion of the Inclusive Workplace Survey conducted in partnership with The National Transgender Network (NTN) and The Grassrooted Trust, to obtain a broad range of information on trans inclusivity in the corporate sector. During the same period, the Group joined IFC Sri Lanka’s ‘TWC+’ (‘Together We Can Plus), making commitments on inclusivity towards Persons with Disabilities.’
Pray for Sri Lanka
Across the world, transgenderism, men pretending to be women, is being seen as the lie it is. Sports bodies are stopping men competing as women. Young women are coming forward distraught at the irreversible mastectomies and hormone injections they went through vainly trying to be men. This ‘trans bubble’ may not yet have burst in Sri Lanka but John Keells PLC should distance themselves from this evil and from the anti-family agenda of the gay activists if Krishan Balendra wants to be on the right side of history.
In the meantime, please pray for Sri Lanka. Pray that the desires of the Western nations to corrupt Sri Lanka and its children are thwarted. Pray that their foreign agents are exposed for what they are. Pray that support for the bill being moved by Hon Dolawatte drains away. Pray that instead, Sri Lanka seeks the Lord and his ways. Pray for the directors of John Keells:
Psalm 34:14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
And please pray for Christian Voice and for the Lord to raise up Christians in Sri Lanka to stand for righteousness.
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Nigel Farage’s Coutts account was closed because he did not toe the establishment line. Others have had the same treatment. What does the Bible say about bank accounts? Let’s look at the Bible on banking!
Initially Dame Alison Rose, the Chief Executive of NatWest, who own Coutts, told a BBC journalist that Mr Farage’s account was closed after he fell below the bank’s ‘wealth requirements.’ The Guardian reported on 26th July 2023 how that (untrue) breach of confidence led to her resignation after evidence from Coutts showed the Brexiteer was really ‘de-banked’ for his political views. Mr Farage submitted a subject access request to Coutts which resulted in their disclosure of a 40-page document concluding the former Brexit Party leader’s views were “at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation” as Sky reports here.
Three weeks earlier, the Guardian was reporting on the ‘lack of funds’ story, not yet knowing Dame Alison planted it, but also quoting the former Brexit party leader on his suspicion that the closure of his account was linked to his status as a politically exposed person (PEP).
Non-woke pressure group refused a bank account
According to the Telegraph , Metro Bank refused to open a new business account for Our Duty, a group of more than 2,000 parents who believe that it is harmful for transgender children to undergo a medical transition.
The group’s founder, Keith Jordan, said that a manager told the group it could not open a business account because ‘the content of your website conflicts with the culture and ideas we are pushing’. Shooting clubs have also reported being ‘de-banked’.
Even earlier, in June 2005, Christian Voice was ‘non-banked’ by the Co-op, and forced to move banks.
The ‘ethical’ bank who claim not to discriminate, discriminated against Christian Voice because our Christian beliefs based on scripture and evidence lead us to oppose homosexual rights and homosexual practice. Both of those, we since discovered, the Co-op support avidly, sponsoring homosexual events and ‘gay pride’ parades.
Meanwhile, an EU-era law is being blamed, not just for Mr Farage’s exclusion from Coutts but for his failure to find a new bank to accept him. But even if the ‘politically exposed persons’ phrase is deleted, the woke banks, all led by ‘Remainers’ and all members of Stonewall’s ‘Diversity Champions’, will surely find another way to exclude people and refuse them an account, despite bluster from Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer MP.
There are echos here of lockdown, when governments, contrary to all that is holy, forbad people from working and earning a living. So what does the Bible say about banking in the modern age?
The Bible on banking
Working for a living encapsulates the essential pursuit of sustenance, purpose, and personal fulfillment throughout human history, as individuals navigate their career paths to find balance between financial stability and a meaningful life. Therefore, man is to work for a living.
The Bible says, Gen 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
The command is repeated in the New Testament: 2Thess 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
And most men receive wages for their work: Gen 29:15 And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be?
Payment in cash on the day
Indeed, working people rely on their wages. In Bible times payment in cash on the day was usual, as in our Lord’s parable of the workers in the vineyard: Matt 20:8 So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
That approach is commanded in the Law: Deut 24:15 At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee.
The Apostle Paul contrasts earned wages and a gift as he writes about sin and forgiveness: Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The dear Apostle could not use that dramatic insight unless people knew what wages are.
In Ecclesiastes the writer brings work and wages together describing the enjoyment of the fruits of our labour as ‘the gift of God: Eccl 3:13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
The Lord’s people are told that the power to build up wealth comes from the Lord: Deut 8:18 But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Banking in the Bible
Wealth might be stored in buildings and machinery, in flocks and herds of livestock or even in money, in jewellery or in precious metals like gold and silver. Clearly, from the earliest times, men have relied on a medium of exchange to buy and sell. Gen 23:16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.
The Apostle James uses buying and selling to make a point: Jas 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
One might be tempted to suggest you don’t find banks in the Bible, But, yes you do. Jesus asked the slothful servant: Luke 19:23 Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?
Set your affection on things above
We might think Christians should be focussing on higher-minded things than bank accounts. After all, Scripture says: Col 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
The context there is not daily life and earning a living, but on putting on our new life in Christ. Jesus himself also speaks of ‘treasure in heaven’: Matt 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
But in the same chapter, our Lord assures us that although we are not to set our affection on material things, the Almighty knows we need them to live: Matt 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
The Apostles needed money for travel and subsistence while taking out the Gospel. Earlier, when God told Jonah to preach at Nineveh, he tried to go in the opposite direction, and that cost money: Jonah1:3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
A form of oppression
Mr Farage observes that he has become a ‘non-person’ by his exclusion from his bank coupled with his inability to find another. Indeed, in today’s society, all over the world, it is impossible to function in society with a bank account. Most wages are paid into a bank account. To be refused one in a monopoly is a form of oppression condemned by the prophet:
Isa 5:8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
Even those paid cash need a bank account to pay their insurance, council tax, things ordered online and so much more . We know there are those who would love to see a cashless society. Even today, the train companies are trying to close station ticket offices and force everyone onto machines or online purchases. But many poorer or older people cannot do that.
Statistics of purchases
There are many ordinary people keeping the principle of cash alive by using it for purchases.
Yet a report on Statista shows the use of cash declining from 22% of UK purchases in 2017 to 10% in 2022. The majority are using cards or mobiles. The most dramatic drop of more than half, from 27% to 13%, occurred from 2019 to 2020. Government-sponsored fears about Covid infections accelerated the use of ‘contactless’. Cash has not recovered since, declining a further three percentage points from 2020 to 2022.
It follows from all this that to be denied a bank account in the modern day really is a form of oppression. It means being excluded from society. The Psalmist prays to God: Psa 55:3 Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.
That neatly sums up the position for Mr Farage, for ‘Our Duty’ and for Christian Voice in 2005. We are all excluded because the woke bankers hate us and our views. We might detest woke policies, but the Bible assures us the feeling is mutual from those who claim to be tolerant and inclusive: Prov 29:27 An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.
To work and freely enjoy the fruits of our labour is the gift of God as the Ecclesiastes readings above and below testify. Denying men their basic God-given right to transact business is a function of an antichrist system, as the Revelation reading below shows us. These are reasons enough for Christian Voice and our members to oppose it in prayer and action.
Eccl 5:19, 9:7; Rev 13:17
Pray for total repentance
Pray against evil devices and policies
Pray for God’s wisdom and direction for our leaders
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The Telegraph reports that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has annoyed the climate cultists by promising to allow new licences for North Sea oil and gas despite his own tough environmental targets.
However, there is, as yet, no backing away from the cult of Net Zero. Mr Sunak even claims he can ‘convince his daughters’ that increasing UK oil and gas production is ‘good for net zero’.
UK Energy Security and Net Zero (sic) Secretary, Grant Shapps MP, says not pressing ahead with North Sea drilling would be ‘irresponsible’ and ‘mad’ as failure to do so would force the UK to import more energy from abroad.
Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP
While Mr Sunak obsesses over what his daughters think, his Business Secretary has raised the alarm over a Government edict coming into force in January 2024.
In just five months’ time, warns Kemi Badenoch, the zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate will fine motor manufacturers £15,000 for every petrol or diesel car they sell if at least 22% of the new cars they sell are not electric vehicles.
Meanwhile, Joseph Mullane in HomeBuilding reports that Government plans to ban oil boilers and insist on heat pumps in rural areas from 2026 have led to a Tory revolt, with former minister George Eustace MP describing the idea as ‘a ‘ULEZ’ for rural households’.
Chris Stark, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, has admitted he is still heating his flat with a gas boiler four years after saying he would install a heat pump. The capital cost is ‘too high’, it’s ‘very difficult’ to install and electricity is too expensive to make the switch, he told the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee last month. On top of that, his local gas fitter told him the heat pump will ‘never work’. HERE is the actual transcript. Look for Q420.
The Climate Change Committee is behind virtually all the lunacy being inflicted on ordinary people. It recommended the ban on the installation of gas boilers in new homes from 2025, on oil boilers from 2026 and the ban on the sale of new gas boilers altogether from 2035.
These diktats might please the elites ministers meet at climate conferences but their Biblical job description is not sucking up to the World Economic Forum, it is honouring God and safeguarding their own people. Motor manufacturers will shut up shop and ordinary people will lose their jobs and shiver in their homes unless the Government rescind the Net Zero absurdity.
But as Will Jones points out in Daily Sceptic, doing so will require repeal of most if not all of the Climate Act 2008. That would be politically inflammatory but if presented in humility as a proposal by a party it could prove electorally beneficial for them in a year’s time.
Security is a Biblical imperative
It is a Biblical imperative for the leaders of a nation to honour God, love their neighbour, and in wisdom and humility make sure their people are secure. In the book of Judges we read what happened when the Israelites had bronze-age technology while surrounding nations had embraced the iron age: Jdg 1:19 And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
After the fall of Jerusalem in 587BC, the Prophet Jeremiah complained in his Lamentations: Lam 5:4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
We see from these words how much people rely on technology and on utilities and energy security. It is prudent of leaders to ensure that and irresponsible of them to ignore it. If you prefer, it shows a lack of wisdom in them, but that traces back to a lack of humility, which itself comes from thinking they can do without the Almighty: Prov 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
But we should also bear in mind the Lord can and does send stupid decisions on leaders as judgment for disobedience to his laws and idolatry. He did exactly that to Solomon’s son and successor Rehoboam: 2Chron 10:15 So the king hearkened not unto the people: for the cause was of God, that the LORD might perform his word… (worth reading the whole passage.)
Repentance brings its reward
Nevertheless, if the leaders of a nation are taking the people in the wrong direction, the prophet says they should recognise that and have the humility to make a u-turn: Ezek 33:11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
The Net Zero agenda has been rushed in and the establishment appear to be ploughing on with no regard for the fast-emerging consequences. The Bible urges wisdom and realism in the face of haste and self-satisfaction: Prov 14:16 A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.
Prov 21:5 The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.
The Prophet Hosea also urged humility, repentance and seeking the Lord, and gave a promise: Hos 10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
And Christians all know this word, which in its context applies to a nation which has dedicated itself to the Lord. Archbishop Welby and King Charles did that on behalf of the United Kingdom in the Coronation service just three months ago. We are a nation under God today, just as much as Israel was then: 2Chron 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Those for whom climate alarmism has become a religious cult immediately weighed in on the North Sea decision. According to the Guardian, Mike Childs, head of policy for Friends of the Earth, and clearly not one given to moderation or understatement, said: “Climate change is already battering the planet with unprecedented wildfires and heatwaves across the globe. Granting hundreds of new oil and gas licences will simply pour more fuel on the flames…’
Only two weeks ago the BBC was gleefully reporting on a heatwave in southern Europe. It was brought about by the atmospheric jet steam driving a high-pressure system over the Mediterranean Sea drawing up hot air from the Sahara. The same jet stream deluged the UK with rain. It’s called ‘weather’.
The Greek government blamed the wildfires not on global warming but on arsonists. With dry undergrowth to set fire to, it is not clear how a can of North Sea oil would have started their fires any better, despite Mr Child’s advice.
UN’s Apocalypse Now!
But even Mr Childs has been outdone in rhetoric by the Secretary-General of the UN. The UN’s own website reports António Guterres saying just last week: “Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning.” He went on, “the era of global warming has ended” and “the era of global boiling has arrived”.
‘Global boiling’? Just where on earth is water boiling out in the open air? The language is used to terrify the population. It will be ‘global apocalypse’ before we know it. One commentator suggests the climate fear-mongers could soon become a laughing stock. In the book of Job, we read of the sea monster Leviathan: Job 41:31 He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
But that’s his breath churning the sea. Leviathon is not being boiled alive. There is a strong thread of nature-worship going on here, and the Bible strongly warns against raising up created things, instead of God, to divine status: Deut 4:16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: 9 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
Uxbridge has scared MPs
But if the BBC and UN are setting out to terrify the population, that is nothing to what the Uxbridge by-election has done to members of parliament. The Conservatives held it by opposing the Ultra-Low Emissions Zone being extended across Greater London by the Mayor Labour’s Sadiq Khan. Now they have suddenly realised that the Mayor’s war on less affluent car drivers and ‘white van man’ is deeply unpopular.
There have already been calls from Jacob Rees-Mogg and Iain Duncan Smith to delay the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars due in seven years time, in 2030. A website reports: ‘More than 40 Tory MPs and peers, including Jacob Rees-Mogg to and Iain Duncan Smith, have written to the Prime Minister asking for the ban be delayed to 2035, since it will do “grave harm to the economy”.’
Reaching Net Zero by 2050 is a legal commitment, stemming from Theresa May’s 2019 amendment to the Climate Act 2008. No MP voted against Mrs May’s big idea. But that was then, and now, the idea of a government spinning ‘love thy neighbour’ into impoverishing them now to save them from a nebulous climate catastrophe in fifty years time is beginning to look like an electoral liability. Iain Duncan Smith’s website even says his party ‘must stand against net zero’ altogether.
Rishi Sunak’s North Sea pledge is clearly a nod in Mr Duncan Smith’s direction, but he will be torn between the new climate sceptics and the climate fanatics in his party.
Electric fanaticism
Cardiff Council is reduced to charging its electric bin lorries with a diesel generator.
Pushing back the imposition of electric cars from 2030 to 2035 is only a delay of five years. There is no chance of the infrastructure, pylons and charging points, being ready by then. And how do the climate fanatics expect the electricity to be generated when the wind dies down and the sun shines too much, or fails to shine at all? They hate the obvious solution, nuclear power. They must expect the people to shiver.
As if to illustrate the lack of wisdom in our godless politicians, Nation Cymru reports that Cardiff Council, having bought some nice new electric bin lorries, found it did not have enough electric charging capacity. It is now using diesel generators to charge the muck-carts. The energy losses in the generator, coupled with those of the batteries and transmission, on top of the cost of the lorries and the environmental damage their components have caused around the globe, means the ‘environmental impact’, let alone the cost to local taxpayers, is far worse than if the Labour authority had stuck with diesel lorries.
Limitations of heat pumps
Air-Source Heat Pumps cost far too much to run when the weather is cold. Picture from Daily Sceptic.
The Scottish National Party wants to compel households north of the border to rip out their gas boilers and install heat pumps instead. Businessman William, Lord Haughey owns a company producing heat pumps. Daily Sceptic reports the entrepreneur and Labour peer telling the SNP it’s too cold in Caledonia for them to work efficiently or cost-effectively.
We have a air-source heat pump on our farmhouse in Wales. The house is a newbuild. It is well-insulated and has underfloor heating. Heating it with the heat pump was economical when the price of night-time electricity was 11p per unit. But now it is twice that, we cannot afford to heat the house with it anymore. By the grace of God we have a wood-burning stove which does the job.
Our heat pump still heats the water, but as Lord Haughey observes, only to a temperature which will not kill legionella bacteria. So an electric immersion heater comes on once a week to do that. To bear out his lordship’s other point, although the salesmen tell you a heat pump will still work when the outside temperature is below zero, what they never admit is that it has to work for much longer to extract what little heat there is. So that 2kw fan is spinning twice or three times as long and the efficiency plummets. In Braemar at -27C? Forget it.
King Charles promotes Net Zero
King Charles, President Biden. Getty Images
King Charles and the Prince of Wales are both signed up to the elitist climate agenda. When US president Joe Biden paid the UK a visit in July 2023, they agreed to drive up ‘climate donations’ from the private sector.
At Windsor Castle, the two heads of state joined participants from the Climate Finance Mobilisation Forum and charity sectors to work out how to ‘encourage’ private companies to abandon fossil fuels and support ‘clean energy’. One major focus of the meeting was how to advance their green agenda in ‘developing economies’.
One aim of the Climate Finance Mobilisation Forum is ‘to release private climate investment in emerging economies’. The King is said to be passionate about preventing developing economies reaching our standard of living by burning their readily-available fossil fuels.
The gathering was also convened by the above mentioned UK Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary (he really is called that oxymoron) Grant Shapps and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (ditto) John Kerry.
According to guidance on the royal page, the Monarch has a ‘less formal’ role as ‘Head of Nation’. The Sovereign acts ‘as a focus for national identity, unity and pride; gives a sense of stability and continuity; officially recognises success and excellence; and supports the ideal of voluntary service.’
As sovereign, he is expected to remain impartial and not to share his personal views on political matters. The late Queen Elizabeth II never made her views public. She was dutifully performing a role. However, the climate cultists like Mr Kerry have attempted to lift climate fanaticism above politics, just as was done with Covid lockdowns and mRNA vaccines. That the earth is warming, that people are at fault, and that we must all travel less, eat less meat and shiver in homes we can’t heat they present as an article of faith. The King plainly agrees.
The debates over ULEZ and Uxbridge and the discussions at Windsor Castle could affect millions of lives. Abandoning fossil fuels and embracing unreliable renewable energy, as the World Economic Forum elites demand of the lower classes will have implications for economies, for national budgets, for industry and for living standards and household bills. Will ordinary people and the developing world stand for it? Or will they be with the Bible:
Ezek 45:9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.
King called for population control in developing countries
In June, 2010, King Charles, as the then Prince of Wales, called for population control and praised the success of ‘family planning services’ in overseas countries.
According to the Telegraph, he delved into the sphere religion by calling for the traditional religious views of the sanctity of life, which oppose the use of artificial contraceptives (condoms, IUDs and hormonal drugs), to be ‘balanced with the imperative to live within the limits of Nature’.
The King, like those condemned in the Bible’s book of Deuteronomy, has edged into worship of ‘Nature’ with a capital ‘N’.
Read and Pray
Read: Psalm 14:4, 53:4, 64:5, 91:8, 94:2, 140:1-3, Matt 9:12; Rom 3:1
Pray against evil and stupid leadership and for leaders to embrace the fear of God, humility, wisdom and understanding.
Pray against elitist decisions designed to destroy our national prosperity.
Pray that decisions from the UK and US to keep developing nations in poverty and to compel them to forgo fossil fuels will be confounded.
We appreciate your support – without it we can’t do our research and help inform your prayers.
So click below to support or join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings
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Costa Coffee's cartoon of a woman after a double mastectomy.
Costa Coffee’s cartoon of a woman after a double mastectomy.
Costa stands accused of a bizarre virtue-signalling stunt with an advert promoting mutilatory double mastectomies in healthy young women.
The coffee firm has used a cartoon image of a “trans man” (ie a woman) with obvious mastectomy scars.
On the Unherd website, Joan Smith described Costa’s trans mastectomy advert as ‘an insult to women.’ She said: ‘The coffee chain is oblivious to the pain it causes troubled young girls’.
Detransitioner Sinead Watson said: ‘There is absolutely nothing glamorous about having your breasts removed. I should know. I only have to look in the mirror to see what a transitioned chest looks like.’
Costa is promoting a medical scandal. The chain now has angry customers threatening a boycott while Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle ludicrously defended it on Julia Hartley-Brewer’s TalkTV show as ‘people making adjustments to their body’, as if a mastectomy is no more serious than a haircut.
The Biblical position is clear. It is God who decides whether we are male or female, not us: Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
The midwife does not ‘assign’ your sex, she simply discerns it: Luke 1:57 Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.
While those who think they know better than the Almighty are cursed by the Word of God: Isa 45:9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? 10 Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?
The Costa advert is the latest example of the UK establishment’s wholesale rebellion against the Almighty. It shows why the whole edifice of woke law needs to be pulled down in national repentance, so that things begin to go well for all the people of this land, not just confused young women deluded into thinking they are really men:
Meanwhile, the government has delayed publishing its “transgender guidance for schools” after its legal advisors concluded it would be in breach of the Equality Act 2010.
According to Sky News, Attorney General Victoria Prentis MP said the Government would have to change the law if it wanted to stop children assuming a different gender in schools.
‘Gender Reassignment’ is a ‘protected characteristic’ under Section 7 of Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the 2010 Act. Click on the link above to see we are not making it up.
The Prime Minister himself admitted that the long-awaited advice for teachers is still being worked on despite previously promising it would be issued before the end of the summer term. That date has now passed.
He is under pressure, say the papers, from ‘some Tory MPs and campaigners; to ensure that the guidance stops schoolchildren changing their names, pronouns, hairstyles, and uniforms to match their preferred gender.
Government lawyers have also raised concerns about proposals to include a free speech defence so that teachers would not be ‘compelled’ to use a pupil’s chosen pronouns.
But none of it can be done while the Equality Act stays as it is. So the Attorney General’s observation of amending the law begs the question: Why they are not doing that already? How long have they been in office? Thirteen years?
If the Government are genuinely committed to ensuring the safety of children and resolving the persisting “gender identity crisis” within schools, why is the Government not taking urgent action to change the law now?
It is because, as the Guardian reported more than three months ago, Equalities Secretary Kemi Badenoch is still dithering after asking the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for advice on the change. And of course the usual suspects, the Stonewalls of this world, feet securely under the government table, are opposing it.
Safeguarding of children has a Biblical precedent in the words of our Lord: Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
‘Gender Reassignment’ should be banned
We need to be very clear that in anything like a God-fearing society, or even one with common sense, no child should be allowed to set out on the ‘social transitioning’ pathway. Changing pronouns, clothing and toilets leads inexorably to puberty-blocking hormones and mutilatory surgery, which a civilised society would prohibit. If someone has a psychological, emotional or spiritual problem, stopping puberty and cutting off bodily parts is not the way to address it.
Those who are prescribing damaging hormones to children are well described in Scripture: Job 13:4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
While in the Gospel, our Lord took it as understood that a physician would be nowhere near adolescent boys and girls with absolutely nothing wrong with them: Matt 9:12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
Teaching in fear
Teachers in schools across the UK appear to be walking on eggshells in matters of “gender identity”. It has significantly affected the way they carry out their jobs, as most teachers get sanctioned for what schools describe as ” falling below teaching standards”.
In May 2023, a Christian teacher was stopped indefinitely from teaching in any sixth-form college or children’s home in England for what they claim to be “misgendering” a pupil.
33-year-old Joshua Sutcliffe was banned from the teaching profession for addressing a girl as a girl. Mr Sutcliffe unapologetically admitted to not using the pupil’s preferred pronouns and plans to appeal the court ruling.
Guidance on the UK government page says, ‘Parents have the duty to protect their children’s rights until they are old enough to make their own way in the world.
‘Provide the child with food, clothing and a place to live. Also, provide safety, supervision and control amongst other things.’
The emphasis on “old enough to make informed decisions,” and providing supervision/control, as stated above, seems to have become irrelevant in this era of “gender rights and inclusivity.”
Parental consent in matters such as “gender identity” and ‘sex education’ should not be up for debate.
The Bible says, Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: And when he is old, he will not depart from it.
In a separate case, a court ruled against Christian parents who took a London school to court after it prevented pupils, including her 4-year-old son, from opting out of a school ‘gay pride’ event.
The parents, Izzy and Shane Montague are to appeal their case after the Central London County Court dismissed their claim against their child’s former school, Heavers Farm, for attempting to force him to participate in an “LGBT-themed Pride Parade”. Christian parents, teachers, activists, public servants being cancelled for expressing Biblical views, need their freedom of speech protected. Only national repentance can save this United Kingdom:
In November 2022, teachers at a Scottish secondary school were ordered to keep gender changes of pupils a secret.
A local paper reported that staff at a West Dunbartonshire high school received an email from the head teacher warning them not to divulge the information of children’s gender decisions.
Teachers at the school also revealed that a growing number of pupils were assuming new identities, with staff and pupils ordered to use new names and pronouns without question.
Our major concern is to let children grow in the way of the Lord, and enjoy their childhood without unnecessary intrusions.
As the Bible puts it, 1 Cor 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Moreover, children should not be taught God made a mistake when he created each one of us. Gen 5:2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
Read and Pray
Proverbs 11:2; Mark 7:20-23; Romans 12:16; 1 John 2:16; 1 Corinth 1:28-29
Pray for children across the UK, for national repentance to stop them being part of a satanic experiment.
Pray for Christian parents standing up for their children,
Pray for Christian teachers facing persecution,
Pray for sound leadership, from God-fearing humility which leads to wisdom and understanding in our nation.
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A senior British Army officer has been forced to quit after being criticised for repeating the view that “men cannot be women”.
Colonel Dr Kelvin Wright, 54, had been a Reservist commanding officer with 14 years of unblemished service, including two tours in Afghanistan, before his honour was attacked with a “transphobia” complaint and an investigation he described as “hellish”.
In May, he shared a post on his private Facebook account from Fair Play for Women, a campaign group that works with governing bodies to preserve women’s sports for those born female, which consisted of a quote from Helen Joyce, a feminist campaigner backed by the author JK Rowling.
According to the Telegraph, the quote shared without any additional comment said: ‘If women cannot stand in a public place and say, ‘men cannot be women’, then we do not have women’s rights at all.’ This means Colonel Wright has been forced out of the British Army because it is the policy of the Ministry of Defence, that ‘trans-women’ (men, in other words) are women.
As the Bible states, Gen 1:27 So God created man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
The Prophet Isaiah would be scathing about those who think they know better than their maker: Isa 45:9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! … Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? 10 Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?
Defence Secretary responds
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace MP has said it was “rubbish and untrue” to suggest Dr Wright had been forced out and the investigation had “nothing to do with his views”.
‘Col Dr Wright was NOT forced out of the Army. His views are NOT contrary to Army policy’, he Tweeted.
Ministry of Defence
‘Col Wright’s administrative investigation stemmed from Army social media policy and had nothing to do with his views. He was encouraged to stay.’
Emails to Dr Wright, seen by the Telegragh, show the investigating officer in his case referred specifically to the transgender policy.
On examination, ‘Ministry of Defence (MOD) Policy is completely pro-trans and accepts the validity of no other view whatsoever.
It is called JSP 889 ‘Policy for the Recruitment and Management of Transgender Personnel in the Armed Forces.’ It adopts all the language of trans activists and even recommends their groups with not a balancing word. Read it for yourself here and do a Ctrl-F search in it for the words ‘women’ and ‘affirmed’.
Mr. Wallace has been very badly advised to claim Col Dr Wright’s “views are NOT contrary to Army policy.” They plainly are. And MOD policy is His Majesty’s Government policy.
Government’s double standards
In contrast to the dithering HMG, UK Athletics (UKA) placed a ban on transgender athletes from competing in the female category across all its events.
British_athletics
The decision came two months after UKA claimed that it wanted to implement a ban, to protect the female category, but feared it would be too “risky” to do so unless the government changed the law.
The rule, which came after World Athletics announced a ban at the international level, became active for all UKA-licensed events from midnight on 31 March 2023.
In a statement, UKA said it believed that it “is fair for athletes who have gone through male puberty to be excluded from the female category in athletics” but that “athletics should remain an inclusive sport”.
Leaders stuck with the definition of a woman
FILE PHOTO: Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer
Labour opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer couldn’t define a ‘woman’. And now, nor can His Majesty’s Government. The Conservatives have been in office for thirteen years.
Further, Labour’s frontbenchers in the past have also been unable to define what a woman is, with one saying the issue is a “rabbit hole”.
Yvette Cooper and Anneliese Dodds, two of Labour’s frontbench MPs, both declined to give a definition of a woman on International Women’s Day earlier this year.
For reference purposes, here is the Bible’s definition of a woman, Genesis 2:22-23 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man…And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Meanwhile, when David Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010 the Gender Recognition Act 2004 was six years old. Nevertheless, trans ideology has only really got going on their watch.
The Bible says, Prov 16:12 It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness.
Recently, a school identified as Rye College is still under investigation by the Department for Education (DfE) over an identity row. This comes as a teacher called a pupil’s views despicable during an argument over another allegedly identifying as a cat.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak even said he was deeply concerned about the content of sex education being taught to some pupils.
In March 2023, Mr Sunak pledged to put forward a review of statutory guidance on Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), in light of the “safeguarding scandal” of inappropriate materials being used in schools.
Therefore, it is conflicting to see that so much energy is put into ensuring children’s identities, as well as women’s rights, are protected, and gender clinics shut down, whilst, on the other hand, a member of the British Army cannot have an opinion nor stand by what he believes.
The Bible says, Prov 25:5 Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.
Not to be swept under the carpet
Under the Tories’ implementation of gender-neutral toilets in schools, there have been reports of incidents where girls have been assaulted by a boy in a school in Essex. Additionally, the party has drafted sex education guidance allowing children to ‘transition’ if their parents can be persuaded to agree. Further, they now preside over teenage girls with mental and emotional problems deciding in droves they are really boys.
It is they who have allowed the child abuse of puberty blockers and mutilatory double mastectomies for vulnerable young girls at the age of sixteen, which so many are now bitterly regretting and accusing the adults who advised them of failing in their duty to safeguard them.
It is the Conservatives who allow sex educators to indoctrinate children with lies that parents are not even allowed to see.
Isa 45:9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! … Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?
Created male or female
At the moment, anyone can apply to be recognised as the opposite sex from the one he or she was born as. Under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 contents , all they need is an opinion from two doctors, one an expert in ‘gender dysphoria’.
Logically, the government should be offering help to such people to come to terms with their real gender. Rather, the UK Government has made it even easier for emotionally-challenged individuals to declare they have changed sex.
The Bible says,
Lev 26:21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
Also, the Bible says, Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Unless His Majesty’s Government repent and turn back to God, that is where our nation is headed.
Read and Pray
Hos 4:6; Luke 17:28; Psalm 94:5-6
Pray for national repentance!
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The Coronation Chair containing the Stone of Scone
The Coronation Chair containing the Stone of Scone
The Archbishop of Canterbury has at last published the Order of Service for the Coronation of King Charles III. The coronation will take place tomorrow, Saturday 6th May 2023.
We shall be holding our monthly prayer meeting at Canning Road, West Ham, London E15 3ND, from 10.30aqm to 12.30pm. Find full details HERE. Come if you can, but best bring an umbrella.
On the other hand, you may be watching the Coronation on TV. If so, I hope this very brief article will bless you and inspire you to pray and proclaim ‘the lively oracles of God’.
How does it compare?
So how does the service compare to the Order of Service, one month short of seventy years ago, for her late majesty, Queen Elizabeth II? In what particulars is it the same? And where does it differ?
Last month Christian Voice published a Coronation Special newsletter. We went through the 1953 Order of Service. In particular we set out the form of the Coronation Oath and carried out a Biblical exposition of the four main scriptures.
You will find links to the 2023 Order of Service and a downloadable PDF of our Coronation Special Newsletter below to compare for yourself. (All links open on a laptop in a new tab.)
The presentation and acceptance of the monarch remains. It will however be repeated four times. The Moderator of the Church of Scotland will present the Bible to the king. His prayer is unchanged: ‘Sir: to keep you ever mindful of the law and the Gospel of God as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes, receive this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; This is the royal Law; These are the lively Oracles of God.
The Coronation Oath remains the same. That is because it is set in statute law. It will be introduced by the Archbishop. His spin will be that it is rather more to do with the Church and freedom of religion than affairs of state. However, in case anyone is tempted to meddle with it, he will say it has ‘stood for centuries’ and is ‘enshrined in law’.
The most holy part of the service, the anointing of the king to rule under God, remains.
The prayer as the king receives the sword is still based on Rom. 13:1-7. The king will still receive the regalia.
What has changed?
You will see a different form of words on the presentation of the Orb, but one which still declares Christ rules over all earthly dominions. Why the change? Answers please in the comments below!
The readings from Scripture are different. In 1953 we heard 1Pet. 2:13-17 as the Epistle and Matt 22:15-22 as the Gospel. Remember the service is an Anglican communion rite.
The I Peter text urges submission to the governing authorities and liberty under the law. The Matthew text places the earthly governments of ‘Caesar’ firmly under God.
In 2023 for the Anglican Epistle reading we have Colossians 1:9-17. The Authorised or King James version will be used. Rishi Sunak is due to read it. The Gospel is Luke 4:16-21. There is a ‘sung Alleluia’ either side of the Gospel, from Psalm 47:1-2 & Psalm 47:6-7.
The Colossians reading concludes by stating that creation was founded by and is sustained by Christ Jesus. It includes: ‘thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.’
The Luke reading is the account of our Lord in the synagogue in Nazareth. In it, the Lord proclaimed himself as Messiah. We shall see what the Archbishop will make of it when he gives his sermon.
Prayers of blessing
The king wanted leaders of non-Christian faiths to be involved in the service. That will not happen. People of other faiths will present him with regalia. ‘Faith leaders’ will process in and take their seats. Neither carries the same spiritual significance as participation in the liturgy, in my view. Some may take exception to our Hindu Prime Minister reading the Epistle, but all sorts reading the Bible is allowed under Canon Law.
A departure from 1953, perhaps the only possible nod to the king’s request, is the leaders of two of the UK’s non-Protestant denominations giving prayers of blessing. They will be the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Thyateira & Great Britain.
Charles wanted to be ‘defender of faith’. But the Archbishop in his promise of homage will address him firmly as ‘Defender of the Faith’, that title bestowed on King Henry VIII by the pope of his time.
Lastly, the king will declare himself ‘solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God’ … ‘that I am a faithful Protestant, and that I will, according to the true intent of the enactments which secure the Protestant succession to the Throne, uphold and maintain the said enactments to the best of my powers according to law.’
Make of that what you will, but remember in the comments below to be generous and to call no man a liar.
Prayers
The Coronation Ritual is the most solemn and rare moment of our national life. Pray this United Kingdom will remain a nation under God. May he use the Coronation to bring many to faith in our risen, ascended, glorified Lord Jesus, and to revive us as a Christian nation again.
Read our previous article on why publication of the Order of Service was delayed :
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Alex Burghart MP, Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office
Alex Burghart MP, Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office
The Government have launched a Consultation on Digital Identity. The deadline to respond is Wednesday 1st March 2023. They want to bring under one digital roof all our identity details at present held by different departments.
They are presenting this move as benign. However, the government departments holding our personal data will also include county councils and outside organisations working for public authorities. What could possibly go wrong?
‘Data sharing’ could begin in December 2023. But before we look at how to respond, what does the Bible say about personal data, privacy, truthfulness and the role of government?
Biblically, Government is there to maintain peace and security according to God’s laws and to promote prosperity. It is there to serve the people, not the elite, according to our Lord’s own command. Whether those in power recognise they are there to improve the lives of the people of the UK is a moot point. But Christian Voice – and you – are here to tell them. You can read more on this subject in our previous articles (on a desktop or laptop they all open automatically in a new tab, for a mobile you may have to hold and hover):
On top of all that, government is not to lie, ‘spin’ or ‘nudge’: Exodus 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. … 23:1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
Furthermore, the individual is a created being, made in the image of God: Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
The Psalmist speaks of liberty as a good thing to have: Psalm 119:45 And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.
As does the Apostle Paul: 2Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
God’s Social Institutions
Indeed the individual created in Gen 1:27 is God’s first social institution. He or she is followed in Gen 2:24 by the family, in Gen 4:26 by the church (or organised worship), and then in Gen 9 by the nation state with the functions given above.
We read of king David’s attempt to gather personal information about his people in two places in Scripture:
2Sam 24:1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.
1Chron 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
There appears to be room there to discuss whether God moved David or permitted Satan to provoke David. Suffice to say it was a bad thing to do and brought judgment on the people of Israel.
The Consultation
The Consultation itself is HERE. We note firstly the short consultation period. It started in January 2023 and ends on 1st March 2023 at midnight (we assume). There has been no debate, no discussion. You may not even have heard of it had we not told you.
The Government Minister, Alex Burghart MP, Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office, presents his proposal as more convenient and thoroughly beneficial to us the people. But could it be rather more beneficial to government to have all the information they hold about us in one place?
The drive for centralised ID may tie in to the call from Tony Blair and William Hague for a digital ID card, reported HERE by the Institution of Science & Technology. But what does Mr Blair even mean by ‘People already live their lives digitally’? OK, even some of us who still pay cash may have digital gadgets, a mobile phone, a laptop, even a ‘smart speaker’. So what? Not even Tony Blair will be eating his steak or drinking his fine wine ‘digitally’.
Scope for hacks, leaks and malice
Scroll down in the Consultation to (or do a Ctrl-F search for) ‘Annex 4’ to find the list of departments who will share data. Many of us will know about logging in to the HMRC, but anything you ever said to the Home Office or the Land Registry will be brought together and shared with county, district, community or London borough councils, with the Welsh and Scottish Governments, the Cabinet Office and ‘An organisation (for Scotland and Wales ‘a person’) providing services to a specified public authority’. Who are these? They are not even named. Altogether, quite apart from all the councils and outside organisations and ‘person’s, no fewer than seventeen government departments are listed. The scope for hacking, errors and leaks of people’s data is enormous. And that is even if you, dear reader, trust them not to abuse your data in the first place.
We raise this because the departments also include the Ministry of Defence. It was their 77th Brigade which spied on lockdown sceptics during ‘the pandemic’, seeking out those who told the truth (aka ‘spread misinformation’) on social media. Also involved in that exercise was the Counter Disinformation Unit of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. See Big Brother Watch HERE. The DfDCM&S is one of the seventeen and will also share the information it holds on us with the rest of the government machine.
We may think it too much of a stretch to imagine a government department withholding services or benefits (however you define those) from those holding the wrong opinions. But that is what they thought in Canada. There, as even the BBC reported, the government told banks to freeze the accounts of anti-lockdown protesters. So there is scope for reprisals against those who do not toe the official line.
(P.S. Couldn’t happen here? In May 2025, a tweet about anti-Semitism landed a pensioner in a police cell. Coppers from Kent Police turned up at his house in Gillingham and handcuffed him. Bodycam footage from the raid reveals one expressing alarm at ‘very Brexity things’ on his bookshelf. They carted Julian Foulkes off to a police cell, held him for eight hours and interrogated him on suspicion of sending a ‘malicious communication’. The affair illustrates perfectly the kind of anti-establishment materials the authorities can view as suspicious.)
How to Respond
You can either complete the Online Questionnaire HERE or email your response todea-data-sharing@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk. Either way the Cabinet Office will have your name and email address and your response!
You might wish to respond to the questions in the following manner. Answer how your feel led, but note how almost every question assumes the outcome. You are led by the questions to go along with the idea that this is all benign and uncontroversial. You will note that every question asks you to give a reason for your response. One veteran of answering government questionnaires suggests you use this as an opportunity:
He says: ‘The trick is to add comments to the “please give the reason for your answer” box; EVERY comment should start with “I strongly disagree with the introduction of combined digital identity verification as it infringes every person’s right to privacy and freedom; the data to be shared will be exposed to hacking, abuse and errors which will negatively impact our daily lives and ability to be free individuals; ………………….” (the specific justification for each answer is then added to the end). When the standard text has been typed once, it can be copied and pasted with the final relevant bit for each question added at the end of it.’
(P.P.S. Sept 2025: The proposal was shelved. An earlier attempt in 2006 actually resulted in an act of parliament which was later repealed.)
PRAY: Pray the Lord will raise up a good response from those who will speak truth to those in power. Pray for freedom under God to win through. Pray for the fear of God, for humility and wisdom for those who lead us. Or pray the Lord will replace them with men after his own heart.
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Het Majesty the Queen attends the Commonwealth Day Service in Westminster Abbey on 9th March 2020
Jamaica, along with the rest of the Caribbean and Africa, is threatened by what former UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan, Lord Sacks identifies as ‘Cultural Climate Change’. HIS VIDEO HERE
By the grace of God, in this article you will see how Western evils like abortion and homosexuality are driven by a handful of activists in African and Caribbean countries imbued with Western vices. They are financed by wealthy Western governments and foundations with vast sums of money which should be funding proper health care or economic development.
Christian Voice is enabling Christians both in the UK and overseas to push back against this wickedness, to pray for and to speak Biblical truth to those in power. But we need your support. To invest in this work, click here!
(By the grace of God, we originally published this article in the March 2020 edition of the Christian Voice newsletter, just after Her Majesty the Queen and dignitaries celebrated Commonwealth Day in a service in Westminster Abbey on 9th March 2020. Yes, that was just before Covid, Lockdown and mRNA vaccines! But here we bring it up-to-date.)
Cultural Climate Change
So what is Cultural Climate Change? Unlike alleged weather ‘climate change’, this one is totally man-made!
Cultural Climate Change is characterised by a disregard for the sanctity of life and the divine institution of marriage. It leads to an ice age of falling birthrates, a rising sea-level of immorality, an increase in the temperature of intolerance to prophetic warning voices and a cooling of the altruism we need to bind us together. Civilisations in the past have been here and done this, Rabbi Sacks argues. Every one of them has gone down the rubbish-chute of history, driven out by a stronger monotheistic and monogamous force. The word of God says:
Proverbs 16:12 It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness.
If you want your nation to be blessed, those who lead you must set Jesus as their King. Scripture clearly says:
Psalm 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD;
Living in the Days of Lot
We can also say the West is now living in the Days of Lot. In the societies of Sodom and Gomorrah, immorality in the form of sodomy was not merely tolerated but encouraged by their legal and societal structures. They also practised child sacrifice. However, the West today goes one further. It uses government foreign aid programmes and immoral charitable foundations to export its immorality, funding local activist NGOs to spread Cultural Climate Change in their countries.
Psa 2:2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
The West also employs diplomatic pressure. One forum where this can be seen is the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
In previous years, pro-homosexual nations and activists within them have attempted to promote assumed LGBT rights in and around the meeting.
Australia put down a pro-sodomy motion at the CHOGM in October 2011. The United Kingdom supported it. In June 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron told a reception he gave for gay activists at No 10 Downing Street that he intended to use UK foreign aid as a lever to force recipient countries to liberalise their laws on homosexuality. His speech was reported in the UK homosexual website Pink News. This writer’s reaction to it was reported in DominicaNewsOnline. I said: ‘David Cameron needs to realise that the white man is not the fount of all wisdom’.
The Bible writers would surely call Mr Cameron a man ‘who did evil in the sight of the Lord’.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Scotland stands accused of cronyism and corruption.
Her Majesty the Queen signed a new Commonwealth Charter in 2013, which declared: ‘We are implacably opposed to all forms of discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, colour, creed, political belief or other grounds.’ The Western nations wanted ‘sexual orientation’ included explicitly in the Charter. They lost, and will now try to argue that ‘or other grounds’ includes ‘sexuality’.
In 2015, the CHOGM elected Baroness Scotland as Secretary-General. Her Ladyship said she would use her tenure to promote decriminalisation of homosexuality in Commonwealth countries. She is now embroiled in accusations of corruption.
In 2018, Prime Minister Theresa May told the CHOGM that laws against unnatural practices were ‘wrong’. Prince William has expressed himself to be heavily pro-gay. Yet the Bible says:
Lev 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Division and Pushback
However, events around the UNFPA Nairobi Summit in November 2019, which promoted ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights’ (SRHR: code for pro-LGBT and pro-abortion policies) together with Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), exposed deep divisions between nations already engulfed by Cultural Climate Change and those threatened by it.
The Nordic Nations, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, were the primary funders of the Summit. Moreover, no end of blond young women activists attended the Summit. In contrast, African, Caribbean and Asian nations were dismayed by the Western attempts to promote immorality. Uganda and St Lucia stood with the US to condemn the UNFPA agenda. Norway then condemned what it saw as the ‘pushback’.
Christian Voice and Kenya Christian Voice were there. We handed out leaflets condemning abortion to those going in and our activities were noticed and made a real impact in the spiritual realm.
Freedom of Speech
There is, as mentioned above, a serious impact from Cultural Climate Change on freedom of speech and expression. Legalising homosexuality leads immediately to non-discrimination laws. The next step is a law mandating public authorities to promote ‘protected characteristics’. These include ‘sexual orientation’ and transgenderism. Scripture condemns such vanities:
Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
The same public authorities, and other concerns and companies, use these laws to sack Christians and others who express misgivings about homosexual practice on social media. The church also begins to exercise self-censorship.
LGBT propaganda
The experience of the UK shows that legalising homosexuality also leads to the pretence of same-sex ‘marriage’. This, coupled with the public authority duty, leads to teachers corrupting primary school children with LGBT propaganda. Yet it is parents, not teachers, to whom God gives responsibility for children’s education:
Deut 11:18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, … 19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
There is a trampling on parental responsibilities for their children’s education, even though these are enshrined not just in the Bible but in human rights legislation. In Birmingham, the courts denied parents freedom of assembly to protest against LGBT propaganda in Anderton Park and Parkfield Primary Schools.
Transgenderism
Schools in the UK are now also hotbeds of the horrors of transgenderism. The idea placed in the minds of even small children that they are ‘trapped in the wrong body’ has become so fashionable the UK government even allow doctors to prescribe hormonal drugs, ‘puberty blockers’ which interfere with children’s natural development.
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Deut 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
Matt 19:4 And he (Jesus) answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female?
(P.S. There has more recently been a pushback against transgenderism, with the closure of the UK’s Tavistock Clinic. The UK government also want to ensure fairness in sports. But at this time of posting [January 2023], the Scottish Parliament had voted to allow anyone to switch gender, without so much as a doctor’s note. Meanwhile the UK government were proposing to criminalise anyone, even a parent, who voiced concerns over even a child’s intention to ‘transition’.)
The prize of Jamaica
J-Flag: Jamaican campaigning homosexuals
Cultural Climate Change is being pushed in Africa and Asia and across the whole of the Caribbean. However, Jamaica, the largest Commonwealth island in the Caribbean, would be a highly significant prize if judges and/or lawmakers could be browbeaten into legalising sodomy and abortion. There is money to be made, particularly from abortion. Underneath is an anti-Christian population control agenda. We shall explore that at another time…
Anyway, the propaganda appears to be working for now. An article in the Guardian in December 2018 was headed ‘Welcome to Jamaica – no longer ‘the most homophobic place on Earth.’
The article highlighted what it described as ‘the work of Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-Flag), the country’s largest LGBT rights organisation, which this month celebrates its 20th anniversary.’
J-FLAG
J-Flag Logo
So let us look at ‘J-FLAG’. According to its website, J-FLAG has six directors and no fewer than thirteen full-time members of staff, including a ‘Senior Youth Programme Officer’, one Sean Lord. Foreign-funded NGO jobs are among the most lucrative in the developing world. A Scottish gay charity has just admitted its youth outreach programmes amounted to grooming and sexual abuse.
Its 2017 annual report boasted of its ‘gay pride celebrations’, public visibility in its clearing beaches campaign, support from private sector companies and of being heard sympathetically in Parliament. It states that the Minister of Justice, Hon. Delory Chuck, called for decriminalisation of anti-sodomy laws, only to appear to back-track.
The Minister of Health, Dr Christopher Tufton, demanded ‘stigma and discrimination’ against ‘minority groups’ be ended. Most worrying, the Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, it says, told a London summit that Jamaica welcomes ‘LGBT travellers’. The latter bring tourism money, it is true. But they also bring heightened use of narcotics, sexual health risks and the corruption of ‘sex-tourism’ as well-heeled foreign homosexual men try to hire local boys for sex. The tourist industry is proposing a pact with the devil.
J-FLAG is also promoting feminist group ‘We-Change’, a magazine, ‘Pride ja’, a disturbing youth ‘outreach’, and a transsexual group, ‘Transwave’. They boasted of a partnership between J-Flag and ‘the Youth Division of the (Jamaica) Ministry of Youth, Sports & Culture.’
Confusing accounts
J-FLAG accounts are difficult to comprehend, even when it publishes them. It seldom lists its donors, but we’ll come to that. Its 2014 annual report lists 5,000,000 on administration, 17,500,000 pn staff, and 22,000,000 on ‘program’.
Its 2018 Annual Report showed a rise to 9,306,240 on administration, 10,133,405 on staff, and 71,811,593 on ‘program’ (p29). It does not say what currency these figures are in, which is a gross omission. It may be Jamaican dollars, which would put the listed expenditure in the £500k bracket.
Stop Press: J-Flag’s 2021 Annual Accounts listed the following wealthy international donors:
• Astraea Lesbian Foundation (US-based)
• Comic Relief/Impact (UK-based)
• GiveOut (UK-based)
• Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS)
• MAC-AIDS
• Open Society Foundation (George Soros)
• The Commonwealth Equality Network (qv)
• The European Union
• The Dutch Embassy
• The Global Fund
• United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
LGBT promotion in the Caribbean
What is certain is that all the money comes from the West. The 2015/2016 Global Resources Report listed ‘Government and Philanthropic Support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Communities’.
The top ten funders of ‘LGBTI’ funding for Latin America, South America and the Caribbean (p6) included Hivos (a wealthy humanist foundation in the Netherlands), the EU, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations (founded by George Soros), Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice and the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation.
Costa Rica is being deluged with Cultural Climate Change money, $5m in 2015/16, according to the report. But second is Jamaica, with $1,785,967 pouring in. As J-FLAG is about the only and certainly the largest LGBT CSO in Jamaica, the bulk of that money must be ending up in J-FLAG coffers.
Swedish heiress Sigrid Rausing, based in the UK, is at the forefront of LGBT funding worldwide.
Donors listed
J-FLAG’s 2014 annual report listed some of its donors (p 38 – [p42 in the pdf]): Digicell Foundation, European Union, FOSI, Foundation To Promote An Open Society (sounds like a Soros set-up), Human Dignity Trust, MAC-AIDS, Rights Now, Royal Norwegian, Sigrid Rausing Trust, US State Department, York University and VIIV Healthcare. (US State Dept. money for promoting sodomy dried up under President Trump only to restart under Joe Biden.)
Sigrid Rausing Trust admits, or boasts, of having sent £480,000 to J-FLAG over the years from 2009. They gave them £240,000 over three years starting in 2018. (Stop Press: Their current grant is £300,000 over three years from 2022./)
Last year, 2019, Astraea Lesbian Foundation gave J-FLAG £500,000.
Wealthy foundations
GiveOut founder, UK gay activist Elliot Vaughn.
Astraea itself is supported by other wealthy US foundations including Arcus, Tides and Ford and has strong links to Open Society Foundations.
We see Astraea and Open Society supporting similar groups around the world, for example, South Africa’s Triangle Project (pp 39-43). Other ‘usual suspects’ also appear, such as the Germany-based Heinrich Boll Foundation.
The Edge Funders Alliance ran a conference in 2013 helpfully listing many of the Western NGOs and Foundations funding groups promoting immorality in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Returning to J-FLAG, we find a UK homosexual charity, GiveOut, fund-raising for J-FLAG’s ‘Community Hub’, ‘Rainbow House’. GiveOut have also provided funds for J-FLAG’s Transwave as well as the ‘United Caribbean Trans Network’ (UCTRANS).
Abortion
Jamaica’s IPPF-funded FAMPLAN ’s logo carries worrying allusions to China’s infamous ‘one-child’ policy .
Abortion is illegal in Jamaica except, obviously, to save the life of the mother. International Planned Parenthood run the Jamaica Family Planning Association, FAMPLAN. We read FAMPLAN is an advocate of sex education in schools. That will heighten demand for contraceptives, and when they fail, abortion.
In 2005 the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute published a paper about ‘declining international funding’ for Caribbean family planning associations. Like the Jamaican LGBT-advocacy industry, FAMPLAN is totally reliant on Western funding. It’s money was coming from US-based IPPF, from the Canadian International Development Agency ‘and similar International organizations’. It received no money from the Jamaican government.
In Kenya, Marie Stopes has been caught out providing illegal abortions in its network on clinics in the country. The abortions are heavily subsidised from the West, notably some £48m from the UK taxpayer. Marie Stopes does not operate across the Caribbean. If IPPF is providing that service, we have found no evidence of it at this time of writing.
Propaganda
Nevertheless, IPPF would be well set to make a lot of money if abortion were ever legalised in Jamaica, so we should expect pro-abortion articles in the press, presentations to Parliament and similar propaganda, or ‘advocacy’ if one prefers.
Indeed, we read On an IPPF website: ‘FAMPLAN is a key player within a coalition of civil society organizations advocating for legal and policy changes related to sexual and reproductive health and rights, including the rights of LGBTQI+ individuals and women who have experienced violence. FAMPLAN also focuses on the health and rights of young people, and has been leading a collaborative effort to revise and strengthen school-based sexuality education, and remove the requirement of parental consent for youth under 18 who want to access sexual and reproductive health services.’
Whenever we read ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’ (SRHR) alarm bells ring. The expression was prominent at the Nairobi UNFPA Summit in November 2019. It is code for liberalisation of laws around homosexuality and abortion. And we note FAMPLAN want to paint parents of under-18s out of the picture where their children’s sexual activities are concerned.
Christian response
That particular IPPF webpage is no longer available, but IPPF’s ‘Famplan’ section boasts of its Youth Advocacy Movement HERE and says HERE that despite ‘cultural barriers and stigma’ Famplan has ‘made its mark’. It is a challenge to the church in Jamaica and to Christian youth in particular. The church needs to identify these strongholds of Satan and take prayer action against them.
As well as confront evildoers, Christians are called to offer up:
1Tim 2:1 … prayers, intercessions, … 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority;
And above all to witness to their Members of Parliament and all others in public life.
Christian Voice is enabling Christians both in the UK and overseas to pray for and to speak Biblical truth to those in power. To support our work, click here!
Mass Resistance
Moving back to the LGBT agenda, Brian Camenker of US-based Mass Resistance was able to present a speech at a pro-family rally in Jamaica in 2013 hosted by Dr Wayne West.
According to the MassResistance website, ‘Camenker outlined — point by point — the progression that followed once homosexuality was legalized everywhere else — and would surely happen in Jamaica. After legalization comes: gay pride parades; non-discrimination laws; homosexuals’ adoption of children; the homosexual agenda in schools; forcing “gay marriage” on society; public funding to deal with increased homosexual-related social problems; the transgender agenda; large-scale loss of free speech; ban on counseling for kids with homosexual issues; and attacks on churches.’
Russian response
Under President Putin, Russia has been moving to a more pro-family and pro-life stance. It is one of the reasons Russia is now so hated by Western liberals.
In 2015 Russia banned Open Society Foundation from any activities in the country. Indeed, Russia now bans all organisations funded from abroad seeking to undermine the nation’s morals and corrupt its young. In 2013, Russia brought in a federal law ‘for the purpose of protecting children from information advocating for a denial of traditional family values’. Known as the ‘gay propaganda law’, this measure has already proved highly effective at preventing gay activists presenting homosexuality as a norm, or holding gay pride parades. Amnesty International and Western liberal opinion are appalled.
P.S. (Jan 2023) Yet even the UK now demands transparency around the activities of foreign powers. The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) was introduced to the National Security Bill by a government amendment in October 2022. The aim is to deter foreign power use of covert arrangements, activities and proxies, ‘where those activities are directed or carried out by entities established overseas or subject to foreign power control’.
John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Jamaica! Stand firm!
In the face of all the well-funded international pressure to bring Cultural Climate Change to Jamaica, we should be failing in our Christian prophetic duty if we were not to issue a warning to the people of Jamaica of their need to stand firm.
This ministry is therefore available to brief those in authority, diplomats, law-makers and pastors. We were present in Nairobi in November 2019 and are currently working on submissions to members of parliament in Kenya.
In Jamaica, it seems one necessary measure is to compel NGOs and CSOs which receive money from overseas to list each such donation in their annual published accounts. Russia’s example is one that has much to commend it as well.
The CHOGM 2020
H.E. Paul Kagame President of Rwanda
Looking ahead to June 2020 and Kigali, delegates from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean should be aware at least one pro-LGBT NGO has achieved affiliate status at the CHOGM. The‘Commonwealth Equality Network’ will ensure the presence of LGBT activists in Kigali. It lists 47 of its ‘member’ LGBT groups across the Commonwealth HERE. An article in the Independent in April 2018 also listed homosexual activists from the UK, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Barbados, Malawi, Tonga, Belize, Malaysia, Seychelles and Australia. Clearly, the Commonwealth white nations are funding all the others.
The UK government may well be on ‘best behaviour’ in June 2020 as Boris Johnson focuses on trade deals. That provides an opportunity for Caribbean, African and Asian nations to put together a pro-family, pro-life resolution. High Commissioners in London could prove instrumental in deciding whether such an approach is feasible, and if so, in organising it, and if not, pondering what else should be done.
The hosting country has great influence, not least in speeches welcoming delegates. It would be helpful if President Paul Kagame could remind assembled nations of the need to respect traditional values, for example.
(P.S. The inordinate ‘lockdown’ response to Covid saw the 2020 CHOGM abandoned.)
Research
More research should be done on the funding of pro-LGBT and pro-abortion NGOs, and this ministry stands ready to do whatever the Lord calls us to do to combat the global menace of Cultural Climate Change which threatens to destroy us all.
In particular, we are able to help and even set up pro-life and pro-family groups in the Caribbean. We are already responding to Christians who are establishing Christian Voice affiliates in Africa. This is a movement to stand for righteousness and pray for those in authority whose time is long overdue. Every Christian has a duty to offer up:
1Tim 2:1 … prayers, intercessions, … 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority;
And to inform their Members of Parliament and others in public life. And to expect miracles:
2Cor 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;
READ ALSO: Gen 19:24; Deut 4:40; 1Sam 2:20; 1Kings 15:12; 2Chron 20:12; Psalm 2:2-4, 33:12, 103:17-18; Isa 3:9; Ezek 16:49-50; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:29; Rev 7:14-17.
PRAY: For leaders in Jamaica and all the Caribbean, African and Asian members of the Commonwealth to stand firm on God’s word for human life, made in God’s image, and for the family as God has ordained it. May God pour out a blessing on those nations who fear his name and keep his righteous laws according to his promises.
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Garter King of Arms reading the faith proclamation
David White, Garter King of Arms, reading the proclamation
Anyone who believes this United Kingdom to be a ‘secular’ nation will have been dismayed by what was read out by Garter King of Arms at St James Palace in London on 10th September 2022 marking the accession of King Charles III:
“Whereas it has pleased almighty God to call to his mercy our late sovereign lady Queen Elizabeth II of blessed and glorious memory, by whose decease the crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is solely and rightfully come to the Prince Charles Philip Arthur George.”
And concluding: “… beseeching God, by whom kings and queens do reign, to bless His Majesty with long and happy years to reign over us.
“God Save the King.”
That proclamation did not make Charles our king. He became king automatically and instantly on the death of his mother. It merely stated that the Privy Council had confirmed him as King. Importantly, it cited scripture:
Proverbs 8:15 By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. (KJV)
‘Help of Almighty God’
Next, the King was admitted to the room. He read out a declaration and oath before the privy counsellors. In his declaration the King said it was his “sorrowful duty to announce the death of my beloved mother, the Queen””.
Her reign was “unequalled in its duration, its dedication and its devotion,” he said, as the Queen Consort stood nearby.
He added: “I am deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty which have now passed to me. In taking up these responsibilities, I shall strive to follow the inspiring example I have been set in upholding constitutional government and to seek the peace, harmony and prosperity of the peoples of these islands and of the Commonwealth realms and territories throughout the world.
“In this purpose, I know that I shall be upheld by the affection and loyalty of the peoples whose sovereign I have been called upon to be, and that in the discharge of these duties I will be guided by the counsel of their elected parliaments.
He added: “And in carrying out the heavy task that has been laid upon me, and to which I now dedicate what remains to me of my life, I pray for the guidance and help of almighty God.”
Christianity in Our Constitution
In his declaration before the Privy Council King Charles III revealed a Biblical understanding present in our constitution of the purpose of the monarchy and hence that of government.
It is ‘to seek the peace, harmony and prosperity’ of those under his rule. In other words, it is not to drag his subjects to needless war or into rebellion against the Almighty. It is not to preside over inequalities before the law. It is not to impoverish the people.
The Christian Voice statement of belief concludes by saying: ‘We believe all government to be under the authority of God and that its purpose is the maintenance of freedom and justice solely in accordance with biblical principles.’
That accords with the first two principles read out by the king, those of peace and harmony. But a look at the scripture shows that government is also there to advance the prosperity of the people.
The Biblical Role of Leaders
The Bible calls for an entirely different kind of leader from those our world is used to. The advice given by Jethro to Moses starts us off:
Exod 18:21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:
The Bible says they should be able, God-fearing men of truth, working not for themselves, but for the common good. King David reinforced the point:
2Sam 23:3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
Anyone ruling in the fear of God will be humble and will seek the Lord for wisdom. He will enact laws based on the laws of God, wherein is true justice. The Apostle Paul explains that such a ruler will do good to the righteous, remembering he is the minister of God:
Rom 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
It is helpful to remember the British constitution places the monarch under God. The monarch kneels before God. His ministers kneel before him.
The one under authority has authority, as the centurion in the Gospel told the Lord Jesus, recognising the Lord’s own authority:
Luke 7:8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
The one under the authority of God has the greatest authority of any man.
Seek Peace
The Lord God made this promise to king David:
1Chron 22:9 Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.
Peace and quietness are good things that the king should seek. They are things we must pray for, not least out of self-interest:
1Chron Jer 29:7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
The millennial vision is of peace and tranquillity.
Micah 4:4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.
We notice that where there is peace families may plan ahead and prosper. Peace is also conditional on respect and obedience to the Almighty:
Lev 26:2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit…. 6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
Seek Harmony
Harmony speaks of unity and equality before the law. The Romans demanded that whatever religion their citizens followed should be a private matter. In public, citizens were obliged to unite before the gods of Rome. We see that as extreme, but there must be a focus of unity in a commonwealth. In our constitution that unity is found in a monarch under God, just as the Bible said of Israel and Judah:
2Kings 11:17 And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD’S people; between the king also and the people.
Next year, Archbishop Welby will stand in for Jehoiada the priest and fulfil the same function, anointing the king just as Zadok anointed Solomon.
There will be no war fought over who should accede to the throne. Garter King of Arms made that perfectly clear: ‘the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is solely and rightfully come to the Prince Charles Philip Arthur George.’
Flowing from unity is equality before the law:
Exod 12:49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
This is the reason we object to sharia intruding into our legal system. Sharia is another law and another law comes from another system of belief. The Bible does not provide for that, the Romans would not allow that and nor should we. The unbelieving Jews in Thessalonia accused the disciples thus:
Acts 17:7 … these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.
Exactly. The disciples did not deny the point. Our king is under that same King of kings, one Jesus.
Seek Prosperity
Wherever the Bible speaks of prosperity it is a good thing to have. We saw that above in the man in his family possession, under his fig tree. The Bible speaks approvingly of Rehoboam, the rebellious son of Solomon, upon his repentance:
2Chron 12:12 And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well.
‘Things went well’ in Judah. That is what we want as well. And the Bible shows us how our rulers ensure it happens. It is not by trusting in their own wisdom, but in the Almighty.
Information Theory teaches that no organism can even understand itself, let alone anything bigger. The human brain will never understand the human brain. How much less can we work out how society is to be organised. Politicians can pass all the laws they want in the flesh, but unintended consequences always turn up. Then it is either double down or go back to the drawing board. How much better to go in the first place to the Creator, who set out, in his word, how to organise human society?
Prov 14:12(cf 16:25) There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
We need to pray for the absence of covetousness in our leaders coupled with their adherence to the Great Commandment, expressed in the conversation between our Lord and the lawyer asking the way to eternal life:
Luke 10:26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
If our leaders love God and love us, their neighbours, as themselves, they will want to prosper us, not themselves. They will certainly never set out to impoverish us, or enact measures that will have that effect.
But what if they do so through stupidity? We have come all the way back to seeking wisdom in humility before ‘God, by whom kings and queens do reign.’
PRAY for King Charles III to seek the Lord in humility for wisdom and obedience and to make sure his government does the same. ‘To seek the peace, harmony and prosperity of the peoples of these islands and of the Commonwealth realms and territories throughout the world.’
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Many articles have been written in the last couple of weeks arguing that her late majesty moved with the times, ensuring the monarchy stayed ‘relevant’ to a changing world.
Plainly Queen Elizabeth did that. She re-branded the monarchy as the ‘Royal Family’, allowing the cameras of the BBC to film her household and their activities for the 1969 film of that very name.
Earlier, she approved the televising of her coronation in June 1953, and during all her reign ensured cameras followed her as she met and talked with celebrities and ordinary people alike.
Preserving The Monarchy
She was not the first monarch to do such things. Her father, George VI, and especially her grandfather, George V, also innovated, using technology to bring the monarchy closer to the people. George V introduced walkabouts, meeting ordinary people as well as opening events and buildings. It was he who made the first royal Christmas broadcast. Incidentally, it was also George V who initiated the first ever royal lying-in-state, that of his late father Edward VII.
The Queen bows at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales
Commentators have recalled what they saw as her late majesty’s false step of comforting Princes William and Harry after the death of their mother, Diana, instead of immediately travelling to London to address the nation.
But gradually she seized the initiative and set the right tone, including the bow to Diana’s coffin at her funeral. So her late majesty saved the monarchy at a time when apparently, it could have fallen. Her decisions over the problems caused by the Duke of York and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were also taken, clearly, with the institution of the monarchy at the forefront of her mind.
Cannot Be the Sole Purpose
Nevertheless, if the sole purpose of the monarchy becomes preserving the monarchy, then there is no purpose to it at all. The same applies to any institution. If a church sees its purpose as keeping its buildings intact and its services going, when coffee mornings and jumble sales become its most important activities, it has similarly lost the plot.
It is the same with the ministry of Christian Voice. We are not here just to go through the motions. We must be moving forward, seizing new opportunities, responding to the Lord’s calling. ‘Your achievements are not upholstery’, the playwright Alan Bennett told the young reporter, ‘You cannot sit down in them.’ Or as the prophet Zephaniah said, the Lord will punish those men who stop working, the complacent, the ones (Zeph 1:12) ‘settled on their lees’.
Continuity
Neither is it enough for the monarchy to be a tourist attraction, even though some of the hospitality sector depends on the ceremonial of such spectacles as Trooping the Colour and the State Opening of Parliament.
Even her Majesty’s lying in state brought people from all over the world just to stand in a queue for sixteen hours and file past her coffin draped in the royal standard. She was not just famous. Over her life, Her Majesty became the most famous person in the world.
The Bible does not endorse monarchy as such. From the Bible we see the most important thing, whatever system of government is in place, is that nations as well as individuals follow the laws of God and that God’s people pray for their leaders. Nevertheless, good arguments can be made in favour of a constitutional monarchy over a presidency. It costs less, it’s unifying, it relieves the head of the legislature of the burdens of ceremonial functions, it provides a certain stability and it benefits the economy.
Diplomacy
Meeting Queen Elizabeth was an event for foreign leaders. A state visit either way was the best thing any head of state could secure. Even without that, her Government were able to use her majesty to diplomatic effect.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the editor of the Spectator, Fraser Nelson, gave an example: ‘When David Cameron was trying everything to persuade Angela Merkel to back his attempt to renegotiate Britain’s EU membership, British diplomats in Berlin were asking what she wanted most. The answer came back: what she would like, above all else, was a cup of tea with the Queen.
‘An offer of an audience with her, or any member of the Royal family, held more allure for world leaders than all of the other potential inducements put together. So it’s not just Polish plumbers and American backpackers who are drawn to the Crown, going out of their way to be physically present to royalty. The world’s most powerful, most outspoken people were willing to do almost anything to meet this silent woman who held no power at all.’
Focus for National Identity
The royal.gov website says this: ‘As Head of State, The Monarch undertakes constitutional and representational duties which have developed over one thousand years of history. In addition to these State duties, The Monarch has a less formal role as ‘Head of Nation’. The Sovereign acts as a focus for national identity, unity and pride; gives a sense of stability and continuity; officially recognises success and excellence; and supports the ideal of voluntary service.’
The ‘stability and continuity’ has been most eloquently expressed over recent days in the exclamation, ‘The Queen is dead; long live the King!’ There is never a moment when our nation and the fourteen other Commonwealth Realms do not have a king or queen on their throne. Elected officers of state come and go, the offices themselves may arise or be discarded, but the institution of the monarchy under God has now a permanence in this islands for which we thank God. But is there more even than that?
Monarchy Embodies The People
We saw in the ceremony of burying the late queen and greeting a new king how an acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as King of kings is woven in to our constitution. We invoke the name of God in times of crisis and to make events in our ceremonial. The late queen did and the new king will place the monarch under God in the coronation.
Writing on the DailySceptic website, political scientist Dr James Alexander argued that the monarchy embodies the people. Speaking of the late queen, he wrote: ‘She stood for everyone. This is what ‘service’ means: … It meant standing for us, acting for us, in some manner being us: standing for us over the ministers, standing for us before God.’
But how much impact does the Christian faith have in our legislation? Did the late queen ever realise that standing for us before God and over her ministers meant she had a role to safeguard the people and this realm against an over-weening executive?
In a sense, our monarch embodies our corporate identity as a nation. That also means a responsibility is laid on his or her shoulders, not just to serve the people, but to answer for them. As our Lord said:
Mark 9:35 And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.
Luke 12:48b For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Unrighteous Laws
We have previously catalogued the unrighteous laws passed during the reign of Her Majesty. She could ‘move with the times’ in making the monarchy more accessible, but the civil laws of God are as eternal and unchanging as the law of gravity. Daniel (7:25) says it is the antichrist who ‘shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws’.
In Britain in Sin we showed that by 1998 the UK had already legislated against every single one of the Ten Commandments. Every unrighteous law, from the Abortion Act 1967, the Sexual Offences Act 1967, through the Maastrict Treaty, the legalisation of gambling and same-sex ‘‘marriage’, all the way to the Coronavirus Act 2020, received royal assent.
The monarch’s prerogative powers are also exercised by ministers but done in her or his name. As head of the Armed Forces, the Queen invaded Iraq, supported the jihadists in Syria, sent her troops into Afghanistan and destabilised Libya.
We know our monarch only acts on the advice of her ministers. University College London say: ‘The Queen reigns, but she does not rule. Ruling is done by her government, and as head of state in the UK the Queen is constitutionally obliged to follow the government’s advice.’ So we recognise delivery of the coronation vow, to maintain the laws of God, depends on a group of ambitious, ruthless, self-serving men and women whom we call the queen’s, or now the king’s, ministers. It would possibly engender a constitutional crisis, perhaps leading to a general election, should the monarch refuse royal assent or military action.
Nevertheless, before it reaches that stage, did the late queen not have more power, at least more influence, than she chose to exercise? Was there not some advice or warning her majesty could have given her prime ministers that such things flew in the face of the laws of God? Did she know they were ungodly measures or activities?
Come to that, could we ourselves be at fault for not writing more often to her majesty to explain these matters in the past? If so, we shall not make that mistake again.
PRAY: Thank God for stability in our United Kingdom. We do not take it for granted. It is itself a gift of the grace of God. Pray for national repentance, for a turning back to God in every area of our national life. Pray he will inform us, embolden us and use us to speak truth to power in the days ahead.
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Rishi Sunak has become the first Hindu Prime Minister of the UK following a series of political twists and turns.
The former chancellor was selected by more than 180 Conservative MPs to succeed Liz Truss as Tory leader. Mr Sunak’s appointment has been described by supporters as nothing short of a miracle.
Nevertheless, there are deep concerns as to what his religion will mean for Britain and the body of Christ. That being said, a widely-circulated photo of the new prime minister making a Hindu prayer in front of a Downing Street door is not all it seems.
’My religion is Hindu’
Rishi Sunak is of Indian descent. He is the first British Prime Minister to be a practising Hindu who bows down before graven images as gods. The Bible says:
Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. … 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
When Rishi Sunak became a minister in the Theresa May Cabinet, he took his oath of office on the Bhagavad Gita. At the time he said, ‘I am now a citizen of Britain. But my religion is Hindu. My religious and cultural heritage is Indian. I proudly say that I am a Hindu, and my identity is also a Hindu.’
Having a leader who worships a god aside from the Prince of Peace is a challenge and appears to normalise other gods in our constitutionally Christian nation.
Diwali:’Festival of Lights’
Mr Sunak performing rituals
A video shared widely on social media in the last few weeks of the Prime Minister lighting candles outside a door on Downing Street attracted thousands of comments, all assuming it has just happened.
However, our investigations revealed that the video was taken in October 2020 while he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. We are of course concerned that such rituals will continue under his leadership. He has already held a Diwali reception in N0 10. What spirits or even spiritual altars will he leave behind?
Diwali, or Dipawali, is India’s biggest and most important holiday of the year. The festival gets its name from the row (avali) of clay lamps (deepa) that Indians light outside their homes to symbolise the inner light they claim protects them from spiritual darkness. Over centuries, Diwali has become a national festival which non-Hindus partake in. For instance, in Jainism, Diwali marks the nirvana, or spiritual awakening, of lord mahavira on October 15, 527 B.C. In Sikhism, it honors the day that Guru Hargobind Ji, the Sixth Sikh Guru, was freed from imprisonment. Buddhists in India celebrate Diwali as well. The Bible says:
Joshua 23:7 That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them.
Britain remains a Christian Country
In AD871, King Alfred the Great established legal codes known as the Doom Book to govern England after his victory over Viking invaders. The Vikings submitted and accepted the peace treaty, which stated that their leader and thirty of their most honourable men would become Christians.
King Alfred codified three prior Saxon codes to which he prefixed the ten commandments of Moses. He incorporated rules of life from the Mosaic code and the Christian code of ethics. During his reign, Alfred was advised by a council of nobles and church leaders. This council was called the Witan.
King Edgar’s Coronation
The King Edgar window in Bath Abbey. Edgar is pictured holding the Sceptre and the Orb under the Cross although this was first used by King Henry VIII at his coronation in 1509. The Orb says the whole earth is subject to the power and empire of Christ our Redeemer
The stage was set for the later coronation of King Edgar by Bishop Dunstan in Bath Abbey in 975AD.
King Edgar made the first Coronation Oath:
‘In the name of the Holy Trinity. I promise three things to the Christian people subject to me:
‘Firstly, that God’s church and all the Christian people of my dominions will be held in true peace
‘Secondly, I forbid robbery and all unlawful deeds by all ranks of men.
‘Thirdly, I promise and command justice and mercy in all judgments, in order that the gracious and merciful lord, who liveth and reigneth, may thereby forgive us all through his everlasting mercy.’
Coronation Oath 1953
Thus it was that 978 years later, on 2nd June 1953, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth made her own oath, responding to Archbishop Fisher, in a communion service full of Christian teaching and symbolism:
Archbishop. ‘Will you to your power cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed in all your judgements?’ The Queen. ‘I will’.
Archbishop. ‘Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law? Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England?’ The Queen. ‘All this I promise to do.’
Only then was the Queen anointed and crowned as monarch.
United Kingdom is constitutionally Christian
Britain’s laws are based on Judeo-Christian thinking. The Church of England is the established Church, and our history, heritage, and arts are all profoundly influenced by Christianity.
Christianity and the UK are inseparable. Our Head of State and monarch of the British empire is represented as ‘Charles the Third, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories. King, Head of the Commonwealth, ‘Defender of the Faith.’
By way of convention and practice, the Prime Minister is sworn in to govern based on the laws and Christian doctrines that established the United Kingdom. How will these doctrines be understood, let alone upheld, by Rishi Sunak, who is Hindu?
‘A very bad Christian’
To be fair, Mr Sunak’s immediate predecessor Liz Truss was not a professing, let alone confessing Christian. The best she could do was: “I share the values of the Christian faith and the Church of England.”
As for Boris Johnson, he told The Times journalist, Tom McTague, that he counted himself “a kind of very, very bad Christian”. Christianity “makes a lot of sense” and “is a superb ethical system”, he continued. Furthermore, in his Easter message last year, Boris declared: ‘Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, not just today but every day. His teaching and the message of his death and resurrection permeates through every aspect of daily life.’
That is more than Mr Sunak would say. Nevertheless, although Mr Johnson understood the EU’s paganism, and why the UK should be free of it, his Covid policies of lockdowns and restrictions, let alone his Net Zero fanaticism, strayed far from the ways of the Lord.
Hindu beliefs
Hinduism dates back four thousand years. The name ‘Hindu’ comes from the word Indus. It is made up of different religious practices and originated near the Indus River in India. Most of the world’s Hindu worshipers live today in India where Mr Sunak’s family heritage is from.
Most forms of Hinduism are henotheistic, a term invented by one Max Müller. They worship a single deity, known as Brahman, but still recognise other gods and goddesses. Mr Müller stated that henotheism means ‘monotheism in principle and polytheism in fact’.
The Institute for Human Knowledge says a Hindu can pick a personal deity of choice from 330 Hindu gods. Hindus revere all living creatures and worship animals and things like ‘luck’ and ‘wealth’ (that’s ‘Lakshmi’). Hindus make wooden or plaster images of the gods of various sizes and place them up in their temples and houses. Ganesh, the elephant, and Hanuman, the monkey, are favourites. Around Diwali time ignorant teachers trying to be ‘inclusive’ will set these up in state school classrooms. However, the pantheistic element of Hinduism also sees god in everything and everything in god.
Moreover, followers believe there are multiple paths to reaching the divine. It is complicated by the ‘Karma’ concept of constant rebirth based on conduct in this life. Hindus are on a journey towards understanding the ultimate reality of nothingness. The goal of the Hindu is to be absorbed into the godhead through Nirvana, literally, ‘snuffing out’. Evangelists say: ‘Never offer a Hindu eternal life; that is what he is trying to escape from.’
God broke into creation
Christianity teaches that God is separate from creation. He made it, sustains it, relates to it, and broke into it when he became incarnate in Jesus Christ. Hinduism with its pantheism will never have this. The God with whom Britain identifies is not made with wood or plaster. Neither does our God share his name with other gods:
Isaiah 42:8 I am the Lord: that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Isaiah 44:6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me, there is no God.
There is but one God and only one God and Saviour: Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear oh Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! Hosea 13:4 Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.
Furthermore, the only way to reach the Supreme Being, Almighty God, is through the Lord Jesus Christ. John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
The United Kingdom now has a leader who does not recognise the God of Abraham. What happens to our faith as a nation? As Christians, our work just began. We must continue to defend and uphold the Christian Faith. Our prayer is that Britain remains united by the name of Jesus Christ in the love of God.
Prayer
The United Kingdom now has a leader who does not recognise the God of Abraham. What happens to our faith as a nation? For us Christians, our work just began.
Pray against every attack on Christianity and the people of God. Pray against principalities and powers in higher places. Pray that the coronation on 6th May 2023 upholds the full heritage of the UK’s Christian Faith. Pray for our leaders, especially that the Lord Jesus convicts Rishi Sunak to repent of Hinduism and find the true faith. Pray that the Holy Spirit convicts Rishi Sunak of his need for a Saviour, Jesus Christ, God incarnate. What better time for that conviction to come at that feast of the incarnation we call ‘Christmas’.
Read also: Deut 8:19; 2 Kings 17:35; Psalm 81:9; Isa 45:5,21; Jer 25:6, 29:7; 1Cor 8:6; 1 Tim 2:1-5; Gal 3:20.
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Following Saturday’s National Trust Annual General Meeting held on 5th November 2022 in Bath, Christian Voice today criticises the Trust over a new voting practice we describe as ‘corrupt’.
The National Trust is Britain’s top conservation charity, so its woke posturing and virtue-signalling matters and affects our spiritual and cultural climate. To avoid criticism of its wokeness, this year the National Trust introduced a controversial mechanism known as ‘Quick Vote’ this year. Members voting online were invited to tick the ‘Quick Vote’ box to vote for all the candidates for Council the Trust recommended and against the resolutions it disliked. ‘Quick Vote’ was even presented as ‘Option 1’, ahead of proper voting.
We have now framed a Resolution against Quick Vote for debate and vote at the 2023 AGM. We know our petition against Quick Vote will be voted down, ironically by their use of Quick Vote, but that will make our point even stronger, to the glory of God.
If you are a National Trust Member, please pray into this matter, then Download, Print, Sign and Return the Resolution by clicking the yellow button below:
There were six resolutions in all. They included a policy resolution to stop banking with Barclays and another to pull the Trust back from a tunnel project for the A303 at Stonehenge.
Christian Voice proposed two resolutions, one to cease wilding and wetting projects on Trust farmland, the other to stop the Trust parading in gay pride. The latter topped the yes vote for policy resolutions. But it made no difference with Quick Vote in the mix.
Two management resolutions were proposed by pressure group Restore Trust. They were firstly to appoint an ombudsman for the Trust, and secondly to prevent the chairman skewing the vote on resolutions with ‘discretionary’ members’ proxy votes.
EVERY MEMBERS’ RESOLUTION VOTED DOWN!
But they were behind the curve. Overnight, the Trust had moved the goal-posts. In the event, as the headline over an article in the Daily Telegraph put it, the ‘Annual General Meeting featured (an) unusual moment when every resolution proposed by members was voted down.’
Discretionary proxy votes this year were down by a factor of ten from last year. In 2021 the chairman cast around 20,000 block votes against each resolution the Trust objected to. This year, 2022, that was down to around 2,000. But hiding in the ‘No’ vote were the Quick Votes. The Trust did not disclose the number of Quick Votes. They simply included them in the ‘No’ vote, making it appear as if the resolutions lacked much more popular support than they did.
Based on the figures below, Restore Trust probably won the popular vote on the Chairman’s use of discretionary votes. It is shameful that the National Trust used both discretionary votes and Quick Vote to vote down that very resolution. Furthermore, our resolution on the Trust’s participation in gay pride possibly came close to securing half of the popular vote.
QUICK VOTE SKEWS COUNCIL ELECTIONS
It was worse when it came to the Council Elections. Last year, a candidate needed between 34,402 and 43,536 votes to be elected. This year, however, with Quick Vote tilting the table, the winning candidates secured between 63,771 votes and 72,963.
The Restore Trust candidates scored between 28,205 and 46,612 votes. Not one of them was elected. Under last year’s members-only voting system, at least three, possibly four, would have made it.
Quick Vote appears to have raised the bar for election by an average of almost 30,000 votes.
FULL BREAKDOWN CHALLENGE
Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, proposed the wilding and gay pride resolutions. Today he said:
‘I have already challenged the National Trust to disclose the full breakdown of voting, separating votes cast by ‘Quick Vote’ from those cast in the popular vote in both the Council Elections and the Resolutions. Let’s see if the Trust can follow Biblical principles of honesty and transparency. I remind them:
Matt 10:26b there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
‘Then I call upon the National Trust to declare elected to Council those candidates who took the first seven places in the popular vote alone. Candidates only sneaking in because of Quick Vote lack all credibility and legitimacy.
‘In the past, the Trust Chairman used to cast proxy votes for Council Candidates. The Trust stopped this corrupt practice only very recently. It has now returned, called ‘Quick Vote’ instead.’
A COUNCIL OF YES-MEN
‘Under Quick Vote, if your face doesn’t fit, you won’t be elected to the Council. No outsider need even apply any more. Quick Vote is a stitch-up. And if Council members want to be re-elected, they will know not to rock the boat, because now they must be a ‘recommended candidate’ to secure the Quick Vote.
‘It is clear the Trust have introduced Quick Vote to entrench the status quo. In future, no Members’ Resolution critical of the Trust will ever be passed. The Trust don’t trust the members to vote the right way or elect the correct people to the Council. They are now plainly trying to eliminate dissent and build a Council of time-servers and yes-men. Quick Vote is designed to prevent accountability.’
CHAIRMAN SHOULD BE ASHAMED
René Olivieri, Chairman of the National Trust, cast all the ‘Quick Votes’ against the members’ resolutions and for all the Trust’s recommended candidates.
‘The new Chairman, René Olivieri, was appointed in a fanfare as a safe pair of hands after the disastrously woke Tim Parker. But Mr Olivieri is entirely culpable for casting every single ‘Quick Vote’ to support the Trust’s establishment line and candidates. Brought in as a breath of fresh air, he has become just as corrupt as the rest of the National Trust Board. René Olivieri should be ashamed of himself.
‘Quick Vote is also now being used by a great many building societies, trying to avoid proper accountability just like the National Trust. The Building Societies Members Association (BSMA) is particularly critical of ‘Quick Vote’. In a list of desired changes, BSMA says: “All underhand practices such as the infamous ‘Quick Vote’ and tick boxes hidden in the small print should be banned”.’
John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
STOP PRESS 11/11/2022
We have today heard from ‘Jo’ in ‘Governance’ who says the Trust won’t disclose the numbers:
‘Following the weekend’s AGM, the Trust will not be issuing any further details in respect of the breakdown of voting.
‘The voting results as published are already broken down into the number of specified votes and the number of discretionary proxy votes cast. Only the discretionary votes are cast by the Chair. Using Quick Vote means members specify how their vote is cast – and these are therefore counted in the specified votes declared in the results.
‘For the avoidance of doubt, the Chair has no rights in respect of casting votes on the Council elections. A discretionary voting option is not available for the elections.
‘There is no governance requirement to break down the results further.’
Indeed the couple of thousand ‘Discretionary’ Proxy Votes were cast at the Chairman’s discretion against all the Resolutions the Trust disliked. But so were the Quick Votes, in much larger numbers, AND they were cast for the Trust’s preferred candidates as well. It is just not true that the members ticking the Quick Vote box ‘specified’ how their votes were to be cast, resolution by resolution, candidate by candidate. They allowed the Trust to vote for them.
This lack of honesty and transparency in revealing the number is worse in its way than how Quick Vote has skewed, not just the resolution voting, but the Council Elections, as one might say, for everyone, for ever (or until it is ditched). This corruption is going to reflect very badly on the National Trust. Not only have they brought in a dishonest voting system, but they won’t even disclose how many votes it was responsible for! On any measure, the whole affair is disgraceful and will be seen as such.
Prayer and Action!
If you are a National Trust Member, please pray into this matter, then Download, Print, Sign and Return the Resolution by clicking the yellow button below:
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Tom Daley and others carrying 'Pride' flags into the Commonwealth Games
Tom Daley with Jamaican swimmer Michael Gunning in ‘Tom Daley: Illegal to Be Me’.
No sooner have the Commonwealth Games closed than the BBC is hosting Tom Daley on Tuesday 9th August 2022 in an hour-long BBC1 pro-sodomy promo, as the Guardian reports here.
The British diver called for the Games not to be held in any country which maintains criminal sanctions against sodomy. He did not put it quite like that. He expressed it as countries where it is ‘illegal to be me’. Of course, it is not illegal to be Tom Daley anywhere in the world.
What is against the law, in those countries where the responsible authorities still listen to the voice of historical Biblical Christianity, is for men to commit unnatural acts with other men.
Here is the story in the Daily Telegraph. They have disabled comments. But to be fair, it’s reasonably balanced, with academics pointing out the fallacies in his arguments.
The Biblical position
The Bible is clear that no nation should legalise sodomy: Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
God sets down a challenge to nations to choose his ways of life rather than death: Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
Men, left to themselves, will always go wrong, thinking they are doing good: Proverbs 14:12 (cf also 16:25) There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for institutionalised sodomy: Genesis 19:24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;
And the Psalmist warns every nation to follow God’s ways: Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
The Tom Daley Campaign
Tom Daley and others carrying ‘Pride’ flags into the Commonwealth Games
Despite those clear warnings, the Commonwealth Games opened with Mr Daley parading in, with half-a-dozen others, carrying a ‘pride’ flag. The old pro-gay rainbow job has now morphed into a flag with ‘trans’ chevrons.
So was Tom Daley also promoting the unfairness of men, otherwise known as ‘trans-women’, participating in women’s categories in sport and grabbing women’s medals?
Yes, he was. In June, according to the BBC, ‘Tom Daley says he is “furious” at his sport’s world governing body for voting to stop transgender athletes from competing in women’s elite events.’
The Bible demands equity and fairness. Tom Daley has lost that, with so much else.
Sodomy inflicted as punishment
There were supposed to be 35 people carrying these flags, one for every Commonwealth country where sodomy is still illegal. Furthermore, his campaign is orchestrated and a while in the planning. As part of it, Mr Daley secured a pleasant trip to Jamaica to make the BBC film. Whilst there, he hung out with gay Jamaican swimmer Michael Gunning and a group of other gays in a gay bar. So much for ‘oppression against gays’ in Jamaica.
Moreover, a Jamaican academic explained to Tom Daley that under slavery, some slaveowners would sodomise their slaves as a punishment. That aspect of colonialism, she explained, has left Jamaicans at odds with the ‘white man’s vice’. We see how the Christian-informed laws in the legal systems of so many Commonwealth countries affirm traditional African values. And now Tom Daley, and those responsible for the Games Opening Ceremony, berate African and Caribbean countries for their God-given laws in a naked show of neo-colonialism and, frankly, racism.
Yet the Bible is clear. God’s laws are neither hateful nor onerous: 1John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Tom Daley’s Personal Life
Tom Daley (Left) and Dustin Lance Black (right) held a ‘baby shower’ party.
It is said ‘the personal is political’ and of no-one is this more true than of Tom Daley. It appears Tom turned homosexual after the death of his father. His ‘partner’, Dustin Lance Black, is in the same age-bracket as his late father, as we reported here.
Self-deception is built in to homosexual circles. Homosexual men and women have to convince themselves they are doing no wrong. Denial of reality extends out from there. Messrs Daley and Black, like many other gay and lesbian pairs, are adamant that they have ‘had a baby together’. They posted a picture from the ‘baby shower’ showing them clad in identical sashes. Both claimed: ‘Daddy to be’. The truth is, as our story pointed out, only one of them is the father.
The Lord Jesus said: John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Thank God for forgiveness, healing and deliverance in the name of Jesus. However they got into it, no-one, not Tom Daley, not Dustin Black, needs to stay gay.
Where now for the Commonwealth?
Where does the Daley campaign leave the Commonwealth Games? What indeed does it mean for the whole Commonwealth? A few years back, no Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting was complete without depraved Western countries trying to force a pro-gay resolution through. Happily, the African and Caribbean countries would have none of it. It seems that neo-colonialist brow-beating has recently gone quiet.
In our ‘Daley Baby-Shower’ article linked above, we also reported on the Daley campaign during the 2018 Heads of Government meeting. We reported: ‘Daley went off on his rant, according to the Guardian: “There are 37 countries where it’s illegal to be who I am out of all the Commonwealth so hopefully we can reduce that number between now and (2022),” Theresa May and Boris Johnson also joined in trying to force gay rights on the nations of the Commonwealth. The Foreign Secretary even promised Tom Daley he would raise the matter.’
The number appears now to have fallen from 37 to 35, solely due to pressure from Western government and Foundations and Western-funded activists in two of the nations concerned.
Ban pro-family nations from hosting?
But now Tom Daley wants pro-family nations banned from hosting the Commonwealth Games altogether. That will mean only the pro-sodomy white nations will host them from now on. Maybe Tom is not the sharpest tool in the box, but can even he not see how racist his proposal is? His whole campaign is blatant racism. The Games had its posturing opening. It had the relentless switch-off presence of the lesbian presenter Clare Balding. The BBC ran anti-Commonwealth clips and poems. It was enough to cause Brendan O’Neill, writing in Spiked Online, to call it the ‘Commonwoke Games.’
As it happens, no African nation has ever hosted the Games. Jamaica hosted in 1966, Malaysia in 1998 and India in 2010. Otherwise, it has been the white nations all the way. Australia leads the way with five events. Melbourne in 2026 will make that six. Miriam Moyo is Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) regional vice-president. The best she could manage was “Definitely, Africa will host these Games one of these days,” as she told BBC Sport Africa.
But with the cost of staging the Commonwealth Games coming in for Birmingham 2022 at a staggering £778m, maybe African countries have other priorities. Plainly, the Tom Daley ‘campaign’ is just for show. He is merely using the Games to advance his gay rights agenda. It may be enough for now for African sports committees to warn Australia against following the UK and ramming the worst of ‘diversity’ down athletes’ throats in their opening ceremony.
Commonwealth nations look out
Thank God African and Caribbean countries are beginning to wise up to immoral Western pressure. They are beginning to resent strings attached to aid and trade. Ghana is now moving ‘Beyond Aid’ and other African nations are starting to pass laws forbidding pro-gay propaganda. The days when they were willing to be bossed around by white people with a superior, colonialist attitude are coming to an end.
British athletes, opinion formers, media, politicians and younger members of the royal family are all intent on a pro-gay and (contradictory) pro-trans agenda. What if that resulted in African and Caribbean nations pulling out of the Commonwealth Games altogether? Could it even result in the end of the Commonwealth itself? The agitators would probably not care. The BBC appears to hate the Commonwealth. But how its demise would sadden Her Majesty.
The promises of God of blessing for those nations which follow his ways remain: Psalm 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
Please pray for the United Kingdom to repent and turn back to God. Pray that Commonwealth nations will follow the ways of the Lord. And if you are willing to proclaim the eternal truth of God’s commandments to those in positions of authority, either sign our petition or fill in your details in the box below.
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One question in the Tory Party election which you won’t see asked by the mainstream media is which, if any, of the candidates is pro-life and pro-family.
Be sure news people know about it. They will be doing their best to advance pro-abortion candidates and doing down any seen as pro-life. They know it matters.
What does the Bible say?
Indeed defending innocent human life is as important to our United Kingdom as the shedding of it is to the realm of Satan. The Bible says, in Exodus 23 and verse 7:
Exod 23:7b The innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.
We read in Proverbs chapter six and verses sixteen and seventeen that the Lord hates the hands, like those of the abortionists, that shed innocent blood.
The Lord evicted the Canaanites from the Promised Land because they practised ritual sodomy and child sacrifice. He later judged the people of Israel for doing the very same thing. From Psalm 106 we read that just like us, they forgot to serve the Lord:
Psa 106:37 Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, 38 And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.
MPs’ voting records
Liz Truss
In the Christian Voice office we record how MPs vote on a range of issues.
So I am able to tell you that on 9th July 2019, both Liz Truss and Tom Tugendhat voted ‘Aye’ in the House of Commons to a measure to impose both abortion on demand and gay marriage on Northern Ireland. Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and Kemi Badenoch all abstained.
On 30th March 2022 the House voted on an amendment to the Health and Care Bill to keep Do-it-Yourself abortion permanent.
Tom Tugendhat
This measure was brought in during the Covid Lockdown to enable women to receive abortion pills by post. It was a temporary measure.
We should always, by the way, be suspicious of government ‘temporary measures’. They have a strange habit of sticking around.
’Pills-by-post’ open to abuse
Under this one, women did not need to see a doctor as the 1967 Abortion Act requires, they just rang up.
Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Tom Tugendhat all abstained. Penny Mordaunt voted for it. Only Kemi Badenoch voted against, together with Suella Braverman, who was eliminated yesterday.
Candidate analysis
You may care to know that thirty-five Conservative MPs voted ‘No’ to abortion and gay-marriage in Ulster in 2019 AND to pills-by-post back in March. They included Suella and her campaign manager Steve Baker.
In fact members of this group of thirty-five pro-life MPs have been very likely to declare themselves in the leadership race for Suella, then for Kemi, then for Liz, then for Tom, then for Penny – and for Rishi, hardly at all.
Penny Mordaunt
It shows some MPs at least see this as a defining issue.
Sitting on the fence
Out of the five remaining candidates only Kemi Badenoch is remotely pro-life. Liz Truss and Tom Tugendhat are pro-abortion and pro-sodomy, Penny Mordaunt is pro-abortion and pro-trans. Ms Mordaunt told the House of Commons on two occasions that ‘trans-women are women’. See Sky news story here.
Meanwhile, the devout Hindu, Rishi Sunak, sits on the fence. And yes, religion is important.
Rishi Sunak
How will a man who cannot understand where the UK has come from know where we should go, which is to our knees in repentance before King Jesus?
Prayer points
So pray in to this, and let us see what the Lord will do in the series of televised debates coming up over this weekend. As the word of God tells us to pray for those in authority, let us pray for those seeking it:
1Ti 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Ti 2:2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
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On 16th June 2022, The UK’s top soldier told British troops they are the generation that they must prepare “to fight in Europe once again” as the conflict in Ukraine continues. He wrote how “There is now a burning imperative to forge an Army capable of fighting alongside our allies and defeating Russia in battle.”
His message also included a goal to ‘accelerate the mobilisation and modernisation of the Army to reinforce NATO and deny Russia the chance to occupy any more of Europe.’
Raising the rhetoric further, General Sir Patrick Sanders later went on to liken the events in Ukraine to those in Europe in 1937.
’Land war in Europe’
Gen Sanders became Chief of the General Staff last month. He addressed all ranks and Ministry of Defence staff in an internal message on 16th June.
The BBC reported the message as saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows the need ‘to protect the UK and be ready to fight and win wars on land’. The Army and our allies must now be ‘capable of…defeating Russia’, he went on.
The General believes he is the first Chief of the General Staff ‘since 1941 to take command of the Army in the shadow of a land war in Europe involving a major continental power’. He added: ‘Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underlines our core purpose – to protect the UK and to be ready to fight and win wars on land – and reinforces the requirement to deter Russian aggression with the threat of force.’
Warming to his theme, he told soldiers and civil servants ‘we are the generation that must prepare the Army to fight in Europe once again’.
Is it a ‘1937 moment’
General Sanders went further in a speech at a conference organised by the Royal United Services Institute think tank on 28th June. In under two weeks, Vladimir Putin had become Adolf Hitler, intent on conquering the world and bringing in a thousand-year Reich.
‘In all my years in uniform, I haven’t known such a clear threat to the principles of sovereignty and democracy, and the freedom to live without fear of violence, as the brutal aggression of president Putin and his expansionist ambitions,’ he told delegates.
‘This is our 1937 moment. We are not at war – but must act rapidly so that we aren’t drawn into one through a failure to contain territorial expansion…. I will do everything in my power to ensure that the British Army plays its part in averting war.”
He likened the current situation in Ukraine to the run up to the Second World War. Britain must be prepared to ‘act rapidly’, whatever that means, to ensure we are not drawn into a full-scale conflict ‘by failing to contain Russian expansionism’.
General Milley
General Mark Milley
There appeared to be no analysis of Sir Patrick’s remarks in any of our mainstream media. They reported but did not question. For the Daily Mail it became: ‘Don’t appease Putin like Hitler.’
So it was refreshing to hear what US General Mark Milley told the BBC’s Sophie Raworth in an interview on Sunday morning (3rd July 2022). The interview is HERE on YouTube and starts at 24:52.
General Milley is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Army. He was appointed to be the US Army’s overall commander by Donald Trump in December 2018.
Sophie Raworth began by recalling General Sanders saying the the UK and our allies are ‘facing a 1937 moment over the war in Ukraine’. Could General Milley ‘see any parallels in what is going on now and the failure to confront the growing threat from Nazi Germany in the run-up to the Second World War?’
Any parallels between then and now?
The short answer was ‘No’. Not that General Milley said that. Instead, he began by thanking Sir Patrick and UK forces and recalling that he was recently in London for the Queen’s Jubilee. He went on with a modest claim to being ‘a closet student of history’. Between 1914 and 1945 ‘some really horrific things happened,’ he said. 150 million died in the two world wars and the conflicts in between. At the end of that period, referring to the United Nations, ‘We put in the rules-based international order.’ Russia had violated that, he said.
Naturally, General Milley did not mention US violations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya or those of our allies Saudi Arabia in Yemen. He was there to promote the US line.
Nor did the Russians come to the aid of a breakaway region, as the US and UK did in former Yugoslavia when Kosovo left Serbia. Of course not. Instead, Russia ‘grossly violated’ the rules -based order on 24th February 2022.
By the way, General Milley was being too modest about his studies of history. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Princeton University, a Master’s Degrees from Columbia University in International Relations and another from the U.S. Naval War College in National Security and Strategic Studies.
Turning to the actual question, in a put-down to General Sanders, General Milley said ‘only history’ would judge if today was ‘a 1937 moment.’ In the meantime, NATO ‘would stand tall’ and give Ukraine ‘the means to defend itself.’ It will remain a ‘sovereign independent country with its territory intact’, he said.
Another World War?
Sophie-Raworth on BBC’s Sunday Morning
Sophie asked if it ‘could lead to another world war, though.’ ‘No’, said General Milley, ‘We don’t want that, obviously’, and the conflict would remain where it is. ‘There is no reason at all why this war should expand beyond the borders of Ukraine, where it is right now’, he said. ‘We want to contain the war inside Ukraine and we want to make sure Ukraine has the means to defend itself,’ he went on.
Ms Raworth would not let it go at that. ‘If we are in a 1937 moment, shouldn’t we be doing more to stop President Putin rather than standing by and letting Ukraine do all the fighting?’ Mark Milley, still patient and courteous, was having none of this kind of talk.
The Ukrainians were not asking for any other country ‘to fight their fight for them’, he said, conveniently forgetting President Zelensky’s earlier pleas for a NATO-enforced ‘No-fly Zone’. He explained ‘They have the people’, they just need hardware, tanks, artillery, personnel carriers, ammunition and so on, which NATO was providing, of course.
Aren’t the Russians winning?
But aren’t the Russians winning, ventured the Sophie? General Milley told her the Russians ‘have not succeeded in most of their operational objectives’, casting these as conquering Ukraine.
However, he conceded, they were wining tactically in what he described as ‘a’ grinding war of attrition’ in ‘a relatively small portion on the eastern (side) of Ukraine called the Donbass, the Luhansk Oblast and the Donetsk Oblast.’ And the Russians are making progress, he conceded, by yards or a kilometre a day, but ‘at great cost’.
He would not characterise it ’strategically as a success for Russia’, but that view depends on what one sees as Russia’s objectives in the first place. The Russians had suffered ‘significant losses of personnel and equipment.’ Even to mount an offensive in the rest of Ukraine, or at its capital, the Russians would need to ‘reconstitute’ their military capability, he said.
Capacity and Capability
Finally, pressed on defence spending, size and numbers and technology, General Milley drew an important military distinction between ‘capacity’ and ‘capability’. Capacity is size and the numbers of things like planes, tanks and troops, and it matters.
But capability consists of technology, leadership and training, how good the troops are with what they have at their disposal, their doctrine and their ‘way of war’. So military strategists look at capability, he said, as the most important thing.
The sub-text was clearly that the Russians do not have the capability to do more than they are currently doing, trying to take and defend the ‘relatively small portion’ which is the Donbass.
Tone ‘Unsurprising’
Rt Hon Ben Wallace MP, HM Secretary of State for Defence.
The BBC quoted a defence source telling the BBC’s defence correspondent Jonathan Beale the tone of General Sanders’ 16th June message was ‘unsurprising’. That could be for its mere embroidery of the existing line of Her Majesty’s Government. But General Sanders could have another agenda.
Russia’s operation in Eastern Ukraine could have come at a good time for the new Chief. He was able to claim ‘the world has changed since the 24th February and there is now a burning imperative to forge an Army capable of fighting alongside our allies and defeating Russia in battle’.
Speaking at the United Services event, defence secretary Rt Hon Ben Wallace MP backed up his Army Chief. He issued a fresh call ‘for increased defence spending in the years ahead to counter the growing threat’.
Russia’s real objective
The Russian objective is and has been from the start, that of defending a group of people no-one else in Europe was prepared to defend. Those people are the ethnic Russians of the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine.
Since the Maidan Square uprising of 2014, 14,000 souls have died in this region, mainly at the hands of Ukrainian neo-Nazis. You would not think it from the outpourings of our politicians and media, but even ethnic Russians have a right to live in peace.
France and Germany helped secure the Minsk Agreements in which Ukraine ceded an element of sovereignty to the Luhansk and Donestk ‘Oblasts’, or ‘Provinces’. However, possibly as a result of US pressure, Ukraine failed to observe these agreements.
Russia’s intervention
In February 2022, the region finally called on Russia to intervene, Russia recognised the breakaway, and took military action. As General Milley explained, they are beginning to succeed in their objective, but with slow progress and at tremendous cost. The idea that Russia’s President would consider it a good idea to invade a real NATO member nation is laughable. They do not have what General Milley described as the ‘capability’. Moreover, he does not want that to happen. Therefore it won’t happen.
It is obvious to state that this is not how UK mainstream interests see it. But even given that, the outpourings of our top general goes far beyond. And yet to Ministry of Defence insiders his intemperate rant is ‘unsurprising’. Why is that?
I suggest it is necessary for British defence top brass and ministers to deliberately misunderstand Russian objectives, talk up an imagined threat to British interests and try to have that narrative accepted by the public and MPs. Why would they do that? It would be not just to safeguard their existing position but to secure increased spending on personnel and equipment in the next Government spending round.
Real battle is with the Treasury
Last year, Richard Hughes. chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, told the MPs on the Treasury Select Committee that spending is now decided yearly and forward planning is ‘a fog’. In such a hand-to-mouth atmosphere and at a time of austerity, when cutbacks will increasingly become necessary, it is important to ‘get your retaliation in first.’
It follows that the real battle, in this cynical view, is not with ‘Putin’ but with Treasury mandarins. Sir Patrick and his boss Ben Wallace want more money for the Army.
Nevertheless, Sir Patrick’s words could have an adverse impact far beyond his and Mr Wallace’s intended Whitehall or even their actual United Services audiences. Nor will their warmongering even have its designed effect. Treasury staff watch TV and they will have seen General Milley’s interview and know his rather more realistic view. They probably knew it already.
Meanwhile, people in Asia and Africa are unable to pay rocketing prices for whatever wheat is on the market and UK consumers are stung by inflated costs of fuel. Rather than talk it up, all parties should be working to end it. Almighty God desires peace between nations:
Isaiah 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Micah 4:4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.
No prospect of a wider war
What I am taking away from this is firstly that General Milley has more military understanding than General Sanders. He is better educated, more widely read, with more experience. He knows Russian generals personally and is a man of reason and humility not given to intemperate outbursts.
Secondly, there is no prospect of Russia wanting ‘to occupy any more of Europe.’ General Milley made that perfectly clear. What General Milley wants, General Milley gets. There will be no land war in NATO’s Europe.
Thirdly, the idea that this is ‘a 1937 moment’ is a figment of Sir Patrick’s imagination.
Fourthly, that the US is now prepared to tell Ukraine to concede the ‘relatively small’ Donbass region to Russia as the price of peace.
Fifthly, that such a warmongering fantasist as Sir Patrick Sanders has no place as Chief of the General Staff.
PRAY: For a Christian man of peace to become leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister. Pray for him to appoint a Secretary of State for Defence with wisdom. Pray for him to sack General Sanders and replace him with a God-fearing, moderate, temperate man of peace.
Pray for Russia to take the rest of Donbass quickly, for the parties to come together to negotiate and end the war, and for world trade in the produce of Ukraine and Russia to start moving again.
Pray also for sanctions against Russia to be lifted and for all our peoples to live in peace.
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