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JESUS AND THE BNP
Nationalism is nothing new. The Jews of the first century were hoping for a national Messiah to once more turn them into “a great nation”, again operating as the political powerhouse of their region. But Jesus confounded their desires. What they got was someone who announced that justice, mercy and compassion were to be extended to insiders and outsiders, friends and enemies alike. He was always clear that his and our primary allegiance should to be to “the Kingdom of God”, and not to any earthly kingdom. Placing our selfish desires ahead of Jesus’ values of hospitality and inclusion takes us into very dangerous territory indeed. Much of the BNP’s platform is the antithesis of this embrace and this advert would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious. The BNP’s co-option of Jesus is a bit like the Ku Klux Klan co-opting Martin Luther King.
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Andy Flannagan, 07/04/2009 |
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| | Brian Moylan (Guest) | 18/04/2009 11:29 | | Agreed, this is a very worrying development. I think your comparison of "the Ku Klux Klan co-opting Martin Luther King" is spot on.
| | | KEVIN HUTCHENS (Guest) | 28/05/2009 18:53 | | The hatred of the racism of the BNP has nothing to do with Christianity which is about love ,compassion,acceptance and inclusion ,the foundations of a true multicultural,multiracial society. I only wish more Christian leaders would follow the example of the 2 Archbishops of Canterbury and York .
| | | Stuart Mathers | 04/06/2009 00:00 | | I found a number of people both Christians and not Christians were shocked when shown that the BNP has used bible quotes as part of its campaigns. I found the Hope not Hate's leaflet extremely helpful.
| | | matybigfro (Guest) | 03/07/2009 13:14 | | I have found the BNP's attempt to co-opt Jesus and the idea of Britain’s Christian values sickening - particularly the suspect minister that they've been trawling round TV shows like the BBC's "The Big Questions" and other media ops. In the run up the European elections I spent a fair amount of time looking for Christians making a stand against the sort of hate that they perpetuate and was saddened to see it limited to the statement here and the aforementioned release from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. I hope to be correct but couldn't find any specific Christian anti-racism initiatives and particularly such little vocal response to the BNP's campaign claims. I even emailed the EA to see if there was anything they were aware of being done and was informed that their policy was to not give the BNP any added attention.
The mantra that went around about not fanning the flames of the BNP's message with added media attention may have been wise at some point, however I’m not sure that at least raising awareness of what was happening within churches themselves would have qualified as real media attention. I do think the time for ignoring the BNP has passed and their policies, idea’s and culture need to be dealt with and responded to a in rational and articulate way. One of the major problems with the BNP is that they've been able to redress their message, mostly unchallenged to be more acceptable and tolerant - hiding the truth that they are a party of hate-filled, violent and divisive idea's.
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