Rising Christian nationalism: a threat to us all
Scenes on Saturday of Christian preachers denouncing ‘Secular Humanism’ from the main stage of Tommy Robinson’s radical right Unite the Kingdom rally in London may have been surprising to see on the streets of London, but they are just the latest evidence of consistent attempts in recent years to promote a narrow ‘Christian nationalist’ vision of the UK.
It is opposed to the separation of church and state and to all forms of religious pluralism – such as learning about other beliefs and cultures. More generally, it advocates very conservative Christian social policies, such as rolling back the human rights of LGBT+ people and abortion rights. It staunchly opposes people having choice at the end of life, on the basis that their religion forbids assisted dying.
In an unprecedented move, US Vice President JD Vance intervened in British politics in relation to a Christian activist who deliberately breached a public space protection order around an abortion clinic, and briefings made to the Times indicated that the Trump administration was attempting to influence the UK’s laws in relation to religious protesters and abortion as a condition of free trade. On Saturday, former Trump official and X owner Elon Musk made a televised appearance at the same London rally where other attendees called for the destruction of ‘secular humanism’, with performers on stage ripping up flags saying ‘secular humanism’ and ‘no religion’.
In Matlock in Derbyshire, Reform councillors reintroduced Christian prayer to council meetings on the basis that the UK was a ‘Christian country’. One of their first moves subsequently was to ban Pride flags following a complaint from a Christian bookstore owner in June. The policy, which is similar to ‘LGBT Free Zone’ policies used by local governments in Poland between 2021 and 2023, was later adopted by other Reform-controlled councils, including Warwickshire.
More recently in Northumberland, a Reform councillor and SACRE rep told the council he wanted exclusively Christian Religious Education in schools because this was ‘a Christian country’, calling any other approach to RE ‘brainwashing’.
In a speech in the House of Commons in July, the Conservative MP Danny Kruger – who defected to Reform on Monday – made an impassioned speech to his fellow MPs to back a ‘revival of the faith, a recovery of Christian politics, and a refounding of this nation’. Elsewhere in his remarks he called for Christians to ‘destroy’ and ‘banish from public life’ a ‘woke’ modern creed combining ‘ancient paganism, Christian heresies, and the cult of modernism’. While he did not elaborate on what he was referring to or why it was apparently so dangerous, elsewhere in his speech Mr Kruger claimed that ‘to worship human rights is to worship fairies’.
Humanists UK’s Chief Executive Andrew Copson added: ‘Christian nationalism would roll back the hard-won progress of decades that has been made in pursuit of greater freedom of thought, expression, and choice in our country. We cannot let that happen. The social revolution of the twentieth century that was both caused by and gave rise to the widespread humanist values of our contemporary society has brought lasting benefits to us all.’
https://humanists.uk/2025/09/17/rising-c...to-us-all/
Scenes on Saturday of Christian preachers denouncing ‘Secular Humanism’ from the main stage of Tommy Robinson’s radical right Unite the Kingdom rally in London may have been surprising to see on the streets of London, but they are just the latest evidence of consistent attempts in recent years to promote a narrow ‘Christian nationalist’ vision of the UK.
It is opposed to the separation of church and state and to all forms of religious pluralism – such as learning about other beliefs and cultures. More generally, it advocates very conservative Christian social policies, such as rolling back the human rights of LGBT+ people and abortion rights. It staunchly opposes people having choice at the end of life, on the basis that their religion forbids assisted dying.
In an unprecedented move, US Vice President JD Vance intervened in British politics in relation to a Christian activist who deliberately breached a public space protection order around an abortion clinic, and briefings made to the Times indicated that the Trump administration was attempting to influence the UK’s laws in relation to religious protesters and abortion as a condition of free trade. On Saturday, former Trump official and X owner Elon Musk made a televised appearance at the same London rally where other attendees called for the destruction of ‘secular humanism’, with performers on stage ripping up flags saying ‘secular humanism’ and ‘no religion’.
In Matlock in Derbyshire, Reform councillors reintroduced Christian prayer to council meetings on the basis that the UK was a ‘Christian country’. One of their first moves subsequently was to ban Pride flags following a complaint from a Christian bookstore owner in June. The policy, which is similar to ‘LGBT Free Zone’ policies used by local governments in Poland between 2021 and 2023, was later adopted by other Reform-controlled councils, including Warwickshire.
More recently in Northumberland, a Reform councillor and SACRE rep told the council he wanted exclusively Christian Religious Education in schools because this was ‘a Christian country’, calling any other approach to RE ‘brainwashing’.
In a speech in the House of Commons in July, the Conservative MP Danny Kruger – who defected to Reform on Monday – made an impassioned speech to his fellow MPs to back a ‘revival of the faith, a recovery of Christian politics, and a refounding of this nation’. Elsewhere in his remarks he called for Christians to ‘destroy’ and ‘banish from public life’ a ‘woke’ modern creed combining ‘ancient paganism, Christian heresies, and the cult of modernism’. While he did not elaborate on what he was referring to or why it was apparently so dangerous, elsewhere in his speech Mr Kruger claimed that ‘to worship human rights is to worship fairies’.
Humanists UK’s Chief Executive Andrew Copson added: ‘Christian nationalism would roll back the hard-won progress of decades that has been made in pursuit of greater freedom of thought, expression, and choice in our country. We cannot let that happen. The social revolution of the twentieth century that was both caused by and gave rise to the widespread humanist values of our contemporary society has brought lasting benefits to us all.’
https://humanists.uk/2025/09/17/rising-c...to-us-all/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
