Why is a Christian church hosting a far-right party’s conference?
The Emmanuel Centre, part of Emmanuel Church in Westminster, is today the venue for a major event run by Advance UK.
The Centre has so far failed to respond to concerned Christians and journalists who have asked why they are prepared to profit from hosting a racist party.
If you’re not familiar with Advance UK, they split from the far-right Reform UK, in part because they seemed to regard them as too soft and not right-wing enough. The main figure associated with Advance UK is Ben Habib, a former senior figure in Reform who fell out with Nigel Farage and went off to set up his own party.
Other Advance UK members include Rikki Doolan, a far-right Christian minister best known for his role in the reported conversion to Christianity of racist activist Tommy Robinson.
I cannot of course see into the hearts of Robinson and Doolan. It is not for me to judge the sincerity of their faith. What I can say is that I see no connection between the views they promote and the teachings of Jesus.
Doolan spoke at Robinson’s far-right “carol service” in London in December. He repeatedly attacks Muslims, refugees and LGBTQ+ people.
Meanwhile, you only have to look fairly briefly at Advance UK’s social media stream to see claims about refugees that can easily be demonstrated to be factually untrue. They confuse asylum-seekers with “illegal immigrants”, even though claiming asylum is entirely lawful and an internationally recognised human right.
As with most far-right parties, the one minority who they don’t attack is the rich and powerful.
Racism, deceit and demonisation of minorities are clearly at odds with the most basic aspects of Jesus’ teaching. Like many other Christians, I often fail to live up to the values that I believe in. I am not expecting all Christians to agree with me. The far-right’s misuse of Christianity, however, is a fundamental distortion of the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus tears down barriers and upholds the value of all people, while the Bible is full of calls to welcome migrants and other people who are marginalised.
As a Christian, I believe in loving my enemies. I am not suggesting that members of Advance UK should be barred from churches. There is a big difference, however, between welcoming people as individuals (while also challenging them) and using your church to promote a party and their policies.
So why did the Emmanuel Centre think it was acceptable to host this party’s conference?
It won’t wash to say that Advance UK were simply booking a room in a conference centre. Most churches (and many other venues), have ethical lettings policies setting out who they will and won’t rent rooms too. It is inconceivable that a major conference centre in central London has given no thought to the question of who may be barred from hiring space there.
Even if they had allowed the Advance UK booking through naivety or incompetence, they have received emails and messages in recent days from a number of Christians expressing their alarm. Thus, while it’s hard to believe that the Emmanuel Centre’s managers were ignorant of the reality of Advance UK, it is literally impossible to believe that they still are.
The Emmanuel Centre urgently need to:
- Explain how they came to host Advance UK’s conference.
- Rule out hosting them in future.
- Publish their lettings policy and rule out all bookings by far-right groups.
At a time when the far-right is on the march, it is vital that Christians work with people of other faiths and none to resist fascism and racism. Far from resisting far-right groups, Emmanuel Church are promoting and profiting from them.
If you want to urge the Emmanuel Centre not to host the far-right again, you can contact them at enquiries@emmanuelcentre.com or on 020 7222 9191.
Symon Hill 
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I believe it’s disingenuous to assume that people will believe your critical judgments of others to be correct?
It would be much better to be specific in relation to what the Bible tells. For example if you were to say that Ben Habib is wrong to be against LGBTQIA then reading the Bible I would claim you are wrong? I can provide quotes if you wish?
To attack individuals I believe is wrong. It is surely much more constructive to attack their claimed beliefs if you disagree with them?
No person is perfect and no political party can be perfect but you need to be much more specific about what you claim is wrong?
Thanks very much for your comment, Chris. You’re right that I need to be specific, and I genuinely appreciate being reminded of this. I know I can sometimes speak too broadly. At the same time, I hope you’ll appreciate that there is a limit to how much detail I can go into in a short blog post.
I do not assume that people will believe my judgements to be correct. I am happy to be challenged and to have discussions with people who disagree with me.
I was not intending to attack anyone personally. I was pointing out Ben Habib’s views and suggesting that they are not views that a church should be helping to promote. I don’t think that this is the same as attacking people personally. I don’t wish to encourage hatred of Ben Habib or anyone else.
I dare say that we have different interpretations of Jesus’ teaching with regards to LGBTQ+ people. I am more than happy to discuss this with people who disagree with me. However, if you were to send me quotes from the Bible that you believe back up your view, then I suspect they would be passages that I am very used to reading, studying and praying about. Some of them, I suggest, were written in a context of sexual abuse rather than loving relationships. I believe that the grace of God in Jesus frees us from legalism. However, while you and I may disagree about same-sex relationships (for example), I hope you agree that is is wrong to encourage hatred of anyone. Leading figures in Advance UK have gone way further than simply disagreeing with the ethics of same-sex relationships and have made statements that demonise and misrepresent LGBTQ+ people (I can provide examples if you wish).
You are of course right that no person is perfect and of course no political party is perfect. However, Advance UK is not simply imperfect but actively harmful and dangerous. With regards to specifics, the policies they announced at that conference include the suspension of *all* asylum applications in the UK. This would mean turning back people who have suffered war, torture and unimaginable horrors because of their nationality. I do not understand how Christians could countenance such cruelty. Not only is it contrary to basic biblical teachings about loving our neighbours, but it flies in the face of Jesus’ teaching in Luke 10 about who our neighbour is. Jesus’ story of the Samaritan was, as I’m sure you know, a response to the question, “Who is my neighbour?”. Jesus responded by talking of someone who acted as a neighbour to someone of a different community and different beliefs. Jesus then said, “Go and do likewise”.
However, I appreciate that this is only one example and I take your point about needing more specifics. This has encouraged me to write another blog post about Advance UK’s specific policies. I will post it in the next day or two.
Thank you for the discussion.
Good answer thanks.
There are many Bible quotes that confirm that LGBTQIA is clearly a sin. So we should not be supporting or promoting that. However these people need support against their mental illnesses.
But of course it does not mean hating people because they are sinful. Love the sinner hate the sin.
Too often people claim disagreement means hate. This is certainly not true and such people need their mental health straightening out.
It is a concern that with the huge number of illegal immigrants entering countries including some with long criminal records, there may be a backlash against genuine asylum seekers fleeing persecution and war?
But clearly corrupted governments like the UK are acting against the welfare of the population. An incredible explosion in the numbers of rapes and murders from illegal immigrants has happened.
But it would be good if you could provide more specifics about Advanced UK as I’m not very familiar with the details of their policies please?
When they talk about “suspension” of asylum applications might this simply mean in the case of genuine asylum seekers a temporary stay rather than an outright rejection?
If for some reason the government were unable to cope, it would be much better for them to stop the murders and rapes even if it meant temporarily blocking asylum seekers?
Homosexual quotes
Romans 1:24-27
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural,
27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
Leviticus 18:22
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
1 Tim. 1:10
…. immoral persons, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,
1 Cor. 6:9-11
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts,
10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
“I think even church leaders miss the point. The point is very simple – God speaks of homosexuality as an ‘abomination’. What homosexuals do is called immoral. Whether this is called ‘antediluvian’ or not is irrelevant… genuine Christians do not accept homosexuality or ‘partnerships’, and it is fascist to force us to accept either. If gays wish to ‘marry’ let them go to a civil place that accepts it. They have no right whatever to force us to marry them in churches, or to accept their chosen lifestyle. And saying there are many within the churches who are gay and Christian is an anomaly – scripture does not accept it, so ‘gay Christians’ delude themselves. Previous pro-gay laws have led to persecution of Christians… this latest one will do the same. No doubt there will be an outcry at my comments – I expect that from the gay propaganda machine, which attempts to make black into white, using deception and false facts and figures.” – Barry Napier.