"Wake up, Christian England! " - John Sentamu

Today let me recommend the article by Archbishop John Sentamu in The Daily Mail, which is primarily written in relation to recent events of anti-Christian oppression by the Labour lead state.

Key quotes include:

Why then, while our children are encouraged to celebrate the religious festivals of all the major faiths, are there those in public office who seem to be ignorant of how this country's established religion gave birth to this nation?


In the 8th century, the Venerable Bede, the father of English history, wrote not only of how the English were converted to Christianity, but how the Gospel played a major social and civilising role in this country by uniting a group of warring tribes and conferring English nationhood upon them.


The opening clause of Magna Carta in 1215 acknowledged the importance of the Church and its right to propagate its views. "

and

"Those employed as public servants and charged with running our local services, be they schools, hospitals or councils, receive their public authority only under a system of governance which is constitutionally established from the 'Queen in Parliament under God'.

For public servants to use their authority to deny the legitimacy of the Christian faith, when they receive such authority only through the operation of that same faith, is not only unacceptable but an affront. "

Rowan Williams should resign

I've left the following comment on Peter Old's blog. Something similar on Cranmer's. Its no doubt very difficult for Rowan Williams right now, and I do feel for him. But it is now very clear he is not the man to lead the Church of England. [Let me declare an interest MiaS is a member of the Church of England, as well as a Christian].

I’m afraid Rowan Williams has shown himself unsuited to being Archbishop. He has given great encouragement to those fundamentalist who believe in turning Western Europe into an Islamic State by force and Jihad. ( It is reported elsewhere that edited versions of his comments are on loop in the middle east’s media ).

Muslims who don’t want to be oppressed by Sharia have had the ground knocked from under them.

He has shown great weakness to the Muslim world who will see this as confirmation of the superiority and inevitability of Islamic dominance. ( Add the Bishop of Oxford’s surrender of large areas of his diocese into this. )

Yes I know he didn’t say this. But it is the meaning being derived from what he said and these assertions were easily predictable. Hence his unsuitability to lead the Church of England or any other public body.

Christ had the wisdom not to fall into the traps of his questioners and not to say some things until the right time. Rowan Williams clearly lacks this.

He is no doubt of good man, and maybe a great man with great learning, humility and compassion. But he must still resign and the clergy must tell him to go.

Catholic spin

In a strange coincidence the Catholic Church has just started a big spin cycle.

1) It has discovered that it can admit Tony Blair. Cue lots of guff about joining the Catholic church being like coming home (copyright 2007 Cardinal Murphy O'Conner).
2) Catholic journalists are talking the opportunity to try and declare "Britain is now a Catholic country".

You can expect demands for changes in the constitution to follow shortly. ( Ably assisted by the weak approach taken by the Church of England ).

However lets look at the facts.

1) Tony Blair has a voting record which shows he couldn't care less about what the Catholic Church teaches. He even rebuked the Church when they tried to stop him taking communion with his family why still nominally an Anglican.
2) The balance between Catholic and Protestant church attendance has remain more or less constant over the time period.

As you can see England is a long way from becoming a Catholic country. The movement of protestant support away from the Church of England is a sign of hardening attitudes to Catholicism. Also remember that the decline in Catholicism has been stemmed by the dramatic rise in immigration from Catholic countries.

Of course the undeniable truth is that church attendance is declining overall by about 13% in 6 years.

The Catholic church may be hoping to cash in on current difficulties in the Church of England - but Man in a Shed thinks it has problems of its own now that it is skipping back a few centuries to Latin masses and indulgences.

There is a fight for the souls of men, and all the Churches, except the Pentecostals, seem to be losing it.


This is all based on the same data that allowed Jonathan Wynne-Jones of the Daily Telegraph to write the headline "Britain has become a 'Catholic country'". You might wonder how you could write such an article based on that data ......

The historical role of England as a Protestant country is hard to under play. The world is very much a different place due to this history. The key role of the English is all too well understood in the Vatican, if not The Daily Telegraph. Why else would such a church accept Tony Blair ?

Welsh and Scottish nationalism good - English bad - Jack Straw

Jack Straw has attacked the English nation by describing the logical extension of the devolution he helped arrange for Scotland and Wales being implemented in a limited way for England.

Jack your a traitor.

If there is nothing wrong with Scottish and Welsh identity, then there is nothing wrong with that of the English.

Its just narrow self interest by Labour - they thought they could rule forever in Wales and Scotland, but fear they can never persuade the English.

I understand Scottish and Welsh MPs, like Gordon Brown, trying to keep the excellent advantages they have secured for their constituents at the expense of the English, but Jack what the reason for selling your people out ?

The prime steaming turd of Straw's hypocrisy is the following statement:

"The Conservative Party must make up its mind what it believes," he says. "You are either in the Union or you are out of it; you cannot be both."

So why did Labour divide the country up then ? If they were offering to abolish devolution then they would have an argument. They are just self interested bigots and hypocrites.

A desire to change history is a desire to control how people think

Trevor Philips, an ex-Labour party politician, looks dangerously like setting himself up as the head of a new Minitrue with his reported call to re-write history.

He wants history to be more inclusive - for example showing how muslims were part of the national story ( whatever that is ). ( Odd how England and the English are being written out.. as inconveniently not British). He actually suggest rewritting history for his own purposes.

This has to be very dangerous. Its an attempt to control how people think in the present by choosing how to present ( and indeed make up) the past. Only a socialist could have such a lax regard for the truth and scholarship, with an aim of controlling peoples minds.

His example is the Turks helping delay the Armada at the request of Elizabeth the first ( of England - remember Britain didn't exist then ). - he's aiming to catch the public mood with the new film on the subject due for release soon.

I have no idea if its true - but it doesn't really matter. It certainly doesn't provide a strong link to English history. However the third Crusade certainly does ! ( Odd how he didn't mention that.)

So the new revised history according to Trevor will ignore the Crusades, but have a foreign military power keeping another one of balance for its own reasons as a key part of the National Story ! ( To be fair I don't know if he's suggesting talking down the Crusades - but I'm guessing its on the agenda.)

Of course Queen Elizabeth also said some strong things about defeating the Turks in the great siege of Malta ( conveniently missing from most British teaching of history ) as it was one of the times when the muslim conquest of Europe was stopped in its tracks by stunning heroism of the Knights of St John and the people of Malta. ( Their defence of the fort of St Elmo surely deserves a film all on it own - if it wasn't so inconvenient now days. The Turks used soldier who were stolen from the Christian parents and brought up and forced to become muslims and used to kill the Christian soldiers as part of Turkeys military expansion. That too is part of our 'story').

There is a campaign by certain muslim groups to rewrite history ( assisted as ever by the BBC in its last outings of Robin Hood ). Of course some people do get left out, and Mary Seacole is an example of an individual who has rightly gained a higher place in the national consciousness.

Update: The Devil's kitchen takes young Trevor to task ( warning - language which reflect a justified sense of rage is used over at the DK ) - he quotes a dismissal of Mr Philips half backed ideas from The Reptile here.

Freedom of religion is dying in Britain

After a period of religious conflict in this country Queen Elizabeth I is famously quoted as saying she had "no desire to make windows into men's souls". She understood how to let people with different, but strongly held faiths, coexist and live in peace.

Now we find the freedom to organise your religion in accordance with you conscience is no longer the right of an Englishman. Examples today are:

1. An adjudicator appointed by Exeter University has ruled that is would be okay for a Muslim to become leader of a Christian society ( in this case the CU), as any restriction on membership based on professed faith cannot be allowed. What this in effect means is that any minority religion can be crushed on campus by the majority. It presumably also means all the Christian Union members could join another religious society and use it against the faith is claims to profess. This is just madness - and of course political correctness fuelled by the intolerance and anti-Christian hatred of the National Union of Socialists Students. In other Universities aggressive anti-Christian campaigns have been mounted - of a type no one would dare to carry out against other religions.
2. The Bishop of Hereford has lost an employment tribunal for refusing to employ a man whose views disagree with the teaching and traditions of the church over 2000 years.

Now the courts and Universities decide which parts of the Christian faith are acceptable and legal - when at the same time the law is broken to allow a cow with TB to avoid slaughter and no one dares say anything about Islam.

These measures are all clearly related to left wing politics in the UK and NuLabour in particular. I don't see how any Christian, who professes the faith either of the Church of England or the Catholic church can be a member of or vote for these oppressors of traditional English religious freedom.