16 March 2018
Methodist response to the "Christian Council of Britain”
A body calling itself the Christian Council of Britain andapparently associated with the BNP recently started joiningprotests against Jerry Springer: The Opera.
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Anthea Cox, Methodist Coordinating Secretary for Public Life andSocial justice, said, 'I am outraged that the BNP and its alliesare using Christianity to further their agenda of segregation anddivision. I think most Christians will be deeply affronted by thisand want to speak out against such misguided extremism. We reaffirmour earlier statements that Christian belief is incompatible withany political party or philosophy that is based on hatred or treatspeople as inferior because of their race, beliefs or for any otherreason. We are deeply concerned that some people are nowappropriating Christian language and symbols for policies that arethe very opposite of Christian values.'
The CCB has claimed that the Bible justifies its support for theBNP's repatriation policy. But the Revd Ken Howcroft, CoordinatingSecretary for Conference and Communication, said 'this was a way ofinterpreting scripture that was used to justify apartheid in SouthAfrica, the banning of mixed-race marriages and the setting up ofhomelands. The South African Council of Churches condemned thisinterpretation, and some of the churches that did support thisinterpretation later formally repented. In Galatians Paul writes'In Christ there is no Jew or Gentile,' and this makes it clearthat there is no Christian basis for racial discrimination orseparation.'
More on theology and racism can be found in the