Andrea & Ade.

A statement by Andrea Williams and Pastor Ade Omooba, co-founders of Christian Concern.

Last year, on May 5 when David Cameron stood in front of 10 Downing Street having won an overall majority (albeit slim) for his government we felt peculiarly subdued at Christian Concern. As far as we could tell, he who had presided over the dismantling, in law, of God’s first building block of society by introducing same-sex ‘marriage’, had ‘got away with it’ and suffered no consequences for such devastating action. The election result caused an abrupt end to the influence of Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband, and left the Liberal Democrats and Labour in disarray. The coalition government had been the last in a succession of administrations that had consistently departed from God’s Truth in governing the nation – whether with regard to the protection of life, fairness to the poor, fairness in education, upholding marriage and family, or the privileging of Islam and other religions and philosophies over Christianity. But the people had not felt strongly enough to register protest.

How swiftly things change. Man is like the flower of the field, it blossoms and withers ... it is only the Word of the Lord that stands forever (Isaiah 40).

The vote for 'Brexit' on 23 June was a protest vote. Some parts ugly no doubt, many parts good. Who could have predicted that within two weeks of the referendum David Cameron would have resigned, Boris Johnson would have quit the Conservative leadership race, Nigel Farage would have stood down from leadership of UKIP, and Jeremy Corbyn would withstand a no confidence motion from his MPs.
 

'We can't go on like this'

Brexit was a moment when, whatever you think of the outcome, the people said ‘we can’t go on like this.’

This was a vote for change. At best, the vote to leave was a vote to reassert our foundational principle of democratic accountability. The British people rebelled against the political elite and the primary reason was to be able to choose and dismiss our lawmakers. There is unquestionably a mixed bag of things that the electorate want to change and an unrealistic expectation, but the notion of an accountable government resonated.

This is the time for the Church, with new energy and vibrancy, new belief and desire, new hope and energy, to enter and fill the spiritual and political vacuum with a Jesus centered vision for a loving, forgiving, moral proclamation of what is good, perfect and true.

Just last year we celebrated the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, which guaranteed individual freedom and equality before the law, both based on Christian principles. This became the foundation of our Christian democracy with an established church, and respect for the Bible at the heart of our constitution. Prayers are still said in parliament every day and the paintings, the sculptures, the traditions and fixtures of parliament all bear witness to its Christian roots.

The EU project, started with laudable intentions of promoting peace, prosperity and cooperation, but became much bigger and more powerful than that. In 2007 the EU deliberately and defiantly avoided any reference to God or Christianity in the Lisbon treaty. The project ended up undermining democracy and imposing enlightenment philosophy –humanism- onto European countries. The story of The Tower of Babel demonstrates that God was the original author of disunity among the nations in order to control and contain their capacity for rebellion against Him.

Let's not kid ourselves however. Whilst the EU has been the driving force for much of the Equalities legislation that has been used to silence Christian voices and discriminate against Christian witness, it is WE in the United Kingdom who have been the keenest in pursuing it; we have been the leading liberalising nation in Europe. And our courts, our elites, even church elites have not protected those that would seek to speak truth into the vacuum. Too often it has fallen to an agency like us at Christian Concern through our Christian Legal Centre, to defend harassed Christians in the Courts in the face of hostile legislation, or legislation that is interpreted in a hostile way. Ironically it has been the European Court of Human Rights that has delivered justice; delivered Christian freedom where our national courts have refused to do so; such is their blindness, so steeped in political correctness and fear. Christian Concern.