Being a Christian should not be a political statement in a Christian country and must be resisted, whether it is Tommy Robinson, men who like dressing up as priests or a vain Reform MP
Sir, I read all of your essays and I generally love your perspective. However, "If you’d hoped that this footage would feature something about God and how he gave of himself to become flesh so as to save mankind then you’d be disappointed". I watched it all and I saw plenty of this. The ministers on stage preached theologically sound Christian doctrine. I also Robinson confessing that he is a sinner and needs the love of Jesus like all of us. Your broader points are all true and I get why you are saying what you are saying but if Tommy Robinson can be saved by Jesus then maybe there is actually hope for us this Christmas time.
Islam is as an old money religion in that its political and social aspects are a piece with its religious one. The West could say: look you can keep the religious aspects but not the political/ social ones, so eg all sex based segregation must cease, but the West does not have the conviction to say that, and so entertains a competing centre of power to those things western institutions pretend to think really matter in other contexts. It’s very weird.
Many good points and I wholeheartedly agree. It occurs to me that I’m nearly 50 and, so far as I can recall, I’ve never seen a Muslim praying in real life anywhere, because why would I have done? Never been to a mosque at the appropriate time, certainly never seen prayers being said in a public setting. But then I don’t live in Yaxley-Lennon World, nor want to.
It’s a rather off pat middle class view to dislike him. Much as it is standard middle class fare to like Banksy - who is shite btw- except in that context the middle classes indulge the made up name and also the ludicrous conceit that no one knows who he actually is
He’s easy to dislike. I also think Banksy is overrated hum-ho graffiti. But whether you want to think of him as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon or Tommy Robinson is surely a seventh-, eighth- or ninth-order question.
Sort of. I think we have an entrenched, self serving elite, who visited on the post war population an entirely undemocratic multi cultural experiment, and then blamed the very same population for any failures. People like Robinson serve a scapegoat function in that regard. Basically: You should have wanted mass immigration, racist. If you hadn’t been racist, the whole thing would be working perfectly now but you had to be racist and ruin it all. But we will find the thing will not work well of its own accord because the idea of a multi cultural polity without a common core is not a promising one. And, progressives will say, of course there is a common core. Are we not all human. Is that alone not enough. And of course it is in utopia.
You are entitled to think that; but delicate precision about what he chooses to call himself seems to me an odd priority. Not the kind of dedication to respect and self-identification the man himself and his supporters practise. But if you want to read “Robinson World” instead it doesn’t change any of the essential arguments.
Sir, I read all of your essays and I generally love your perspective. However, "If you’d hoped that this footage would feature something about God and how he gave of himself to become flesh so as to save mankind then you’d be disappointed". I watched it all and I saw plenty of this. The ministers on stage preached theologically sound Christian doctrine. I also Robinson confessing that he is a sinner and needs the love of Jesus like all of us. Your broader points are all true and I get why you are saying what you are saying but if Tommy Robinson can be saved by Jesus then maybe there is actually hope for us this Christmas time.
Islam is as an old money religion in that its political and social aspects are a piece with its religious one. The West could say: look you can keep the religious aspects but not the political/ social ones, so eg all sex based segregation must cease, but the West does not have the conviction to say that, and so entertains a competing centre of power to those things western institutions pretend to think really matter in other contexts. It’s very weird.
Many good points and I wholeheartedly agree. It occurs to me that I’m nearly 50 and, so far as I can recall, I’ve never seen a Muslim praying in real life anywhere, because why would I have done? Never been to a mosque at the appropriate time, certainly never seen prayers being said in a public setting. But then I don’t live in Yaxley-Lennon World, nor want to.
It’s a rather off pat middle class view to dislike him. Much as it is standard middle class fare to like Banksy - who is shite btw- except in that context the middle classes indulge the made up name and also the ludicrous conceit that no one knows who he actually is
He’s easy to dislike. I also think Banksy is overrated hum-ho graffiti. But whether you want to think of him as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon or Tommy Robinson is surely a seventh-, eighth- or ninth-order question.
Sort of. I think we have an entrenched, self serving elite, who visited on the post war population an entirely undemocratic multi cultural experiment, and then blamed the very same population for any failures. People like Robinson serve a scapegoat function in that regard. Basically: You should have wanted mass immigration, racist. If you hadn’t been racist, the whole thing would be working perfectly now but you had to be racist and ruin it all. But we will find the thing will not work well of its own accord because the idea of a multi cultural polity without a common core is not a promising one. And, progressives will say, of course there is a common core. Are we not all human. Is that alone not enough. And of course it is in utopia.
I’m sure you’re nice but by referring to Robinson in his original name suggests the rest is just off pat, middle class group think.
You are entitled to think that; but delicate precision about what he chooses to call himself seems to me an odd priority. Not the kind of dedication to respect and self-identification the man himself and his supporters practise. But if you want to read “Robinson World” instead it doesn’t change any of the essential arguments.