US midterm results where faith is at the heart of political vision
As the US mid-term election results come in, one of the early results was a win for Ray Cooper, for the Senate seat in North Carolina. A former state governor, he is an elder in the Presbyterian church, was a Sunday school teacher for 20 years and frequently references his faith – including at the podium after his win, quoting from Luke: “to whom much is given, much is required”. In the early hours, commentators were expecting wins for James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminary student running for a Senate seat in Texas; for Adam Hamilton, a Methodist megachurch pastor challenging the Republican incumbent Roger Marshall, for the senate seat in Kansas; and for Frederick Haynes, pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, running for Congress. These are among a crop of Democrat candidates who refer openly to the Bible’s messages on poverty, compassion, racial justice and welcoming strangers. Live feed of results here and live RNS blog on 12 key races in which clergy or seminarians are candidates is here.
Welby says reparations for slavery would create new injustices
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has argued that reparations for slavery would create new injustices. In a comment piece in The Independent, he said addressing the “historic evil of slavery” is complex and reparations would address one injustice by creating another. They would amount to “a vast fine on the entire British people for a crime they did not commit”. He favours investment in communities affected by slavery, alongside fair trade and economic partnerships with Caribbean and West African countries. He says Britain must acknowledge the brutality of its history and repent of the racism that underpinned slavery but building a better shared future is more constructive than reparations.
He was commenting after King Charles expressed profound sorrow over Britain’s role in slavery but stopped short of a formal apology. The prime minister, Andy Burnham, has offered a structured dialogue with countries affected by the slave trade. Meanwhile, the Church of England’s £100m “Project Spire”, to address its historical financial links to slavery through an investment fund supporting affected communities, is facing legal action by opponents who question whether the Church Commissioners have the authority to use the money in this way.
Jewish organisations to intervene in Palestine Action proscription case
The Jewish Leadership Council and Community Security Trust have been granted permission to intervene jointly in the Supreme Court appeal over the proscription of Palestine Action. Jewish News reports their view that the organisation’s continued proscription matters to the Jewish community and wider society and has provided a security benefit to a wide range of Jewish institutions.
Undercover report on the Society of St Pius X Resistance, in Broadstairs
Daniel Esson, local democracy reporter for Kent Online, has written an account of the Society of St Pius X Resistance (SSPXR), a fringe sect which emerged as a radical breakaway offshoot of Archbishop Lefebvre’s movement opposed to reforms in the Catholic Church. The report details his time undercover at the Society’s base in a former guest house in Broadstairs, Kent, where he encountered conversations on Holocaust denial, antisemitism and “Third Position” politics, regarded as neo-fascism. The Society was founded by the late Richard Williamson, a convicted Holocaust denier and conspiracy theorist, who was excommunicated after being consecrated a bishop by Lefebvre without papal approval. Daniel Esson finally revealed his identity to the Society, but the group declined to comment on his report. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales explicitly condemned antisemitism and said it has no place in the church or in wider society. The article is here.
‘Rethinking Christianity’ with Prof Alister McGrath
The Telegraph has a review of Alister McGrath’s new book “Rethinking Christianity” in which he argues that there is a growing interest in Christianity among young people and that “New Atheism” of Richard Dawkins is on its way out. Now emeritus professor in science and religion at the University of Oxford, he reflects on conversations with students and young adults, and believes Christianity is regaining intellectual appeal. He tells Peter Stanford that he wants to see a return of Christian virtues to public life: “We are living in a culture where what is good is ‘what I want’. What we need is for people to be challenged, with a concept of good that is bigger than any one of us.” The review in The Telegraph is here.
Jesus statue decapitated at Warrington church on Halloween
A statue of Jesus outside St Albans Catholic church in Warrington, has been decapitated and green and black paint has been daubed across the body. Anti Catholic graffiti was painted on the plaque, and the police are treating the incident as a hate crime. The parish priest Canon Christopher Cunningham said the vandalism, which took place on the night of Halloween, was a “reminder that we are journeying together facing that sort of evil in our world”.
