Church, mission, politics and being a Christian nation: corruption, co-option or collaboration?
Church, mission, politics and being a Christian nation: corruption, co-option or collaboration?
This week, the BBC featured an article exploring the rising number of Tommy Robinson supporters turning to church. It shines a spotlight on some tricky questions we have to navigate as Christians and churches at this time; what does it mean to show the love of God to all, to welcome the stranger, and be faithful followers of Jesus?
by James Butler,
On the one hand there’s something to celebrate: people are coming to church who have not walked through the doors for years and years, perhaps ever. And yet their motives, as the article identifies, are often not primarily about following Jesus or even finding out about Christianity, but rather supporting an institution which they feel is able to defend something of what it means to be British.
As the article asks, how do churches respond to this, when some of the assumptions about Christianity and its values being brought by those turning to the church might be seen by many to misrepresent Jesus and his teachings? Indeed, a few weeks ago a number of Church of England bishops, with leaders of other denominations, accused protestors of co-opting the cross and causing division.
As we explore on our course Faith in Public: Political Theology for Mission, these kinds of questions are ones which churches have faced many times in the history of Christianity.
Jesus wasn’t born into a Jewish nation, but one occupied by Roman rule. It was about 300 years after his death that the question of what a Christian nation would look like came up, when Constantine converted to Christianity. For some, this is the point at which Christianity lost its way – becoming involved in state power was corrupting. Instead, they might say to see true Christianity one has to look to the margins, to those who maintained the radical message of Jesus despite the church working with the state – think of the desert fathers, monastic movements, the anabaptists in the reformation, of the non-conformists of more recent years. In this view, accepting Britain has been losing its Christian identity for some time, and even encouraging that, is a sign of faithfulness to the gospel because it gives the church freedom to truly model Christian living – often in spite of what governments may do.
The concern is that when churches think the answer is to step into positions of power to further the cause of Christianity, the risk is that Christians and churches overestimate their ability to do good, and instead either become co-opted into someone else’s agenda, or in seeking a particular good, end up turning to increasingly manipulative means to make those happen. What the bishops were saying back in September was that while some saw an opportunity in the Unite the Nation march to name things they were proud of and wanted to maintain within Britain, the problem was that rather than shaping the narrative they became co-opted by a movement with origins in a far-right agenda. Jesus pointed out that his kingdom was not of this world, and he rebuked his followers for trying to bring it about by force. Jesus’ kingdom would only become a reality when he returned, and until then the kingdom was to come about like yeast through the dough, or like seeds which grow up without anyone noticing.
So, what does it mean for Christianity to influence, shape and witness to our nation?
In the Faith in Public course, we meet with people who have done just that. We will hear the story of Manchester Cathedral and the ways in which it has sought to be a faithful Christian presence, shaping the public life of Manchester through its words and actions. We will hear from Ian Rutherford, a Methodist minister working at Methodist Central Hall, about the way he has collaborated and worked with so many seeking a common good which reaches across divides to find ways for all to flourish.
In a number of places the Bible describes followers of Jesus as foreigners and pilgrims and those whose citizenship is in heaven. Our calling is not to make the world look like what we think Jesus’ kingdom should look like by our own strength and power, but to live as citizens of that kingdom which will come with Jesus’ return. This is challenging but Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles living in Babylon can help us to make sense of this. Writing to the Jews who were living in an alien culture where God was not worshiped, they would have been surprised to hear Jeremiah telling them that God said: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7). They were called to collaborate with those in Babylon and do things which promoted its welfare. By collaborating together, there are possibilities for faithful witness, for justice and for mutual flourishing.
The place of church in society is not a simple question, but fortunately people have been thinking about this and living it out for centuries. In our currently climate the risk is we look for easy answers; and yet the reality is it is hard, slow work, of prayer, of building relationships, of navigating difference and working towards the welfare of all.
Want to explore this further?
Come and take part: Faith in Public: Political Theology for Mission takes place via online learning and a residential in Manchester from Thursday 7 to Saturday 9 May 2026. Book your place now.
