This is a guest post by Joseph Weissman
The BNP website reported on a recent event in Loughton in which Robert West spoke at Murray Hall – West being the leader of the BNP front group ‘the Christian Council of Britain’. According to the BNP:
Due to the anti-British and anti-Christian behaviour of the Churches in Loughton, Epping Forest British National Party had no choice but to arrange their own service in their own town. Over eighty members and supporters turned out to welcome the Reverend West and a collection taken during the singing of the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ took a ‘profit’ of over £500.00 and this was donated to Epping Forest British National Party.
The first thing to say here is that it doesn’t seem very Christian of the BNP to organise a religious service, and then collect the donations for themselves. If the ‘Christian Council of Britain’ wants to be seen as anything other than a BNP front group, then its leader really shouldn’t be raising money for the local BNP branch during his services.
The BNP complained of opposition they faced from Loughton Churches Together, who utterly reject the BNP’s racial divisiveness. Yet Loughton of all places seems an odd venue for the BNP to promote its Christian values, given the BNP’s track record there.
In February of last year, the Epping Forest BNP Watch blog reported that the BNP had portrayed local gang rivalry between pupils at Roding Valley and Davenant School as an attack by “ethnic youths” from Davenant against white children from Roding Valley, despite neither gang being ethnically homogenous. Yet Davenant itself is a Christian ecumenical school which claims to support ‘Christian values,’ making it an odd target for the ‘Christian’ BNP.
The EFBNPW blogger observed:
In its report, OFSTED notes that “about 13% of students are from minority ethnic backgrounds, a percentage which is significantly higher than that for other Essex schools.” Roding Valley School has a far lower proportion of non-white students, a proportion that is roughly the same as the 99% racially white town it is situated in.
So the BNP even put its racial agenda above its ‘Christian values’ agenda in its fear-mongering about Davenant students.
Moreover, the BNP website detailed that Richard Barnbrook addressed the ‘Christian’ service in Loughton.
In September 2009, Barnbrook was suspended from Barking and Dagenham Council for one month after broadcasting false claims about murders in his borough. At Barnbrook’s hearing, Councillor Val Rush accused him of having deliberately tried to stir up fear within the borough.
Last time we met Barnbrook in Loughton, he spoke in front of an upside-down flag of Essex.
With nothing to offer the people of Loughton but hatred and bigotry, the BNP are trying to win voters through fear, using its brand of Christianity as a way to divide people. In Loughton, the BNP have managed to alienate both the main coalition of churches and the local Christian ecumenical school.
This is no surpise, as the BNP’s “Christianity” has its roots in the International Third Position – a neo-fascist movement. The BNP presents itself as an anti-Catholic ‘Protestant’ party in Britain, whilst linking hands with an anti-Protestant ‘Catholic’ party abroad.
The Christian Council of Britain itself offers offensive comparisons between immigration into Britain and Hitler’s policies in Poland, and cheapens the horrors of the African slave trade too.
Happily though, with only eighty-plus people attending the BNP’s ‘service’ in Murray Hall, it seems the BNP are not fooling the Christians of Loughton.
