Rising Christian nationalism: a threat to us all

Scenes on Saturday of Christian preachers denouncing ‘Secular Humanism’ from the main stage of Tommy Robinson’s radical right Unite the Kingdom rally in London may have been surprising to see on the streets of London, but they are just the latest evidence of consistent attempts in recent years to promote a narrow ‘Christian nationalist’ vision of the UK.

Christian Nationalism is the name for an ultra-conservative form of religious nationalism that seeks to fuse politics with Christianity, and for the government to promote, or actively enforce, religious interests and their favoured policies. It is opposed to the separation of church and state and to all forms of religious pluralism – such as learning about other beliefs and cultures. More generally, it advocates very conservative Christian social policies, such as rolling back the human rights of LGBT+ people and abortion rights. It staunchly opposes people having choice at the end of life, on the basis that their religion forbids assisted dying.

Christian nationalists frequently denounce humanism as a heresy or the source of all social ills, and argue that people can only be moral on the basis of rules handed down to them from the God of the Christian Bible. 

Historically rare in the UK, it has been a feature of American politics for decades. In recent years the movement has increasingly aligned itself with Republican Party and since 2016 has marshalled voters in support of Donald Trump on the basis that he would support their mission with regards to overturning federal protections for abortion rights and same-sex marriage.

In April 2024, Humanists UK reported that the Alliance Defending Freedom was investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Europe, particularly the UK, to further the political agenda it successfully pursued in the United States, which to date has seen the overturning of Roe v Wade and constitutional protections for abortion rights. More recently, Christian nationalists in the United States have attempted to unpick separation of church and state as applies to American schools.

Christian nationalism in UK politics

The UK was long a society where religion was worn lightly by the vast majority, and in recent decades, the religious population has become a minority and statistics have repeatedly confirmed us as one of the least religious countries in the world. Traditionally, explicitly religious politics has not fared well electorally in the UK outside of Northern Ireland – with voters preferring their candidates to focus on policies, not pieties.

Some recent incidents suggest that this norm is changing – with politicians talking up a ‘Christian revival’ in politics. There is also clear evidence of outside influence from politicians in the United States.

In an unprecedented move, US Vice President JD Vance intervened in British politics in relation to a Christian activist who deliberately breached a public space protection order around an abortion clinic, and briefings made to the Times indicated that the Trump administration was attempting to influence the UK’s laws in relation to religious protesters and abortion as a condition of free trade. On Saturday, former Trump official and X.com owner Elon Musk made a televised appearance at the same London rally where other attendees called for the destruction of ‘secular humanism’, with performers on stage ripping up flags saying ‘secular humanism’ and ‘no religion’.

In Matlock in Derbyshire, Reform councillors reintroduced Christian prayer to council meetings on the basis that the UK was a ‘Christian country’. One of their first moves subsequently was to ban Pride flags following a complaint from a Christian bookstore owner in June. The policy, which is similar to ‘LGBT Free Zone’ policies used by local governments in Poland between 2021 and 2023, was later adopted by other Reform-controlled councils, including Warwickshire. 

More recently in Northumberland, a Reform councillor and SACRE rep told the council he wanted exclusively Christian Religious Education in schools because this was ‘a Christian country’, calling any other approach to RE ‘brainwashing’.

Plan for a ‘Christian revival’

Since 2017, hedge fund manager and Spectator owner Paul Marshall has been involved in the creation of the conservative media outlets UnHerd (initially edited by Christian pundit Tim Montgomerie) and GB News, which sought to create a Fox News-like niche in the UK media ecosystem. His other investments include the Church Revitalisation Trust (which ‘plants’ churches around the UK like trees) and whose stated aim is ‘The Evangelisation of the Nation, The Revitalisation of the Church, The Transformation of Society’.

Last year, a profile on Paul Marshall in Prospect magazine described him as a man on a ‘God-driven mission to transform the religious fabric of the nation’ who possessed ‘the money to do it’. Marshall’s stated philosophy is that ‘traditional British liberalism rests on the Judeo-Christian understanding that we are all, in moral terms, fallen creatures… Somewhere amid the arrogance of the Enlightenment, we lost this sense of fallenness’. 

In a speech in the House of Commons in July, the Conservative MP Danny Kruger – who defected to Reform on Monday – made an impassioned speech to his fellow MPs to back a ‘revival of the faith, a recovery of Christian politics, and a refounding of this nation’. Elsewhere in his remarks he called for Christians to ‘destroy’ and ‘banish from public life’ a ‘woke’ modern creed combining ‘ancient paganism, Christian heresies, and the cult of modernism’. While he did not elaborate on what he was referring to or why it was apparently so dangerous, elsewhere in his speech Mr Kruger claimed that ‘to worship human rights is to worship fairies’. 

At a talk given to the Humanists UK Convention in Sheffield in June, American writer Katherine Stewart, an expert in the ‘anti-freedom coalition’ that brought Christian nationalists to political prominence in the United States, warned delegates that the flow of money and strategic manoeuvring in the UK around certain issues echoed the situation in the United States twenty or thirty years prior – where Christian nationalists ultimately fought the culture war, and largely succeeded, by playing ‘the long game’.

Humanists UK’s Chief Executive Andrew Copson added:

‘Christian nationalism would roll back the hard-won progress of decades that has been made in pursuit of greater freedom of thought, expression, and choice in our country. We cannot let that happen. The social revolution of the twentieth century that was both caused by and gave rise to the widespread humanist values of our contemporary society has brought lasting benefits to us all.’