Britain’s Imaginary Christian Right
A taxonomy of a movement that exists loudly online but barely at all in real life.
This is a Guestpoast by burckhardt1848, whose writing on politics, culture and the modern Right is well worth following on X.
In my limited experience, there are roughly two kinds of Tory Boys. The first, and the more principally ambitious, are the quasi-Thatcherite characters who are ubiquitously in pursuit of a job in finance or work as a SPAD. The second are of a distinct traditionalist bent, who would happily debate the value of liturgical Latin over classical. While the former are on their tenth rewatch of The Big Short, the latter could have been side characters in Brideshead Revisited. Often garbed in tweed and armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of mariology, these creatures tend to view right wing politics as a moral crusade, and the irreligiosity of modern society as the origins of all contemporary issues.
Though the first kind absolutely drowns out the second in sheer numbers, the clarion calls of traditionalist Christians has found new found lease within the online world, where their message has been amplified. Much of this growth has come from a shaming of the activities of young men, whom online Christians have continually preyed upon rather than proselytised. Just as attention seeking women like Eva Vlaardingerbroek are lauded as ‘tradwives’, men who feel a shot of guilt towards masturbation and videogames are rewarded with moral superiority by this same ilk. It has become easy, when one takes up this lens of self improvement, to then subscribe to a broader need to conquer the ‘degeneracy’ of ‘modernity’ through a wholesale moralising political movement.
The ‘based’ side of this new found Christianising of the right comes through the neverending desire of many to depict the problems of immigration into Britain and Europe as civilisational war. Great focus is placed on Muslim immigrants coming into the UK, complete with endless videos of crazed Islamists calling for the death of the West, Amish-bearded Imams preaching wild ideas, and multitudes of Muslims praying outside Westminster Palace. Pro-Palestine marches are also seen in this anti-Muslim light, in spite of the many hijab-less girls and White attendees.
In contrast to this sits the world of ‘cultural Christians’ a la Dawkins and Douglas Murray; the evangelising preachers buzzing around Tommy Robinson, and the templar imagery his followers wield. Lastly of course, there are the timeless Bridesheads who seem to have moulted the stuffy tweed for John Lewis’ finest polyester. Whether they espouse ‘Judeo-Christian’ values, or harbour a passionate hatred towards ‘usury’, anyone who believes in a Right wing Christian message has compiled a worldview of not only anti-immigrationism, but of revivalism, reconquista, and moral hectoring. The amplification of ‘Christianity’ as a moniker for the West has found ground throughout the Anglo-right, in spite of the continued agnosticism of the average Briton, and the unceasing decline in church attendance.
Whereas America and France and many other nations contain a limited truly religious Right wing core capable of supporting themselves, Britain does not outside of the Hebrides. To invoke Christianity in the average Briton is a complete non-starter, even before anyone asks if you should. The average person’s relationship with the church is completely non-existent beyond marriages, christenings, Christmas services and funerals, and even then this is a dying world befitting the work of Richard Curtis rather than the present day. To describe Britain as a ‘Christian nation’ as many have recently suggested, is laughable unless it is used to relate to the past, and makes full use of the Christian foundation of the West theory that so many of this ilk believe in. Positioning your Christianity as a crusade against the inflow of Muslim immigrants serves only to conjure up the incredibly small number of people who think likewise, given most peoples’ idea of the CoE and other denominations High and Low is of tepid vicars having tea and scones with parishioners.
French traditionalist Catholics bury Marianne and the Revolution in the procession of Joan of Arc’s descendants, but the British Right is completely lacking in a noticeable Christian trad movement beyond those reacting to the growth of Islamic neighbourhoods. This makes the remarks by so many around Rupert Lowe so disconcerting. If, like Charlie Downes (below), we are to believe that the horrors of foreign men on British children is rooted in our shared disinterest in attending church, then you may as well blame me for the holocaust and slavery while you’re at it. As far as I am concerned, it comes from the exact same type of guilt inducing poison that seeks to admonish ordinary people.
Stating that ‘England is getting what she deserves’ in terms of children being raped by gangs of immigrants is exactly the same messaging from Hindu nationalists and post-colonial freaks. The only difference is that Downes is not scolding us for the British Empire, but for ‘turning our backs on God’ and indulging in ‘the decadence of modernity’. Just like the most repulsive anti-British scum, he is attacking us for the actions of older generations, and bullying us towards his bizarre point of view. What sickens me about this line of thought, is the complete disdain with which it treats the vast majority of anti-immigrationists who do not subscribe to the ideas of Christian anti-islamists who have in truth, been touting the same ideas since the early 2000s.
Anti-immigrationism is as popular and uncontentious in this country as good schools are. Massively restricting the inflow of people is a commonly held position, even among LibDem voters. You do not need to twin this universal outcry for harder borders with a repulsive reprimand on a nation of ‘degenerates’ who caused their own downfall. We are not to blame for vile acts committed against British girls. We know the men who did it, the police officers who turned a blind eye, the judges who failed to sentence them, the politicians who failed to act, and the journalists who called it all a lie. Even if every Briton took communion and lived within the bosom of the Lord, it would not have saved those poor neglected girls from their fate.
In Submission, Houellebecq was wrong to suggest the end point of endless Third World immigration was an Islamic France. Rather, the poster boys for multiculturalists are closer to Mamdani and Sadiq Khan; private Muslims who will happily attend pride parades as fine examples of ‘integration’. The self-styled ‘conservative’ version lies in Katherine Birbalsingh, who heads a draconian school right up a Tory’s street in which foreign children are subjected to constant disciplinary pressure while ingrained with a curriculum befitting a patriot cliche. In the book, Houellebecq prophesied the apocryphal war of Christians and Muslims as the inevitable victory of a masculine religion over the ‘effemate’. It was a warning from 2015 that singularly regarded Islam as an affront to the West. Any person who espouses ‘Christian’ Right wing ideas in Britain harks back to this byegone age.
This mode of thinking neglects the popular hatred of all immigration by singling out Islam and concocting a religious conflict out of thin air. It forces proponents to make strange alliances with a wide array of Sikhs, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists. On conservative social issues and questions of religiosity, it even forces people like Downes to find kindred beliefs with Muslims who he would otherwise deport. In the wildest example, it brought Fuentes in cahoots with Muslims in a shared hatred of Jews. These people are laughable, and do themselves no favours. Carl Benjamin stating young men have too much freedom at a time when Labour is bringing about even further restrictions is utterly insane. If he was an MP, would he have voted in favour of the Online Safety Act as an attack on the ‘degeneracy’ of pornography? I like to think not, but the Christian moralising of many a Tory led them down that route.
A genuinely good way to liberate young men would be by banning dating apps, not chastising them whilst you take their porn away. If this is what Restore is, then I’m not interested and will hold the view that Lowe is the only guy in it that’s worth a damn. Pearl clutching moral chides against the average person are not going to get them anywhere, and I wouldn’t want it to. Caring about a young man’s ‘unfettered access to pre-marital sex’ should be the concerns of the Rees-Moggs and Jess Philips of this world. We are already seeing the wacky Christian crap leaking out of Danny Kruger, we don’t need it anywhere else. These people are just reskins of high church Tories that have existed, seemingly, forever.