Anyone else weirded out by evangelical Christianity seeping into the English right?
Excuse my ramblings, but does anyone else find the ‘save our Christian nation’ shit from the right just very..... unbecoming? I know I’m preaching to the choir, but it just reeks of yank. Christianity in England has always been the domain of Afro-Caribbean, immigrants from more religious countries or Irish grannies. Maybe some older Anglicans in rural areas.
So it was a bit jarring seeing all the crusader garb and piles of crosses at all these right-wing demonstrations. Like, are these dickheads getting up early on a Sunday for church service, and if so, which one? Some woke Anglican church? Or those Afro-Caribbean churches with a whole sentence in the title? This shit has always existed in the UK, but it was all Ulster-Unionism. The rest of has a bang of America off it, even Russell Brand’s recent turn.
Ten years ago these Barry’s would have a giggle at Mrs. Browns Boys or enjoy a Christmas panto, now they’re screaming about trans-indoctrination.
I think the most visible of these guys is UKIP leader Nick Tenconi, who has US brain-rot come to UK written all over him.
I’m Irish and in my mid 30s, and of course I went through a bit of a edge-lord atheist phase because of the Catholic Church’s history of sexual abuse was starting to get more exposure while I was in my late teens early 20s. So my generally socially liberal circles were a bit more non-religious, and when people did say they were catholic they’d be a little bit cagey about it. Early 2010s, so there was an air of ‘the old Catholic Ireland is over, welcome to progress’. Mass was for older people that we’d kind of take the piss out of.
I spent a lot of time in England and what I loved about it was just how little religion played a role in people’s lives, or at least the white English people I spent most of my time with. I felt a little embarrassed by how puritanical and uncool Ireland could be compared to England.