IT seems that the leader of the Church of England is blissfully unaware of the reason for falling church attendance across this country. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, recently declared in an interview with the New Statesman that he would ‘rather be woke than asleep’. Is this a coincidence?
Welby appears to be creating more division and controversy than any of his predecessors.
The latest scheme is a Church of England fund of up to £1billion demanded by a pressure group led by descendants of enslaved Africans. This has caused uproar in churches across the country with His Grace focused primarily on satisfying the demands of what we call ‘social justice warriors’ rather than descendants of slaves.
So the Church of England congregation now has to foot the bill for the transgressions of slave owners centuries ago. But which slave owners – European or African?
Welby and the rest of the slavery-obsessed woke left appear to be embarrassingly unaware of the West Africa Squadron branch of the British Navy that ended slavery in the early to mid-19th century. Between 1807 and 1860 the Squadron seized approximately 1,600 ships and freed 150,000 Africans. In doing this, the Navy lost 1,587 men through accident or disease. What about their descendants?
And what about the Barbary pirates and their regular raids on the Cornish coast 400 years ago when they took innocent people as slaves?
Welby needs to turn his attention to the slavery happening right now. According to Statista.com, the countries with the highest slavery, as of 2021, were India, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Indonesia and Nigeria.
An article in New African magazine stated that Arab slavers were the first, and last, in modern times to ship millions of Africans out of the continent as slaves. Will Welby be demanding compensation from their descendants, many of whom live in the UK?
The whole subject of blame when it comes to slavery cannot be laid entirely at the door of the British Empire as the slave trade occurred during other empires and involved trading between both black and white slave owners.
Welby seems happy to demonise modern-day British people because of the sins of a few British people centuries ago. This does not wash. Nor does it ‘compensate’ anybody for anything that has happened since August 1833, when this country officially ended slavery by an Act of Parliament.
Welby is seeing everything through the prism of ‘woke’. Jesus was not a virtue-signaller. He was a realist. There is nothing in the Bible to suggest that Jesus taught us to punish people for the sins of their fathers – from my memory it was the exact opposite.
The Modern Slavery Act of 2015 legislates against all forms of slavery and trafficking exploitation. This is what is currently happening on the Channel coast, but His Grace is under the illusion that the ‘token’ baptism of newly arrived illegal migrant men, many of whom are devout Muslims, will solve the problems created by mass uncontrolled immigration.
He is, in my opinion, encouraging exploitation of those crossing the most dangerous stretch of water in the world. This is an outrageous display of virtue-signalling hypocrisy.
Is he not aware that modern slavery is now organised and executed by the very criminal gangs who make a living thanks to the gullible band of do-gooders who infest all levels of local and national government and public services, and the Church, including Welby himself? It is they who are behind the unsustainable levels of immigration into this country that Welby so lovingly espouses. They are laughing at him – and the rest of us!
I personally have a very small amount of African DNA, something I learned from a test a few years ago. So let’s address the subject of who pays who, starting with myself. In my case, do I pay myself ‘reparations’? How does that work? Who will be the arbitrator of who does and does not receive ‘reparations’ and by what method?
Exactly how will this scheme work? Who does Welby propose to take the money from and who is he going to give it to?
Is he also going to compensate the descendants of the West Africa Squadron for their ancestors who died freeing the slaves?
How about he asks the whole congregation – of all ethnicities – how they want the money spent. There are thousands of churches in this country in need of restoration, new roofs, new pews and other essentials. Shouldn’t that money be made available for such projects? How is this money to be apportioned?
The whole thing is deeply divisive and likely to create more disharmony than goodwill. It is horrendously offensive in that it makes victims of black people and imposes guilt on white people. This is a classic example of race-baiting and wanton divisiveness.
Jesus Christ believed in genuine equality. He loved the sinners, not the sin. Welby appears to have forgotten his catechism and is setting a dangerous and deeply offensive precedent.
It’s time the Archbishop of Canterbury adopted the teachings of the Church he represents instead of inciting bigotry and hate by dividing the people – of all colours – of this country.
I raise the question: Are Welby’s activities, wittingly or unwittingly, those of a racist?