What do Christians make of the crosses at the Tommy Robinson march?

[noblegiraffe]

I'm an atheist so my reaction is 'co-opting the imagery of the Crusades because these people hate Muslims'. But it's not my religion and not my imagery.

What do Christians think about the huge amount of wooden crosses being available for protesters on the Tommy Robinson march to pick up and march with?

All they need is a tin of lighter fluid and a Clipper and they'd have the crosses how they'd actually prefer them to look.

It's astonishing how every poster on this thread is absolutely certain that every person picking up a cross is racist/ hates immigrants / KKK adjacent.

Well done for your psychic powers.

Thanks for that, I saw 'UKIP' and thought it must be a historical event as surely UKIP are long gone but no, it was a couple of months ago.

This article has more detail
https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/why-ukips-walk-with-jesus-march-is-a-cynical-manipulation-of-our-faith/21129.article

"Under the current leadership of Nick Tenconi, UKIP has moved toward what it calls crusades. The rhetoric has shifted from fishing quotas and parliamentary sovereignty to reclaiming British streets from what they describe as Islamist invaders. Their Mass Deportation Tour last summer, which saw violent clashes and arrests in Liverpool and elsewhere, revealed the reality behind the rhetoric.
In this new iteration, the cross is no longer treated as a sign of sacrificial love, but as a cultural badge - a KEEP OUT sign aimed at our Muslim neighbours and those seeking sanctuary on our shores. "

What do you think they are for?

I think it is very classist to keep deriding these people. At the end of the day, they are our British yobs for better for worse?

The Met office did an outstanding job on Saturday to reign most of this in.

As a Christian I think it is really important not to deride these people, but to show them the right path legally etc.

Given their numbers, I am no longer just comfortable with derision, nor fear of them. They are everyone’s problem to solve, for better for worse.

It is equally ridiculous that we have swatches of white middle aged women wearing the hijab in solidarity and bursting into tears on marches. Who is deriding them on MN or accusing them of cultural and religious appropriation?
I think that bandwagon is just more “right think” currently.

I think we have to be careful.
In addition, a lot of prisoners do convert and find religion. That is well documented. I am not saying Tommy aka Yaxley did (I have no idea), but I think we should not make assumptions.

My Nigerian priest makes no derisory remarks about British yobs who are marginalised. I think he understands them better than a lot of the posh COE lot.

I think it is very classist to keep deriding these people. At the end of the day, they are our British yobs for better for worse?

um, you're the one calling them yobs?

Weaponising faith, whatever faith that may be has never ended well for humanity. Happens far too easily though.

As a practising Christian I find it offensive and laughable in equal measure

OK what is a better term for the angry white underclass who feels marginalised and is lashing out? I really do not know.
@noblegiraffe - I thought you are a state school teacher so you must come across a fair share of parents from that sort of background.

I keep an open mind.

Reminds me of 'The Life of Brian'.

I've had that conversation with some of them. Apparently you don't need to attend church or be familiar with any Christian material or teachings to be a Christian. Hmm.

These people aren't Christian. They are the same people who laugh about people drowning in the channel or suggest we put sharks in it. Anyone who celebrates at someone else's tragic death isn't Christian.

I hear Ethiopia is proud of having the oldest continuous Christian tradition.

The Christians in Palestine might beg to differ, but they are a minority, so I think you are right that Ethiopia is the oldest unbroken predominately Christian country in the world. I’d love to visit one day.

I mean I guess the “flag raisers”?

Thing is white middle class privilege vs these people needs examining. I personally realised this when I inadvertently passed the September march and was clutching my pearls. Afterwards I realised it is better to not be too judgmental or fearful.
And they have the same problem in France, Germany etc, - it is just we discuss it more in the media here. What is interesting is that here the anti Government sentiment is automatically labelled “right wing” or far right. I think gillets jaune in France is seen as “anti” - but not necessarily left or right. In Germany, it is of course, automatically far right (given the Nazi history).
Fascinating here really given the Cold War.
And I only raise this because a lot of these people (and I do not mean the true racists) but the marginalised underclass were Labour heartland.

I just find all the Islamophobia very sad.. I’m not religious in any way but I have friends & colleagues, male & female, of all religions including practicing Muslims.
I find religious Muslims to be very similar to religious Christians if I’m honest - usually nice genuinely caring people with morals. (Obviously I’m not referring to ‘nationalist Christians’ here - I’ve never met any of those happily!).

My local police force has had to publish statistics about who carries out sexual offences in
my county, as certain parties have been basically lying to the public here & people do believe them.
These parties have said that 44% of these crimes locally were committed by migrants last year.
The police say that actually, 808 sexual offences were committed last year, but only 8 of those were committed by migrants.. the rest by white British locals.

Not for me to judge whether he is or not, but according to the priests who have worked with him in his faith journey, then yes it is genuine. However he has a lot of work to do as he has quite a past history as we're all aware. I listened to his short video urging people to be well-behaved and not give Starmer anything to accuse the marchers of. I can see changes but there are a lot of rough edges to smooth and as a Christian myself, it takes time. Not sure how much time the UK has, the way things are going.

As for the 'Britain is a Christian country', it certainly has been one but each new generation needs to renew that, and if they don't then we lapse into sectarianism or other faiths. We need a revival, would be good if TR was part of that.

Yes they do! When I was in my 20s I met a couple of young men from Ethiopia - both Christians with suitably Old Testament names. They were really lovely, I wonder what they did in life, this was about 40 yrs ago.

Oh no I think it would be better for everyone if Tommy Robinson just moved abroad and stayed there permanently.

He apparently found God in prison, he was released in May 2025. In September 2025 he was posting pictures for his march including one where he was standing next to a bus containing the white supremacist code for Heil Hitler.

I am not convinced he is reformed in the slightest. Grifter's gonna grift.

What do you think the chances are the guy dressed up as Richard the Lionheart on the march hates Muslims?

Diabolical. Perverse. Retrogressive and a shame.

To embrace the Cross is to embrace utmost vulnerability, humiliation, and suffering, out of pure love.

Service, not shouting.

The Cross is a promise of resurrection, which is not a trick or power trip, but a promise of new life, and the assurance that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. By what values? His kingdom's values: the greatest commandment, to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbour as yourself.

His kingdom is eternal.

Honestly then he should have the humility to step back, go into the wilderness, do some work on himself, conform himself to Christ, observe silence and the discipline of private or religious community prayer, dedicate himself to works of mercy, and let go of his political persona's mob.

The problem I have is that in my head being a Christian means being fairly socialist. A world where we love all faiths and none, whatever their skin colour. We help the poor and the sick. Charity towards fellow humans is a tenant of most faiths and God should be the only one passing judgement. Yet what we actually find is the most conservative amongst the religious are generally fairly right wing.

I know people who make cups of tea for the homeless outside the church, visit the sick, give generously to charities etc and yet have a lot of nasty things to say about Muslims or Jews. Until practising Christians, as a whole, can agree that all Abrahamic faiths are on an equivalent path to God (because it is the same God we are worshipping), and that we are all equal in God's eyes, how do we expect the disenfranchised of society to come to the same conclusion?

Individual Christians will be struggling with fallen nature and subject to social conditioning as much as anyone else. The difference is that ideally as a community they support each other in becoming more Christlike in love and service to God and hence to His beloved creation. It is never going to be that everyone thinks and behaves the same. (The Roman Catholic catechism is clear about respect for other Abrahamic faiths, btw.)