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?

The only time I have ever seen the cross carried is at Good Friday events, and it is a solemn, quiet, reflective affair. It is carried by one person depicting Jesus. I am at a complete loss as to why people were carrying crosses at this march. Were they even blessed? If not they are just planks of wood stuck together and I am surprised they were allowed tbh as could have been easily used as a weapon.

In relation to posts about increase or not in Christian followers this does seem to be happening in New York. I am unsure what is behind it and why it is happening but it is definitely interesting and one to watch.

https://www.ncregister.com/news/the-new-catholic-hubs-manhattan-new-york

It is really odd. Like a very weird theme on an 18-30s holiday in Magaluf. Maybe this is the next best thing if you can't afford one or are too old to go without looking very obviously like a pervert.

Anyone who hates immigrants, denies support to the poor and fails to protect the weakest in society does not follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. It is horrible to see Christianity warped and misused in this way. I imagine I feel the same as people of other religions do when their faith is abused by extremists.

It’s 2026 if this lot had their way we’d go back to the 1776 and it would be awful. This lot also post AI pictures of family unit , almost always reminds me of how Germany issued posters of the family unit back in the 1930’s. . Same features, slogans include look what they took away from us, how much propaganda to convince women to go to work, be free and be allowed to have an opinion and be ruled over by the man of the house. This is a Christian country blah blah blah, All rubbish to me and I find most of them, probably never read the bible, it tells you to love your neighbours in some nice parts when it’s not describing wars and how to kill people in the OT, everything that has gone bad for us humans in history has ALMOST always come back to religion and politics. I don’t want it back and I don’t want to make England great again. I want a progressive future , not the past.

I think that the people going on these marches, posting angrily on Facebook and Twitter etc. are reacting to the very fast pace of change experienced in their communities in the past 5 years.
There has been an unprecedented amount of immigration in a short space of time, which was intentionally allowed/encouraged to keep wage inflation low after COVID. I'm not debating the rights or wrongs of this here, just stating a fact. Boris has admitted that he was pressured into doing this.
The shock of this change has led to many people wanting to "reclaim" the country, "go back to the way things were" etc. Interestingly, despite sharing pictures of the 1950s on social media and lamenting on what has been lost, I actually think most of these people would rather return to something like the mid 1990s, before the New Labour project got under way. As a Conservative reactionary who thinks things started going wrong about the mid -16th century, this makes me chuckle.
I think Christianity is seen as an anchor point for this sentiment, as most people have a vague idea that a lot of British culture/traditions have Christian roots.
Personally, I think this link will be fairly transient as the national populist movement evolves and it's goals become more defined over time. These goals will come into conflict with Christian teaching and it will be the Christianity that is dropped (you'll probably get a small amount unifying around some new breakaway Protestant movement with yet new "interpretations" of scripture, but most people won't be bothered with the theological gymnastics necessary for this).
So I suppose, as a Christian, I find it all rather interesting about what it says about our current political and cultural moment.

Well said!
What the country needs to do is listen to the reasons given for the protests. Not labelling all.
And the same for those that blame the migrants. I do not think we can blame anyone for this chaos if they have come here legally and followed all the rules. It is not there fault that Boris eased the rules, pressured or not. Is it?
Maybe we need to change the rules. Maybe we need to stop migration till the numbers are adjusted. Maybe we need to set a system like New Zealand's, which favours some particular professions, depending on what is needed in the country.
But going around with aggressive general blaming statements only leads to chaos and pain.
Paraphrasing Robinson, "we are desorganised."
We need to come together and review all this rules and laws and make them work, for the long term. We cannot blame people for the mistakes of politicians or the system itself. But, we can change it, together.

Money is not power. The UK people is the power.

Do you remember the articles about care workers recruited abroad? Paid the minimum wage, in expensive cities, left with a debt at the end of their contract?

How are they not being listened to? Or is it that they just aren't being given the simplistic answers they want to hear?

A generation ago it was bishops who spoke for Christianity. Now (in the UK at least) it's Tommy Robinson and Russell Brand. Instead of Desmond Tutu we have slebs. That truly does represent a decline in public debate and one that isn't restricted to Christianity.

Exactly. Love your neighbour as yourself!?

I think jesus would have matched with those people

It would be all making sense if the regular people in the country returned to their christian faith and refilled the churches....marching with a cross like that in an anti-immigration march....not sure what to make out of it

if this country's nation does not want to return to God, then we have just symbols in marches right?

so this just reminded me < and thank you for the thread > to go and repent on behalf of the English nation and ask God for revival....so then afterwards migration would not be a matter of religion but politics, as it is meant to be. This is my penny

but even the boats....stop the boats...is this not the duty of politicians? England is one very divided nation

No, he would have loved them, and forgiven them.
He would have tried to teach them about love, compassion etc. But, he definitely wouldn't have marched with them.
Jesus would consider racism and prejudice to be a sin.

Have you read a bible? Do you own one?Nothing about Tommy Robinson and his mob are Christ like. Jesus reserved his harshest words for religious hypocrites and those who used their 'faith' for their own ends. Using Christianity to justify hatred, racism, greed, arrogance, white supremacy and depravity is an afront to everything Jesus stood for. I say this as someone who was raised as a Christian, but struggles with religion now. I don't believe that any genuine Christian could or would actually support Tommy Robinson, it's all performative.

I'd love to have seen a brave person interview these goons holding crosses and ask them what part of what they're doing is Christ like? To have quoted some bible verses to them to expose their rank hypocrisy.

But I saw black people, Persians, Sikhs, Asians and of course white people so how can that be a racist march. I saw one black woman reporting from the march say she was more in danger of being hugged to death then anything else, so how is that prejudice. I think jesus would love that, more than calling for the death of zionists and a global.intifada but we do live in a world now that's totally upside down, where peaceful protest is now violence and hate.

What a very low bar! This discussion is about him and his followers are appropriating Christianity. What is Christ like about Tommy and his followers? Please enlighten me. To me they seem like the furthest thing from Christians.

I find it interesting how many 'British Patriots' pronounce patriot in the American rather than British way. Not very patriotic really.

The people using them would benefit from reading some of the gospels - starting perhaps with The Good Samaritan. You do not have to be a Christian to see what these people represent is the very worst of society.

Indeed.

Please do expand on this with specific references to the Bible. What is it which has led you to this conclusion? Which stories or bible verses in particular make you think that Jesus would have aligned himself with these people?

Or are you just trying to co-opt Jesus to your cause without having given it any thought?

I have a very nagging suspicion that many of the people taking part in these marches don't work or pay any taxes.

Me too, which is bizarre since Reform is unlikely to be helpful to them if they get in.

😀😂

This has to be the most judgemental comment ive ever read, all this talk about racism and prejudice, yet apparently you can tell just by looking at someone that they are claiming benefits! Wow typical mumsnet! What a cesspit of a site this is.

Why on earth would it be good for a man like Tommy Robinson, who has zero Christian qualities, to be part of a Christian revival? You want men and women who strive to live up to the word of God to do so. Not thugs who holds a Bible while telling lies and calling for hate and division.