The Daily Telegraph headline is a sledgehammer - "Britain is no longer a Christian country and should stop acting as if it is, says judge." Many people picked up on this statement and were horrified. Typically the Telegraph feasted on this unhappiness by adding, "a major inquiry into the place of religion in modern society has provoked a furious backlash from ministers and the church of England." So what exactly was this 'major inquiry' and who commissioned it?
Enter the first lie - the 'major inquiry.'
This adopted term has a deliberate calculated gravitas and quickly leads a person to believe that it is a formal government inquiry, but it is nothing of the sort. Yet the body that formed the 'inquiry' has also made recommendations which the Telegraph and others are parading as if they are recommendations binding the government to act on them - in our best interests of course. This is all deliberate deceit and spin.
Even some basic research quickly reveals that all is not as it seems. The judge concerned is none other than Lady Butler-Sloss, who is no longer a judge, but is an elderly and highly opinionated retired judge. The same lady who was recently deemed unsuitable to lead another 'inquiry' into child abuse.
Down The Inquiry Rabbit Hole
So how did the venerable Butler-Sloss come to head this 'major inquiry'? Good question, and not easily answered without going deep into the rabbit hole. Ms Butler-Sloss was selected by her position as Chair of the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life. A government body? Not at all, but the creation of the Woolf Institute Cambridge, itself the creation of Lord Woolf, another elderly retired senior judge and professional colleague of Butler-Sloss.
Butler-Sloss is supported in her 'commission' work by other patrons including Lord Woolf himself. She is also supported by Vice Chair Dr Edward Kessler MBE who also happens to be Executive Director of the Woolf Instutute.
So appointed by her friend and colleague Woolf, Butler Sloss was tasked to lead an inquiry to:
Consider the place and role of religion and belief in contemporary Britain, and the significance of emerging trends and identities
Examine how ideas of Britishness and national identity may be inclusive of a range of religions and beliefs, and may in turn influence people's self-understanding
Explore how shared understandings of the common good may contribute to greater levels of mutual trust and collective action, and to a more harmonious society.
Make recommendations for public life and policy
Just who do these people think they are? Their arrogance is offensive.
Educating The Ignorant Public
How nice that Lord Wolf should want to do all this for us. We should also be reassured that he wants to do this from the goodness of his heart. His self created Woolf Institute is independent - or so it reassures us. It works in Britain and all over the world teaching and researching relationships between Jews, Christians and Muslims from a multi disciplinary persepective. It designs public education programmes, is pursuing knowledge and is improving public and voluntary sector services. Phew, against this gushing self praise and capability we have to ask how Jews, Christians and Muslims have been able to live together, overhwelmingly peacibly, over hundreds of years without the Woolf Institute?
But there's more. Working with Cambridge University the Woolf Institute is combining social sciences with the humanities to "strengthen the ethical framework that is needed for our political, ethical and social life."
In case you're worried that Woolf has missed something, we'll just add that buried in the Woolf Institute is the Centre for Policy and Public Education (formely the Centre for Public Education). The Centre states that it aims to "situate knowledge of religion and belief within a specific professional context." It is also providing quality practice-based, context specific and process driven training, working in partnership with the NHS, police, local government, private and Third Sector.
This mysterious little power-house is managed by Mohammed Abdul Aziz who just happens to have been advisor of the Race Religion and Community Cohesion at the Department for Communities and Local Government. So we might assume Aziz is a safe pair of hands as far as the government is concerned.
Of course there is far more to the Woolf Institute. It is linked to the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge Theological Federation, Saint Edmund's College, Studies in Jewish Christian Relations, the Cambridge Commonwealth European and International Trust and the American University, Washington DC.
From Saudi And Qatar To Soros
Alongside these departments and organisations there is also the Doha International Centre for Inter-faith Diologue in Qatar, and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for Islamic Sudies in Cambridge, which is itself backed by Alwaleed Philanthropies Saudi Arabia. Of course both Saudi Arabia and Qatar are well known for their loving support of Christianity and human rights, or perhpas not.
Follow the money is never bad advice and this proved to be the case with the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life. The website declares that aside from the Woolf Institute, and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, money is also provided by billionaire financier George Soros and his Open Society Foundation. So far so good, but when the UK Column contacted the Commission to ask how much, the door shut rather too quickly. Please send an email, they said. This we duly did, to receive a masterful piece of obfuscation in reply...
It is not relevant exactly which organisation provided how much money. There is full disclosure as to our funders. The commission was a major undertaking and the secretariat was provided by the Woolf Institute who were therefore the main backers.
So why would the Woolf institute be so shy of revealing the sources of money and the amounts? Our guess is because the monetary trail quickly leads to the hidden people, power and agendas behind this 'commission' undermining Christianity in UK.
Archbishop Welby's Foot In Both Camps
Still, we can rely on that bastion the Church of England to protect Christ's Church, can't we? Unfortunately not - please read on.
The Telegraph article ran a sub headline stating that the Butler-Sloss report had indeed "provoked a furious backlash from ministers and the Church of England". It went on to say that the "Church of England said the report was a 'sad waste' and had 'fallen captive to liberal rationalism." So far so good.
Although we might presume that the Church of England would be unhappy at having not only Christianity undermined but also its place at the heart of our Constitution, the Telegraph appeared to be less than diligent in its analysis and reporting. Having stated that whilst gathering evidence, the Butler-Sloss Commission had met key players including Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, it failed to explain that Welby was a Patron of the very Woolf Institute that had commissioned the 'sad waste' report.
Confused as to Archbishop Welby's role with a foot in both the Christian camp and the Woolf Institute which had commissioned the less than pro-Christian report, we emailed his palace office.
Dear Mr Knott
[Executive Assistant to Chief of Staff]
I would be grateful for a reply from Archbishop Welby to the following:
Context
I have been interested and disturbed to read the Daily Telegraph article "Britain is no longer a Christian Country and should stop acting as if it is" - commenting on the Butler Sloss Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life Report.
The articles states that "The Church of England said that the report was a 'sad waste' and had 'fallen captive to liberal rationalism.'
The article also states that "While gathering evidence the commissioners met key players including Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury; Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, the Home Secretary and senior executives at the BBC and Channel 4."
The Telegraph thus leads the reader to believe that the Church of England is critical of the report and that Justin Welby was an independent provider of 'evidence' to the Commission.
Questions
1. Please can Archbishop Welby explain how he can act as a Patron of the Woolf Institute which commissioned the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life, and then sit as an 'independent' giver of evidence to a report that he has helped to commission?
2. Can he also explain how he can now personally support a report which decries his own Christian faith, and which has been heavily criticised by his own church?
3. In the interests of truth and transparency, and in view of his role as a Patron of the Woolf Institute, can he also state how much money was received for the Commission from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Woolf Institute and George Soros Open Society?
Thank you for your assistance. I look forward to your guided reply under the hand of God.
Yours Sincerely
Brian Gerrish
To date there has been no reply. But knowing the wheels of Lambeth Palace move most sedately we will continue to be patient - for now at least.
Britain Is No Longer A Christian Country
So "Britain is no longer a Christian country" according to a retired judge, unknown experts from Cambridge University and unknown financial backers within the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and George Soros's Open Society Foundation. Of course Archbishop Welby didn't need any such report to know the claim is very close to the truth.
Have we heard Mr Welby shouting out to remove Satanism as an 'approved' religion for the Royal Navy? Have we heard him expose and chastise the corrupt money lenders that are the international banks who have reduced Britain to food banks and third world countries to starvation? Has he clamoured to stop the deaths of repeated unlawful wars and bombing?
Has he exposed the vile abuse of children at all levels of the political and wider establishment, within society and the church itself? Has he stood firm and defended the family, or even the unborn child against abortion for profit? Has Mr Welby nutured and protected his Christian flock against the ravenous wolves of a government that is hell bent on destroying true Christian beliefs in the teachings of Jesus Christ and the message of love, truth, honesty and courage?
The simple answer is no he has not - for the shepherds have abandoned their flocks.
