"The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don’t like that statement, but few can argue with it." – Carl Sagan
A common theme that runs throughout the USA and European political hard right is their professed belief in traditional Judeo-Christian values.
For example, Giorgia Meloni of Italy's Brothers of Italy party and Poland's Law and Justice party (PiS) are known for their Christian-conservative stances. Viktor Orban, the far-right leader of Hungary, has emphasised Christian values, and even Marine Le Pen, the hard right leader of the French National Rally party, expresses support for Christian values in order to secure Roman Catholic votes.
Across the Atlantic in America Donald Trump preaches the same doctrine and has just signed an executive order to protect Christian values and to:
“..fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.” (PBS NEWS: 07/02/25)
He is also setting up a White House Faith Office, and has pardoned Christian anti-abortion activists, some of them violent, who were convicted of breaching the law in regard to blockading abortion clinics.
The enemies of Christianity according to Trump are, secularists and atheists, Liberal politicians, anyone left wing, the LBGTQ+ community, certain media outlets, and even some of America’s own Federal Agencies. All of this religious-political paranoia conjures up dark images of The Handmaid’s Tale.
In America, and in religious mainland Europe, it makes political sense to play the Christian-values card but not so here in Britain. A massive 72% of mainland Europeans identify as Christian, while In the USA this figure is 67%. In Britain less than half the population identify as Christian while 37.2% of us confess to having no faith at all.
This fact is Nigel Farages Achilles heel.
Whatever your opinion of Nigel Farage, it is true to say he regards Donald Trump as both friend and mentor. Only seven weeks ago he said:
“The guy has got guts, the guys got balls – he stands up and fights for the right values." (uk.news.Yahoo.com: Fact Check, 20/12/24.
These "values” are traditional Judeo- Christian in origin and to be fair to Farage he has supported these values for a long time now so cannot be accused of simply jumping on the Christian values bandwagon. As long ago as 2015 he was arguing for:
"a much more muscular defence of our Christian heritage and our Christian Constitution". (Christian Today: 28/04/2015)
Seven years later he was still preaching the same message:
“My country is a Judeo-Christian country. So we’ve got to actually start standing up for our values.” (Conservative Political Action Conference on August 6th, 2022.)
He also believes that Britain is:
“… under attack!. The threat is not external! The biggest threat we face is from within. The biggest threat we face is the fifth column …that is attempting to destroy the family unit, Judeo-Christian Culture…"
These attackers include the universities and the political left, who he named, but presumably also the LBGTQ+ communities, secularists, humanists and all those “others” that Trump has also designated the “enemy” of Christianity.
To help counter this so-called “attack” on British traditional Christian values Forage has teamed up with the American based group, Alliance Defending Freedom. This is a Christian organisation described as “a hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, and as “an extreme anti-abortion Christian legacy advocacy group” by the Byline Times. (BYLINE TIMES: 29/11/24)
It remains to be seen how far down the religious rabbit hole Farage will continue to travel but if he goes too deep he is in danger of losing his way as the British people do not take kindly to being told how to behave or what to believe.
What is more, neither the Roman Catholic Church nor the Church of England have an exemplary record when it comes to morality and values - child abuse, sexual assaults, attitudes towards single mothers, cruelty to orphans and subsequent cover-ups, etc.
Only 25% of the British public in England, Scotland and Wales view the Church of England favourably and only 46.2 % of the population identified as Christian, while 37.2% of us profess no faith at all.
Given Farage’s friend and mentor Donald Trump sees atheists and non-Christians as as enemies of traditional Christian values, is Farage really expecting the British people to do the same? Is he really saying that over a third of the British population is “the enemy” simply because they do not believe in a god?
If he is then he is no better than the Islamic extremists who also view atheists as enemies and subject them to persecution, discrimination and even violence.
What the British public know, and what politicians like Farage and Trump seem not to realise, is that politics and religion are a lethal combination leading to religious dictatorship. We had that once under Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans. The British people rejected it then and they will reject it now.
