Just when you think the Church has no faithful leaders left who are not ashamed of the gospel, this appears. It reminds us not to despair like Elijah did in his days of persecution by Ahab and Jezebel, when he feared he was the only faithful Israelite left (he wasn’t—see 1 Kings 18-19 for the whole story). I don’t know the man but this bishop gets it. He gets the real stakes involved. He is not ashamed of the gospel, Christ be thanked and praised. Would that all Christ’s people, his Body, be as bold for the gospel and for their Savior. After all, we owe him everything, especially our lives. Thank you, Bishop. God bless, protect, and defend you. For those with ears to hear, listen and understand.

There was a time when the Church feared heresy.
Now she fears headlines.

There was a time when journalists distrusted power.
Now they manufacture it, curate it, and weaponise it.

And in this strange new age, the faithful Christian — the man or woman who simply believes what the Church has always believed — is treated not as a citizen, not even as a misguided relic, but as a threat.

Let us dispense with the euphemisms.

This is not misunderstanding.
This is not nuance.
This is not complex social evolution.

It is a coordinated cultural assault — carried out through language, through shame, through institutional intimidation — against those who refuse to bow to the gods of the age.

If you affirm biblical marriage, you are “far-right.”
If you defend unborn life, you are “extreme.”
If you confess that Christ is the only way to salvation, you are a “Christian nationalist.”

And if you dare to say that male and female are not social constructs but gifts of creation, you are treated as though you are morally unfit for public life.

The accusation is no longer theological.

It is existential.

The Weaponisation of Labels

Words have become bullets.

“Far-right.”
“Nationalist.”
“Extremist.”
“Bigot.”

These are not analytical categories. They are reputational assassination tools.

The term “Christian nationalism,” once a sociological descriptor in academic literature (see Whitehead & Perry, Taking America Back for God, Oxford University Press, 2020), has been inflated into a universal slur. In Britain — where no serious movement exists to establish a theocracy — the label is deployed against anyone who refuses to dilute Christian moral teaching.

It is lazy.
It is dishonest.
And it is deliberate.

Major outlets such as BBC and The Guardian routinely frame orthodox Christian conviction through a political extremism lens. Peaceful pro-life vigils are described as culture war flashpoints. Parents questioning gender ideology in schools are cast as agitators influenced by shadowy right-wing networks.

The narrative move is subtle but devastating.

It shifts the question from:
“Is this true?”

To:
“Is this dangerous?”

Once you achieve that shift, debate is over. Suppression becomes a civic virtue.

And the cowardly applaud.

The Church’s Rotting Spine

But if the media’s hostility were the only problem, the Church could withstand it.

The deeper wound is internal.

Within sectors of the Church of England and other Western denominations, there has been a slow-motion collapse of theological courage. Not pastoral sensitivity. Not thoughtful engagement. Collapse.

When bishops rush to clarify that they “do not share the views” of orthodox Christians — as though fidelity to Scripture requires a public disclaimer — something has decayed.

When clergy distance themselves from believers who hold historic doctrine because they fear reputational contamination, they reveal not compassion but cowardice.

The early Church faced lions.

This Church fears journalists.

The martyrs were accused of treason, cannibalism, and hatred of humanity (Tacitus, Annals 15.44). They did not issue press releases apologising for the Apostles’ Creed.

Now we see leaders scrambling to signal alignment with cultural orthodoxy lest they be accused of harbouring the wrong kind of Christian.

It is not persecution that weakens the Church.

It is appeasement.

And appeasement never satisfies an ideology that seeks surrender.

Ask history.

The Civic Religion of Woke Conformity

Let us stop pretending that this is neutral secularism.

What has emerged in the West is a civic religion.

It has its doctrine (identity absolutism).
Its original sin (privilege).
Its ritual confessions (allyship statements).
Its catechisms (diversity training modules).
Its heresy tribunals (HR investigations).
Its excommunications (deplatforming).

Sociologist Musa al-Gharbi, in We Have Never Been Woke (Princeton University Press, 2024), documents how elite institutions enforce moral consensus not through persuasion but through reputational and professional penalties.

That is not liberal pluralism.

It is moral authoritarianism dressed in inclusive language.

You may privately believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.

But if you speak it publicly, teach it, organise around it, or build institutions upon it, you will be disciplined — not by law perhaps, but by career threat, by public shaming, by professional isolation.

And the Church, in many quarters, has chosen to cooperate with this enforcement rather than resist it.

Because survival has replaced fidelity as the highest good.

Read it all.