Another example of the American Christian Right intruding into England

[LeftishBrit]

(also posted on Scepticism forum)

This is a 'pro-life' conference which will be meeting in London, and is supported by a couple of British 'pro-life' groups.

http://www.clarksonacademy.org/#4

What is interesting about it is that both of the main speakers are American Christian-Righties, and one of them is a former Republican state legislator from Pennsylvania.

[cbayer]

1. My understanding is that fundamentalist groups are growing rapidly in the UK.

Do you have a sense of why that might be?

I have wondered if it is some kind of anti-Muslim backlash, but I could be way off on that.

As for the US religious righties participating, that's not surprising. I think they've recruited just about every one they can over here and are looking for new ground.

[Promethean]

2. The UK is having a smaller but similar phenomenon to that of the US

Religion is on the decline. The religious recognize it but cannot acknowledge it, even in their own minds, because God is perfect and would never let such a thing happen. So the religious get louder and shriller as their relative size shrinks more and more.

[cbayer]

3. Just looked at some stats.

While Christians had a notable decline between 2001 and 2011, all other religions showed increases and the growth on "no religion" increased pretty dramatically, similar as it did in the US.

Snark aside, this seems to mirror what is happening in the US.

What I couldn't find was some better breakdown of "christian" and I was curious as to whether there was a rise in fundamentalists.

[LeftishBrit]

4. I don't think there's a rise in fundamentalism as such

And in many ways, public life is much less influenced by religion than in the past; e.g. many shops are open on Sundays, which was not the case 30 years ago.

I do, however, have the impression that the political 'pro-life' movement is more active than in the past. Or maybe I'm just more aware of it. I suddenly remember that when I was a university student in the 1980s, a friend told me about a philosophy lecturer who used his course as a means of campaigning against abortion - showing the student foetuses at various stages in development, and asking them 'how can you say this is not a person?'. So perhaps 'twas ever thus. However, I do think that collaboration between British and American right-wingers has increased, partly just because the internet makes it easier.


Anti-Muslim attitudes may contribute a bit - certainly the Christian Concern meetings included attacks on Islam; but I'd say that in the UK, Islamophobia is mostly secondary to general immigrant-phobia, and that strongly Islamophobic types are more likely to join ultra-nationalist movements, such as the BNP, EDL or at best UKIP, rather than fundie movements,

[cbayer]

5. Thanks for that information, LB.

Just as an aside, I remember all the blue laws in New England that were holdovers from England. They used to cover the beer in the grocery stores on Sundays.

It's the collaboration that I've seen more stories about. The US religious right have been taking their show on the road. What some are doing in Africa is the most despicable, imo.

My husband is in touch with some friends in the UK who have become rather rabidly anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim in particular. But, you are right, they are not religious people.

It seems that the UK absorbed immigrants from Asia, and from India in particular, pretty well. What was the difference?

[LeftishBrit]

6. Actually the UK has always shown a significant hostility to immigrants

For attitudes to Indian and Ugandan Asian immigrants in the 60s - you can look up the late Tory politician Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech.

As regards the Far Right, the earlier precursors of the BNP, such as the National Front, were if possible even worse than the current version.

On the whole, immigrant groups that were more middle-class and educated in their countries of origin have tended to do better in the UK than those that were poorer - even when the former had to take a drop in status at the time of immigration. Thus, Indians and Ugandan Asians have tended to do well in the long run (nowadays children from these backgrounds consistently outperform white English children in school exams); and Chinese best of all.

But prejudice has a long history here.

[cbayer]

7. I traveled Europe at a young age and found that the further north i went, the less tolerant

and diverse the populations became.

Needless to say, I had a much better time in the south.

I plan to visit the UK next year, though. It will be the first time going there with my British husband, so should be quite a different experience.