'Christ has always been in Christmas': clumsy partisanship or confident proclamation?

'Christ has always been in Christmas.' So says a new campaign by the Church of England. 

Reassuring, isn't it? The established Church has decided to confidently challenge the prevailing secularist presentation of Christmas as a midwinter commercial festival, 'liberated' from its unfortunate Christian roots, repackaged in a manner that conforms to the norms of ideological multiculturalism and EDI concerns.

Except, of course, that this is not at all the intention behind the Church of England campaign. 'Christ has always been in Christmas' is not directed at secularism. It is, rather, directed at the disreputable anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson and - that new spectre haunting the Church of England hierarchy - 'Christian Nationalism' (a desperately confused concept with little real meaning in the United Kingdom and Europe). 

Odd, isn't it, that the Church of England has found its voice now. After decades of cold, haughty aloofness to cultural concerns that Christmas in the public realm was being emptied of Christian meaning, the Church of England now discovers that 'Christ has always been in Christmas'. It would, after all, have been very impolite to challenge progressive opinion with the notion that 'Christ has always been in Christmas': that would have been deemed as rather gauche. But challenging Tommy Robinson and the anti-immigration crowd is different. Progressive opinion cannot regard this as an expression of the backward-looking 'forces of conservatism', desiring to restore the Christmas of the 1950s.

There is nothing remotely meaningful about this Church of England campaign. It is merely reaffirming progressive norms, nothing more. 'Christ has always been in Christmas' is, one assumes, intended to deny that there has been a cultural remaking of Christmas, or any removal or dilution of much Christian content. It blithely ignores how some local government authorities, public services, and statutory bodies have done exactly this. Christ has not always been in Christmas in the public realm in the United Kingdom in recent decades. And the established Church failed to challenge this with the proclamation that 'Christ has always been in Christmas'.

It is also rather revealing that the this slogan is followed by a bland question, 'Where will you find Him?', rather than giving the needed answer: 'Find Him in your local church'. Perhaps this would be judged too uncomfortably exclusivist for those who have designed the campaign. 

As for the other slogan associated with the campaign, 'Outsiders welcome', it is no less meaningless. What the campaign intends by these words has been indicated by Bishop Arun Arora, the Church of England's co-lead bishop on racial justice:

we reaffirm our commitment to stand alongside others in working for an asylum system that is fair, compassionate, and rooted in the dignity of being human.

There is, of course, no recognition of the fact that Europe's fair, compassionate asylum system was torn apart and ripped up by then Chancellor Merkel's utterly reckless decision in 2015 to abandon all checks and balances, allowing 1.1 million asylum seekers to enter Germany. There is no recognition of the fact that democratic consent across Europe was neither sought nor given for such an act. Nor is there recognition of the widespread democratic concerns regarding abuse of the asylum system. 

No, because 'Outsiders welcome': a facile affirmation of progressive opinion on the immigration debate, nothing more.

We might also note that the 'outsiders' in question do not include those communities across the UK abandoned by successive governments to welfare dependency and communal disintegration; they do not include the thousands of victims of grooming gangs, abandoned by local government and police forces; they do not include those working class communities with deep concerns about levels of immigration. 

According to Bishop Arora, "we must confront and resist the capture of Christian language and symbols by populist forces seeking to exploit the faith for their own political ends" - said while introducing a campaign which uses Christian language and symbols to support progressive political ends. It is, in other words, characteristic of the refusal of the Church of England to think meaningfully about the relationship of place and national identity to Christianity. The shameful result of this is to allow a cynical political actor like Tommy Robinson - with a history of neo-fascist involvement, a criminal record, and who promotes prejudice against our Muslim fellow-subjects of the Crown  - to pose as the voice of conservative cultural concerns regarding Christmas. This is what the Church of England campaign achieves.

Precisely because the campaign is defined by progressive assumptions and prejudices, it also miserably fails to reflect the fantastic work done by Church of England parishes and cathedrals at Christmas. The packed carol services, the worldwide audience for Carols from Kings, large congregations at Midnight Mass, the Crib services for families: this is what the established Church is about at Christmas. This is what truly proclaims that 'Christ has always been in Christmas' - not a clumsy, ill-considered, partisan campaign.

At a time of intensified persecution of Christians in various regions across the globe, the Church of England should have a concern for an asylum policy which gives refuge to fellow Christians fleeing persecution. But this is quite different from merely parroting progressive assumptions on immigration. And, yes, using Christmas to support a nativist agenda does need to be challenged, for we celebrate the Lord's Nativity in communion with Arab, African, and Asian brothers and sisters in Christ, whose costly discipleship should inspire us. This is entirely compatible with the established Church challenging secularist attempts to deny that 'Christ has always been in Christmas': indeed, it is surely a necessary aspect of a confident public proclamation of Christmas. It is right that the public realm and our common culture acknowledges and celebrates the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Any embarrassment about this on the part of the Church of England undermines its public witness.

'Christ has always been in Christmas' - yes, He is. So sing the carols, rejoice in the Nativity displays, bring your children to the Crib services, receive Him in the Sacrament at Christmas - for the Saviour is born. This should be the focus of the Church of England as Christmas approaches. Instead, there is a clumsy, predictably partisan campaign whose only result will be to draw attention to a disreputable political agitator, while also further convincing those who broadly share the views of cultural conservatives (at least half the country) that their concerns are entirely alien to the established Church.