The C of E has fallen for anti-Christian theories of race

In its new report, From Lament to Action, the Church of England has decided to focus on race. Now, there is no question that racism exists within all cultures, but the Judaeo-Christian tradition has always been opposed to it. Christianity emphasises the common origin of all humans, made in God’s image, and contemporary science corroborates this moral and spiritual insight. The Church is right to set its face against racism.

Predictably, however, the C of E report urges an audit of monuments and an examination of the Church’s complicity in the slave trade. Why doesn’t it celebrate the long tradition of those Christians who devoted their lives to abolition?

The Englishwoman St Bathilda, herself a former slave, and consort of Clovis II of France, campaigned against the slave trade and for the emancipation of slaves in the 7th century. Charlemagne was opposed to slavery and, in the medieval Church, it was declared to be against divine law. In England, St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, outlawed slavery in 1102 at the Synod of Westminster. Bartolomé de Las Casas, the Dominican bishop of Chipas, Mexico, struggled for the freedom and dignity of the indigenous people of the Americas. He challenged the conquistadors and thereby initiated the discourse on human rights in Europe.

In more recent history, Anglicans like William Wilberforce and those in the Clapham Sect dedicated themselves and their resources to ending the slave trade and slavery itself. The Church Missionary Society was active in the resettlement of captives rescued from slave ships by the Royal Navy. Christianity has a glorious heritage: why not hold these saints up as examples for our conduct today? Why not stop actively seeking darkness, but look at the light?

Critical race theory (CRT), which the C of E seems to have embraced, conflates slavery and the slave trade with colonialism and the British empire.