An online Modern Church panel discussion, Wednesday October 2nd, 7 to 8.30pm Youtube livestream.

How much do we, as churches, know about the Christian tropes appropriated by far-right extremists – from cross burnings going back decades, to the more recent adoption of Crusader themes by ‘lone wolf’ terrorists? What can and should we be doing to counter this cynical embrace of Christianity? How does it feel to live in the midst of racist, anti-immigrant violence, and what does deep solidarity by the whole Christian Community look like?

Christians need to engage in genuine spiritual reflection: and be both bold truth tellers – standing unashamedly for the cause of all who are marginalised – and gracious dialogue partners, instead of demonising those we disagree with. Join us for this panel to explore how churches of all denominations can discover their agency in this context, and the nuances of what that entails.

Panellists include the co-authors of the book, ‘The Church, the Far Right, and the Claim to Christianity’, SCM Press, 2024: Helen Paynter (Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence), and Maria Power (Senior Research Fellow in Human Dignity at the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice). They will be joined by Raj Bharat Patta, Methodist Minister in Stockport and author of ‘Subaltern Public Theology: Dalits and the Indian Public Sphere’. The evening will be chaired by Elaine Graham, Chair of Modern Church.

See Helen’s Blog post here and Raj’s Blog post here for a preview of that discussion.