Ideological Colonialism

Affinity stands with Barnabas Fund in raising serious concerns about the October 2016 Report of Wilton Park (an executive agency of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office) entitled ‘Opportunities and Challenges: the intersection of faith and human rights of LGBTI+ persons’ which urges the reinterpretation and teaching of Scripture to make it compatible with LGBTI ideology.

Director of Affinity Graham Nicholls says, ‘The FCO should withdraw the Wilton Park report and confirm that this document does not represent UK government policy. The promotion of freedom of religion or belief around the world should be included as a major aim of UK foreign policy and all forms of this kind of intolerance of Christians, especially those from outside the UK, must be outlawed.’

The report redefines ‘tolerance’ as an acceptance of liberal Western values. It uses prejudicial language about Christians – ‘hateful’ and ‘immoral’ – and is implicitly derogatory about Christians in the global South as being incapable of correctly interpreting the Bible.

The report seems to recommend a strategy of state funding to challenge the orthodox interpretation of sacred texts. This will include employing experts to re-interpret key Bible stories and teachings. It also opens the door to possible state interference with the curricula of theological seminaries and Sunday Schools.

We support all attempts to challenge hatred and discrimination and we are against all forms of persecution of minority groups due to their belief or practices. We also warmly encourage genuine research and debate to help better understand sacred texts (in our case, the Bible).

However, this venture must not be with an agenda to challenge the presumed ‘negative interpretations’ of faith leaders of the past but rather to seek to truly understand what God is saying to us.