Why is my church not protesting?

America was protesting. The world was protesting. But halfway through the week after the death of George Floyd, I was asking: Where is my church in this? How do we respond when we cannot even meet in person?

I felt strongly pulled towards joining the protesters in London, even though I was scared of the virus and getting on an underground train. I asked the church team planning group if anyone would like to create a Christian group with me to go and support the call for change. I was told that, because of Covid-19, however justified protest was, it was an insult to NHS workers risking their lives for us.

Here is the message I wrote but did not send in a church planning WhatsApp group:

‘I don’t doubt there are practical aspects of protesting during a pandemic that make it seem irresponsible. I see the danger. I see the lack of PPE. I am an anxious person. I want to stay in my bunker for the duration.

But I also see the talk of freezing NHS wages while MPs get a pay rise. I see that the majority of those NHS staff are BAME, and many are migrants who would not be allowed to work here under UK Home Secretary Priti Patel’s new criteria. I see that a paramedic was recently handcuffed while visiting a friend who lived on an estate where drug dealing occurs. He was black and that is as much research that police officer was willing to do. I see that BAME people have been more highly affected by Covid-19 and I suspect, like many, that this is for socio-economic reasons but as the government still won’t release the information, no one can get clarity on this. I see Jacob Rees-Mogg making MPs travel to parliament for voting, which puts them all at risk, then bringing forward the vote to end electronic voting so that vulnerable MPs cannot vote and cannot represent our voices.…

Commitment-Phobe is a Christian

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This is an extract from an article that was published in the July/August 2020 edition of  Reform

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