2023: Nice Will Not Cut It

I trust you are doing well and rejoicing in God’s grace and mercy and the joy that was ours as we celebrated Christmas.

There are numerous articles about the year 2022 and who “we’ve lost” due to death. Clearly the most famous was Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning Monarch of Great Britain. I have no idea whether she was a believer, but from what I’ve read, I tend to believe she was. She was a truly remarkable woman and Queen who in the midst of tremendous pressure, did not waver. Her son, King Charles III, is not as committed. Like many, he wants to make everyone happy.

Earlier this week, I read an interesting article where Gavin Ashenden, who served as chaplain to the queen from 2008 to 2017, warned that King Charles III was going to destroy his own house and end the British monarchy because of “multifaith and multiculturalism.” Ashenden said; “I think that if this slow movement into multiculturalism and multifaith goes on, we’ll lose the monarchy because in the end, I don’t think it will be true to itself,”

“The problem is that it’s a bit like watching a wonderful ship that’s hulled beneath the waterline slowly sink, and at some point what you want to do is to stop it sinking and make sure that it floats,” Ashenden said. “And I don’t think the monarchy can float if it becomes a multicultural, multifaith monarchy.” Ashenden said that British subjects have witnessed “a very slow, gradual shift from being a Christian monarchy to a multifaith one.”

“The problem is that you’re either defender of the faith or you’re not,” he said, referencing the oath the British Monarch takes to defend the Protestant religion.

Ashenden quit his chaplaincy position in 2017 after condemning recitations of the Koran during an Epiphany service at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow. Ashenden noted how Christianity is increasingly being pushed out of the public square because of its exclusive claims amid a “serious competition for power.”

“So, the problem that we’re having at the moment is that Christianity is under assault,” Ashenden said. “Now the question is, what does a Christian king do about that? Does a Christian king save Christianity? Does he become defender of the faith, which is what his title really is? Or, as Charles has done with a sleight-of-hand, say, ‘No, I’m … defender of all faiths, which means I don’t have to defend Christianity.”

“The problem we face is a serious conflict of values, and there can’t be a solution by just saying, ‘Do you know what? All the values are the same, let’s pretend everything is nice,'” the former chaplain said. “I don’t think nice will cut it.”

Please understand that I’m not here to promote or defend the church of England. But what the former chaplain says is “spot on!” The war on Christian values and our faith will not improve in 2023. I believe it will only intensify.