Who knew that I would spend the early days of my retired life bickering with far right Christian nationalists on Twitter?

I know the site has been renamed X, but that sounds laughably James-Bond in its bad-guy-ness. But Twitter, with its suggestion of inane mutterings, somehow serves a more helpful purpose in deflating its collective ego and influence. It makes it feel less mighty than maybe Elon Musk would like to think it is.

In truth it’s both – inane and dangerous all at once. But it stays as Twitter for me. It is often (though certainly not always) a stream of bile hiding itself behind and abusing the principle of free speech. Friends told me to be wary of its ability to corrupt and distort the truth. One jokingly warned me not to disappear down some rabbit hole. If I did, she promised me, she would stage an intervention. No intervention needed – I’m unlikely to be captivated by the rhetoric of the far right and become some kind of Christian nationalist myself. No Stockholm Syndrome going on here.

Many Christian nationalists do not want a re-evaluation of our immigration policy to make it more workable for everyone, but instead see all immigrants, unless they are white and nominally Christian, as the enemy of our ‘way of life’. They want to recover whatever they think they mean by ‘Britishness’. Some (not all) would like to see women back in the home, and for the male head of the house only to have the vote. This is their way of punishing young women who voted for Mandani in the recent New York elections, though they hide their fragile egos and logic behind mangled Biblical teaching. They viciously troll those they oppose in the interest of more money or more followers – who knows, maybe both? I don’t ‘get’ Twitter well enough to make that judgement.

I could tell you a lot more of what he says about Islam, Judaism, women, gays, but it’s hard to repeat without hurting people. Anyway, he is just one of many – I am sure not all are as vile, but some are, and they seem to pick and choose when to opt for Biblical literalism and when to demand we grasp the context that best works for them. A few of them wear clerical collars. Images of the organisers of the carol service have this week been seen on Twitter too – one is wearing clerical collar and dress – (possibly AI but he cheerfully reposted it) again, I guess, with the only intent being to troll and cause gratuitous offence. But to whom? To mainstream clergy? To the ‘woke’? To the many, many faithful Christians who work lovingly in their communities all year round, and know that Christ is already in Christmas but present too for the rest of the year? Or maybe, it is God they are trolling? Who can say?

This brings me to why so many Christians have deep and sincere reservations about the ‘Putting Christ Back into Christmas’ carol service held last weekend in London to the point of opposing it completely. It seems to many that the name of Christ itself is being weaponised and used as a cudgel to attack so many decent, law-abiding and loving people. It has to be challenged.

I take seriously the Biblical charge not to be judgemental. Jesus’ hyperbolic but very real challenge to remember not to be blind to our own faults and to sort ourselves out before we condemn others, needs to be owned. In the Gospel of Matthew, he says:

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Some, possibly lots, who will have gone along to the carol service will have done so for the very best of reasons and sung those carols with sincerity. I’m glad it was meaningful for them. It’s why I support inclusion in every church and theological context – it’s not for us to judge who is worthy to walk through a church door and who isn’t, and certainly Jesus gravitated towards the seekers. But where there is grace, there must also be truth.

Jesus also said: ‘by their fruits you shall know them’. And in Galatians we are told by Paul what those fruits are: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Which if any of those qualities were evident in the organisers of that carol service, in their intention, in some of the things they said before and continue to say, or indeed in the trolling of those who challenge them or the cruelty towards those they would attack?

We are also told to make judgements about false teachings – how do we do that? I suggest we do so applying the ‘test’ of the fruits and by following the example of Jesus himself: Jesus, a Middle Eastern Jewish baby born into a poor family that had to flee across the border into Egypt to save themselves from oppression and murder. Every time and in every context Jesus stood with the oppressed, the marginalised, the outcast. Every single time. So we know Christian Nationalists have got things seriously wrong – not because they speak about immigration, but because they are not really interested in recalibrating the needs of those immigrants and minority ethnic groups in a kind and respectful way with the needs of the established population. They simply want to troll their way back to a time when our Christian heritage was dominant and Christmas was indeed white. But Jesus doesn’t dominate and he doesn’t exclude.

It seems to me that when nationalists talk about ‘putting Christ back into Christmas’ they are using the name of Jesus as a talisman, tempting people to believe that if we only went back to an earlier time, when churches were full and congregations and communities were almost exclusively white, that would be our happy place. It wouldn’t. We’re wiser now, our evolution of understanding of Biblical texts and God’s love has grown, and we can’t go back. Nor should we want to. All Christians want to see Jesus honoured at Christmas and all year round, but by focusing on his name as a sign and symbol of divine love, not using it to troll, to mock, or to stir up hatred of the other – because, at Christmas more than any other time, we learn it is with the other that God came to stand and live and love alongside.

Merry Christmas to all celebrating this season of love and hope and joy. Enjoy.