THIS week I have listened to the most racist speech I have ever heard from a Christian minister in Britain. 

As of yesterday, a talk by Canon Phil Harris had been viewed more than 1.8 million times on YouTube. On various social media sites, it has received a string of approving comments from far-right viewers, some of them identifying themselves as Christians. 

To be clear: Phil Harris belongs to a breakaway Anglican grouping. He is not ordained in the Church of England or any other major Christian denomination. While I am often critical of the Church of England’s leaders, Harris’s catalogue of misleading myths and unsubstantiated allegations is on a different level. 

Tapping into the crudest anti-migrant tropes, Harris declares that Britain has been “overrun” by “people who share different values and who seek to subdue us.” By “us” I’m guessing he means white British people who share his own values (and I am speaking as a white British person who definitely does not share Harris’s values). 

Harris expresses his alarm at various recent murders committed (or allegedly committed) by migrants and people of colour, including the horrific stabbing of children in Southport. 

He refers to a woman “beaten to death by two Somali immigrants while walking her dog.” In fact the police have stated that Somali migrants are not suspected of this horrible murder. It is a baseless claim spread online by the likes of Tommy Robinson. 

Harris engages in blatant dog-whistling when he says that “knife murders and knife crime are out of control and they are normally committed by a certain demographic.” 

Perhaps he thinks that he will not be considered racist if he says “certain demographic” rather than “black people” — even though his meaning is obvious to his supporters. 

The majority of British Christians will thankfully reject such out-and-out racism. 

It is tempting to dismiss Harris and his allies as irrelevant mavericks. But the fact that his video has already received 1.8 million viewings suggests otherwise. 

Harris’s ally Calvin Robinson — a priest in the Nordic Catholic Church and former GB News presenter — has 357,000 followers on Twitter. Robinson backs calls for Islam to be banned in Britain and describes LGBT+ Pride marches as “demonic.”

Robinson has described far-right rioters as “white working-class people upset about kids being murdered.” Harris refers to them as “concerned citizens” who are really “centrists.” His much-watched video hypocritically encourages them to be peaceful, but offers not a word of criticism for their violence and physical assaults.  

As we all know, the horrendous far-right violence of recent days has not come out of nowhere but follows decades of anti-migrant and Islamophobic rhetoric from mainstream politicians and parts of the media. We have for years been encouraged to blame migrants for our problems, rather than the people who actually possess most of the world’s wealth and power. 

In reality, our livelihoods are not threatened by people who sail in refugee dinghies but by those who sail in luxury yachts. 

On the basis of “know your enemy,” we need to be aware of what the far right are saying and doing. Among other things, this means recognising that the far right have stepped up their attempts to misuse Christian language as they talk about defending “Christian Britain” from Muslims. 

Even more alarmingly, they are receiving support from a small but increasingly vocal group of far-right Christians — led by fascists in clerical collars such as Robinson and Harris. 

It is vital to realise that these views will be rejected not only by left-wing Christians but even by most centrist and right-of-centre Christians in Britain. Thankfully Robinson, Harris and their allies are nowhere near building a British version of the US Christian right. 

Indeed Christians in many places are joining in with solidarity against fascism.

The Dean of Southwark, Mark Oakley, visited Old Kent Road mosque to assure south London’s Muslims of Christians’ continuing “friendship and solidarity.” In Cardiff, church leaders addressed an anti-fascist protest. In Sunderland, clergy physically prevented far-right rioters from smashing up a graveyard to make missiles. 

As a Christian, I want Christians and church leaders to go much further in countering racism and Islamophobia, naming them for what they are and showing practical solidarity with people under attack. 

I am acutely aware that most churches need to do far more to challenge injustices such as lack of affordable housing, which the far right falsely blames on migrants rather than the unfairness of capitalism. 

People of all faiths and none can counter the far right’s claims about religion. We need to unite in resisting racism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism and all other aspects of the far right. 

If you are organising anti-fascist demos in your area, you may have already contacted local churches and Christian groups to encourage them to be involved. If you haven’t yet done so, please do! 

You might get more of an idea of which churches are most likely to be interested by looking at their websites and social media feeds. With some churches sadly reluctant to do anything that they regard as too “political,” it may be worth emphasising to them the broadly anti-fascist, anti-racist and anti-violence message behind our resistance, and the involvement of people of all faiths and none. 

One practical way of encouraging churches to take part in protests is to suggest that they could provide tea and coffee to people involved (many churches are used to large-level catering, and have the equipment for it). Or if they are near the site of your demonstration, they could allow participants to use their toilets, or to have a moment of quiet in the church when they need space from the crowds. 

The far right’s claim to be defending “Christian Britain” is a piece of nonsense that we can all counter. Rightwingers sometimes like to quote out of context a few biblical passages that appear to condemn same-sex relationships. They tend to focus considerably less on the hundreds of places in which the Bible encourages people to take the side of those who are poor and marginalised, and to welcome refugees and migrants. 

“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them,” declares Leviticus (19,33-34). “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.”

The far right is not defending a “Christian country.” Jesus did not encourage his followers to set up Christian countries but to side with the oppressed and follow the “kingdom of God” — a challenge to all the kingdoms and unjust structures that humans have created. 

Fascists do not speak for Christianity any more than they speak for Britain or for the working class. The supposedly Christian fascism of Robinson and Harris is built on the shifting sands of nationalism and prejudice. And as Jesus said, a house that’s built on sand is sure to fall. 

Symon Hill is a Baptist minister-in-training and a tutor for the Workers Educational Association. His latest book is The Peace Protestors: A history of modern-day war resistance (Pen & Sword, 2022).