Agents of Rome?
This is a guest post by Seismic Shock
The BNP’s Robert West runs the Christian Council of Britain, which appears to be a Protestant group. Recently Rev West and the BNP have tried a new tactic to win votes in Norfolk:interrupting a service at St. Faith’s Church.
According to the BNP’s Dave Fleming:
“The Church in general is drifting away from Christianity…and the service at St Faith’s was amateur theatre and lacklustre. We sang some nice hymns, but rousing hymns are not enough to electrify the service. The scripture has to be illustrated and has to come from the heart. The Holy Spirit must move within the congregation. I did not feel any of that in church.”
The BNP is trying to win votes for the upcoming Euro elections amongst British Christians, and has tried to play off anti-Catholic attitudes. The BNP’s Colin Farquhar has previously suggested that the EU is a Catholic plot to destroy the British and Protestant faith, whilst claiming that the Archbishop of Canterbury is merely an ‘agent of Rome’, and saying of ecumenism:
“In my youth .. union with other denominations was inconceivable … Yet the process of ecumenism is centuries old and no surprise to the Roman church, for this baby was conceived in the Vatican. It is part of the Jesuit Counter-Reformation plot to cause the downfall of the Protestant church and to bring the whole world under the domain of the Pope. For the Reformation was such a deadly blow to the apostate ‘Mother Church’ of Rome”
So let’s say there was a political party in Europe, claiming to represent strong Catholic values, that intimidated its nations’ Protestants? What would you imagine the reaction of the BNP to be? Outrage? Protests? A strongly worded statement?
Surely the BNP wouldn’t want to be associated with such people?
Yet the BNP does have ties to the Italian neo-fascist movement Forza Nuova, which was founded by Roberto Fiore. Fiore was a suspect in the Bologna Massacre and was involved in theTerza Posizione Movement. He was also instrumental in setting up the International Third Position alongside Nick Griffin, and runs a language school with links to Griffin’s parents. Fiore also introduced Christian Identity to the British Far Right.
The BNP is portraying itself as a party which represents Protestant British values. Yet the BNP is associated with Italian anti-Protestants. Consider Forza Nuova’s calls for “Waldensians to the stake!” in Rome in 2007.
The Waldensians are members of a religious Protestant movement that has been in Italy since the late twelfth century. Forza Nuova thus not only shamefully intimidate other ethnic and cultural groups such as Gypsies within Italy, but also other Italian religious minorities. And Forza Nuova’s own religious identity is pretty worrying.
Giulio Tam is a fascist lefebvriano priest. Tam praises the Reconquest of Spain, warns of an ‘extraordinary biological explosion’ in Italy, and argues for a stronger Catholicism to combat liberal secularism and Muslims. Giulio Tam has previously held masses by Mussolini’s grave.
He too is a member of Forza Nuova, and recently attended an international fascist rally in Milan:
And here is the BNP’s Simon Darby at the same rally alongside Roberto Fiore:
So what’s going on here?
Let’s take the BNP’s idea for second that it represents Protestant values. Surely most British Protestants, whom the BNP claim to represent, are not happy that the BNP has links to violent anti-Protestants. Does this not concern the BNP’s vicar Rev Robert West, who runs the Christian Council of Britain?
Also, the similarities between symbols used by Forza Nuova and the Christian Council of Britain might bother a few people:
Comments
| 14 May 2009, 2:51 pm |
“The British far right has always had a thing for certain aspects of the more reactionary brands of Catholicism [...]” -Richard
Have you read the article? The BNP will lose a potentially large constituency of working-class Irish Catholics if the anti-papist rhetoric of Robert West become widely known. The logo of the Christian Council of Britain, and the statue of the wingéd one holding a cross looks far more Catholic than protestant (bet it’s off a Catholic church.) Perhaps they’re just mixed up. Come back Chesterton and Belloc – at least you knew where you were with them.
| 14 May 2009, 3:08 pm |
It is one of the Weeping Angels surely?
| 14 May 2009, 3:19 pm |
Hmm, although I strongly mistrust and regard with utmost contempt the use of the term “self-hating” in the way that some people around here seem to regard as acceptable, I think it would take a hell of a lot to get anyone even remotely Irish to vote for a party with the BNP’s heritage and Weltanschaaung!
I would be v surprised if that statue isn’t off a Catholic Church: I would be even more surprised were it to be from a Catholic Church in the UK
And “economic corporatism”, Catholic? Since when?
Rerum Novarum, Quadragesimo Anno, and indeed Centesimus Annus (none of which would be works of popes regarded as being particularly “liberal” or “progressive”, thank God) would suggest not: and then there is the whole Schumacher-Belloc Servile State thrust too..
| 14 May 2009, 3:52 pm |
my enemies (jews, muslims, etc) enemies is my friend when the time suits us and we can put to one side the fact that they are also my (slightly less important) enemy ??
| 14 May 2009, 4:44 pm |
Birds of a feather……..
| 14 May 2009, 5:00 pm |
whilst claiming that the Archbishop of Canterbury is merely an ‘agent of Rome’, and saying of ecumenism:
Naah the Pope’s a Zionist. I mean, I saw him wearing a yarmulke at the wailing wall just the other day. The Ayatollah of Canterbury… well tasty geezer… he’s our man.
| 14 May 2009, 5:31 pm |
Well, it ought to prove a hit with the Orange Order members in Northern Ireland and some like-minded types in Scotland. Not sure if anti-Catholicism has much appeal elsewhere in the UK.
About British High Tories and Catholicism. Believe that Eveleyn Waugh had a charecter whose artistocratic father refused to recognize any British Monarchs since the last Catholic King, James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution of 1688!
| 14 May 2009, 5:41 pm |
I think Davis hit the nail on the head. check out the following from Searchlight, Feb. 2008:
http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=219
It seems that Griffin’s desire to build a political elite along the lines of the political soldiers overrides any ideological differences between the BNP and Third Way. Griffin’s obsession with a coming civil war or race war also shows how little his politics have changed in over 20 years.
It is worth remembering that Harrington in an interview for a television exposé of the NF political soldiers refused to condemn IRA bombings and that Griffin, Harrington and Williamson went to Libya to seek funds from a regime that armed both sides in the Northern Ireland conflict.
Griffin is still prepared to work with whomever he thinks can help him get what he wants, the more shadowy they are the better.
| 14 May 2009, 5:43 pm |
Tam praises the Reconquest of Spain,
Not wanting to appear supportive of this guy, but Spain was, afterall, under occupation by a culture and religion considered foreign.
The reconquest of Spain is pivotal to Euroe’s history. Yes it was violent and very bloody, but no more so than the initial Arab invasion.
This rollback of islam was and, to judge by the grudge Bin Laden still holds, remains one of the biggest psychological shocks the islamic world has undergone.
That said, I am an agent of Rome…
| 14 May 2009, 6:08 pm |
“I think it would take a hell of a lot to get anyone even remotely Irish to vote for a party with the BNP’s heritage and Weltanschaaung! – Venichka
Why do you think that? Sinn Fein/IRA were not *remotely* Irish, but *100%* Irish racists, and fervent admirers of adherents of a not dissimilar Weltanschauung in WWII. If the Germans were to land in Ireland they were to be treated as friends and liberators. SF/IRA referred to the nazis as allies against the British Empire. Later SF/IRA transferred their admiration for totalitarianism to communism, and a fair portion of their sympathies to down-trodden islamo-fascists. Why should other Irish people – or ‘ anyone even remotely remotely Irish’ – simply by virtue of their ancestry – be immune to the attractions of the BNP?
| 14 May 2009, 6:11 pm |
Well, here’s a point where you and the SWP and other leftists are in complete agreement.
Scare stories about the BNP and other such nutters are probably the only way New Labour will persuade anyone to vote for its corrupt expense-fiddling, second-home owning MPs.
The proletarian instinct that “they’re all the same” is fundamentally correct. Abstentionism should reach all-time highs in the forthcoming elections.
Or maybe it’s just 99.9% of politicians that give the rest a bad name?
| 14 May 2009, 7:02 pm |
Weeping Angels? Whatever you do DON’T BLINK!
| 14 May 2009, 7:17 pm |
Waugh! What is it good for?
Absolutely Nothin’
Say it again…
| 14 May 2009, 7:54 pm |
John P – Someone’s trying to wind us up! Seems the peoples of Spain and Portugal were wrong to throw off the Arab-Berber yoke. Not sure why Iberian folk aren’t allowed to dispense with oppressors.
| 14 May 2009, 8:26 pm |
Does Dan Brown know about this?
| 14 May 2009, 8:41 pm |
The angel statue in the filth party banner looks to be one of Bernini’s on the Pont Sant’ Angelo in Rome. Thus quite Catholic.
Nice shot on flicker here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/14645828@N00/109446750
| 14 May 2009, 9:25 pm |
Alan Ji: “Waugh, what is it good for?
Absolutely Nothing”
Alan Ji, you will be interested in learning about the charity,
“Waugh on Want”: Where “Dyspeptic High Tories rove the wretched places of the Earth – The Levant, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Scotland – telling the slovenly locals to shut up, leave the livestock alone, read some hardback books and restock their wine cellars with decent, but affordable claret.”
These and other worthy charities can be founds at http://alfandalf.blogspot.com/2009/04/gleanings-of-thy-harvest.html
(Hat tips to No Good Boyo and Snoopy the Goon.)
| 14 May 2009, 9:28 pm |
Whoops, misspelled the website, try:
http://alfanalf.blogspot.com/2009/04/gleanings-of-thy-harvest.html
| 14 May 2009, 10:06 pm |
Inquit:”The angel statue in the filth party banner looks to be one of Bernini’s on the Pont Sant’ Angelo in Rome.”
Well spotted. Are you Sr. Wendy in disguise?
“Thus quite Catholic.”
Haha!
| 14 May 2009, 11:47 pm |
David All @ 14 May 2009, 9:25 pm
When I wrote that about Waugh, I had an image of someone singing the song, with “Brideshead Revisited” (which I never watched) playing on a big screen behind.
| 15 May 2009, 7:54 am |
Thanks for the hat-tip, Dave All, there’s a thunderbox and a pair of puttees in the post.
| 15 May 2009, 8:17 am |
Lets face it these 2 groups compared to the the Muslim-Western Left alliance are 2 tiny nuisances…..whose politics arent nearly as odious as the majority in the Muslim-Western Left alliance. At least they love Western Civilization fergawdsake!
| 15 May 2009, 1:55 pm |
Alan Ji: That is a very funny image!
No Good Boyo: You are welcome. Looking forward to the gifts.
(I think)
The British far right has always had a thing for certain aspects of the more reactionary brands of Catholicism (its economic corporatism and opposing the 1688 glorious revolution as a Jewish-capitalist plot immediately spring to mind).