As we celebrated Easter, Christians in the Middle East — the birthplace of the Son of God — were enduring relentless persecution and violence. Yet, despite the extent of this continuing horror, a pervasive insecurity about our Christian heritage has weakened the response of those who should know better. Here in Britain, a fear of causing offence has fostered a troubling silence from the liberal establishment over the worldwide persecution of Christians.
A strange sense of collective guilt about the sacred roots of our ethics, pronounced among the liberal elite, is eroding age-old certainties once considered fundamental to the fabric of our shared sense of worth. This denial of the Judeo-Christian foundations of Western civilisation leads to disregard of core values that enable us to make judgments necessary to distinguish right from wrong. The consequent lack of courage among our leaders to stand firm in defending what is right, and so condemn wrongdoers, is deeply troubling. At the centre of this failure is an ingrained fear of causing offence, even when doing so is legitimised by necessity. The failure to stand against the global oppression of Christians is a shameful emblem of the liberal establishments’ moral turpitude.
Dismissing the values embedded in Christianity risks overlooking horrors that greater certainty would expose and combat. Timid acquiescence reflects a liberal establishment that has have lost the will to condemn wickedness. When G.K. Chesterton declared that "Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions”, he was highlighting just such weak, unquestioning tolerance — born from a guilt-fuelled reluctance to make judgments — which marks an evacuation from moral choices.
Meanwhile, throughout the world Christians are being persecuted. Earlier this year in the Congo, 70 Christians were found beheaded. When I raised the issue in Parliament, the Government’s response was not outrage or disgust but an expression of ‘sadness’ – no demand for justice, instead just passive lamentation. This muted response epitomises the kind of woeful tolerance of which G.K. Chesterton warned us.
Falsely dividing people into victims and victors, oppressors and oppressed, often leads to a skewed perception of Christians as “conquerors” even in the face of their persecution. This false narrative obscures reality and prevents us from addressing maltreatment with urgent compassion.
This deep insecurity about our heritage is weakening the response both to the suffering of persecuted communities abroad and to heinous injustices closer to home. The Government's recent decision to limit investigations into the grooming gangs that comprised men, largely of Pakistani origin, who preyed on young white girls, reflects the craven inaction that plagues the politics of the liberal left. The misery of victims — girls subjected to horrific abuse — has been overshadowed by a politically correct fear of offending minorities. In response, Sir Trevor Phillips was right to highlight the Government's cowardice, calling their decision "utterly shameful and obviously political". As he opined, Ministers’ hesitation is not about protecting the vulnerable but appeasing the sensitivities of specific minority groups. Shameful political expediency has succoured a monumental failure to highlight the dark reality of this scandal. A full national inquiry to uncover the full extent of this abuse, for which I have repeatedly called, is to be replaced by the mockery of partial, watered-down local investigations —putting justice out of the reach of victims.
Such inaction is not merely an absence of decision but a tacit tolerance of wrongdoing. We cannot afford to remain silent out of fear of displeasing particular groups. For to stand up for what is right demands the kind of certainty which drives readiness to face uncomfortable truths. Knowing that a deficiency of such conviction in those who could make a difference must be exposed, I will remain – for all my days in Parliament – unafraid to give a voice to those neglected or ignored by a liberal establishment infected by guilt, weakened by doubt, and enslaved by the prejudice of political correctness.