Protest and Reform are current political themes.

These terms were commonly used in the 16th-century European Reformation and by the Protestantism associated with it.

That Reform was a religious movement that continues to the present day, but modern protest and Reform are political movements, with secularism undergirding them.  Revolution can also be thrown into this mix, to describe the destabilising of Western society and politics by cultural Marxism.

We have moved from Christian Reform to inter-faith Reform and Protest. It is the latest phase in a downward trajectory.  It can be traced in the Scottish educational curriculum over several decades as it changed from Religious Observance of Christianity, to Religious Education, then to ecumenical Religious Education, to post-ecumenical Religious Education, to Religious Instruction (about other religions), to Personal and Social Education (to introduce other lifestyles aka homosexuality) to the current secular “wokism” with its gender, racial and other issues. There are now protests for reform from a variety of different groups.

Reform UK has adopted the term that was associated with the Protestant Reformation for a few hundred years.

Whether the tide will turn back towards Christianity with Reform UK is difficult to know, but it has already alienated and dismissed some of its gifted leaders like Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe.  Possibly GB News will be more effective at influencing the country for good, but it is promoting Roman Catholicism rather than Christianity and it has also dismissed a number of its presenters.

Paradigm shifts

The paradigm shift I describe above took place over several decades, so subtly and slowly that sleeping Christians in the UK made no protest, demonstrating that they are not worthy of the name Protestant.  Reform has been taken from under their nose by a political party which had a better understanding of the changing times and the dynamic forces at work.

The UK Government’s nudge unit was set up in 2010 “to influence public thinking and decision making in order to improve compliance with government policy“. Since then it has become independent of the UK Government and now has an international presence. The slow and subtle pressure brought to bear upon public opinion by ‘nudging’ is illustrated by the proverbial frog being slowly boiled in a pot of water.  So, does Reform UK have the time, far less the vision and capacity to turn the tide? 

Meanwhile, any UK government is up against the tidal pressure from international bodies like the UN, WHO, the World Economic Forum (WEF), etc.  These organisations are not accountable to the electorate yet they yield significant authority upon national governments.

The essence of Brexit and Reform UK is to bring decision-making back to our national government.  However, international bodies and wealthy individuals are doing what they can to manipulate or nudge the international direction of sovereign countries.

Digital ID

Electronic identification is part of this control freakery and it will be difficult to avoid it.  Various means and excuses are being used to nudge the citizenship into compliance.

Logging into various government departments and websites, for one’s driving licence, car tax, pension, benefits, etc. will soon lead to a centralised digital system. Already GOV.UK One Login is gathering your information into one place.

Government has a better understanding how to manipulate society into conformity, aided by the international pressure from unaccountable persons, corporations and NGOs, than the Christian church has to organise itself.

Technology and artificial intelligence are beneficial but they can be abused so that we need to beware of people abusing them than of the technology itself. We need Christian government to safeguard society, but few Christians in the UK see the need to support a Christian political party. Only politicians can change the law so it is time to have a Christian political party. Holland has two of them; we could benefit from many more.

Links:

19 Nov 2025: UK Supreme Court has ruled that Religious Education and collective worship in Northern Ireland schools ‘unlawful’. It claims that it does not comply with human rights standards and is unlawful, and the teaching of RE breaches human rights as it does not approach the subject in an “objective, critical and pluralist manner”. It states: “Schools must not place children in the impossible position of being singled out or stigmatised simply because their families do not share the religious worldview embedded in the curriculum.”

It is about time that Christians pointed out that secularism has a religious worldview and that its predominance in school is inimical to the wellbeing of Christian children in these schools.