Douglas Murray says that Ashenden deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. He certainly deserves accolades for his clear thinking in a time of immense confusion in Britain, when the representatives of a group that considers that it has a divine mission to conquer and subjugate another group are invited in by that group, asked to read aloud their repudiation of its beliefs, and hailed and celebrated for doing so. This is insanity, and Ashenden represents a lone voice of reason.

More on this story. “Allowing the Koran to be read in church is wrong. It’s why I’ve resigned as Chaplain to the Queen,” by Gavin Ashenden, Premier Christianity, January 23, 2017:

Gavin Ashenden was one of many who criticised the decision of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow to invite a Muslim to read from the Koran during an Epiphany service. Now, having resigned as a chaplain to the Queen over the issue, Gavin explains why he believes a three-cornered struggle for the public space is taking place between Christianity, secularism and Islam.

Nine years ago I was appointed as a Chaplain to the Queen. Last week I resigned.

I had expected to enjoy the honour of the office for another eight years – until I was 70. I was sorry to give it up.

I resigned in order to be able to speak more freely about the struggle that Christianity is facing in our culture.

I had no idea that there were plans afoot by a Scottish Cathedral to “reach out to Muslims” by scrapping a Bible reading from their worship on the Feast of the Epiphany (when Christ’s Lordship is celebrated as the Light of the World) and replacing it with a part of the Koran that denied Jesus was the Son of God.

But when it did happen, it represented such a serious repudiation of allegiance to Christ and the Gospels, that it could not be left unchallenged.

Leaving aside what kind of Christian would be happy to bring into the Ministry of the Word a passage from the Koran used to repudiate the claims of the Gospels, it represented one more step along a road, which if the Church continues to follow, will speed up the destruction of Christianity in our country.

Seduced by relativism

We live in a period of serious ignorance about faith and religion. For the last 40 years, teachers have been relentlessly teaching that everything is relative. It has been part of an assault on the Christian claims that there are moral absolutes.

Although it started with a Greek philosopher called Protagoras (490BC) who was rubbished by Plato, it resurfaced intellectually in the 19th Century under the influence of Anthropology (look at all these valid, varied ways of doing culture – there can’t be any one truth!) and Sigmund Freud (the whole religious thing is a product of the wish-fulfilling subconscious).

Tragically, some Christians have been seduced by this relativism. Either they’ve never read Plato’s refutation of Protagoras, (do – it will stand you in good stead!) or they haven’t understood the Scriptures. What relativism does is create a false comfort zone where you never have to make a serious or sacrificial choice. Whatever you fancy most at the time is ok.

Islam is completely intransigent about its claims yet it remains largely unchallenged by secular commentators. Christianity is intransigent about its claims too, however these claims are continually challenged, resisted or watered down. Yet nothing can obscure the fact that as between Islam and Christianity, we have to choose between the claims of Jesus and the claims of Mohammed whose life is predicated on refuting the claims of Jesus.

The end of a Christian presence in the UK?

In the UK at present, there is a three-cornered struggle for the public space taking place. The protagonists are Christianity, secularism and Islam.

It seems to me that secularism continues to chip away at Christianity with its relativism and hedonism, but has discovered that Islam offers a useful leverage against the claims of Christians.

What I suspect will happen is that as Christianity retreats, compromised and confused – giving way to the relativism, Islam will turn on secularism, resist it and overwhelm it. If you haven’t read it, check out Michel Houellebecq’s brilliant recent novel Submission. In it, he charts how France falls to Islam in the next decade. Once you seen it, you’ve seen it.

We will be completely overcome as a Christian presence in our country and culture, if we allow the relativists to own the faith

We are at the early stages of this highly charged struggle. But we will be completely overcome as a Christian presence in our country and culture, if we allow the relativists to own the faith, and twist Christianity out of shape.

That was what was taking place in Glasgow cathedral under the guise of building bridges with the Islamic community. We should of course be doing exactly that – buildings bridges of trust, mutuality and understanding. But these bridges are unlikely to achieve very much in the face of Islam’s claims unless they result in Muslims being introduced to Jesus in such a way as to replace Mohammed in their affections.

The flaw in Glasgow was thinking that reading the Koran in the Eucharist was some kind of reciprocal gesture the Islamic community was signed up to. All we have to do is to ask how many mosques have read out the claims of Jesus during their Friday prayers? The answer is none. Not a single one.

This was not bridge building so much as capitulation – and capitulation in a holy place, at a holy time in a fashion that denigrated the risen Christ.

This was not bridge building so much as capitulation…