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Meet the Christian ‘luvvie’ who wants to be Mayor of London

Meet the Christian ‘luvvie’ who wants to be Mayor of London

Last updated on: May 7, 2021 at 7:29 pm by Barry Duke

Meet the Christian ‘luvvie’ who wants to be Mayor of London 2021-05-07T19:29:59+02:00 Barry Duke

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BRITISH actor and singer Laurence Fox, above, son of evangelical thespian James Fox, has lashed out at church leaders, claiming they aren’t adequately defending the rights of Christians.

Fox, who last year established a new right-wing political party called Reclaim, has ambitions to become the next Mayor of London.

In an interview with Premier, he said it’s up to individuals whether they wear masks or sing in church.

And he said leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, have been too slow to protect freedom of worship for Christians during the pandemic:

I’m standing to be London Mayor because it’s the only bit of democracy going. Our freedoms have been so stolen and taken away from us that I think someone has to represent the side of the argument that we’re all sovereign individuals and we can make our own choices. I think it’s a dangerous trend that we’re on at the moment.

Fox has been vocal in criticising restrictions on church-going during the pandemic. On Good Friday, police shut down a church service at Balham in London for breaching Covid restrictions. That, he said, should never happen:

The only time a policeman should ever enter a church is to worship in my view, it’s not a house of man, it’s a House of God, it’s sacred ground. I am horrified by what’s happened in terms of that. And this seems to be a sort of general attack on Christianity.

I think the leadership of the church have been absolutely culpable in this. And Christians around the country and around Great Britain must be looking at the Archbishop of Canterbury going – ‘you are actually working for the other bloke at the moment’. It is appalling. And it is not how God works. You don’t need a vaccine passport to talk to God. I’m horrified by the way they’ve dealt with that.

Fox told Premier that he has a strong personal faith.

I don’t know how you would exist in this world without one. Churches need protecting and people of faith need protecting in this very secularised society that we live in.

He went on to say that there may be a case in future for churches accommodating different preferences.

As you get multi denominational churches and lots of different sorts of churches, if this situation arises again, you can have a singing church, you can have a mask wearing church. I think you probably need God on your side in situations like this, rather than to try and control the whole thing.

If you’re into the social distancing and you want to worship then there’s a church that really engages with that, that is great. And if you’re more into living your life and not living in fear, then there should be other churches for that.

After Fox announced the launch of his party last year, Nick Tyrone, writing for the Spectator, said:

Reclaim can only make the cultural divisions that we suffer at present even sharper. Secondly, I think having an actor front a new political party is a really bad plan in and of itself. No one likes luvvies sticking their noses into politics, and just because this one comes from the cultural right doesn’t make it any more appealing.

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