I missed the King's speech this Christmas - after all, it was delivered at 2am in Australia! And then I read the reviews before I actually watched it on YouTube. Some commentators were ecstatic. Damian Thompson of the Spectator’s Holy Smoke podcast was one such: “The King’s speech was beyond reproach – a perfect balance between his Christian faith, emphasising the significance of meeting Pope Leo, and his warm relationship with other communities.”
Fraser Nelson called it “an important and even daring contribution to a vital debate”. In this article I want to interact with both the speech and Fraser’s article, which to my mind has been the most thoughtful and stimulating of all the responses.
Having commented on the previous two Kings Christmas messages in 2023 and in 2024, I wondered if this was third time lucky. Maybe the King after a year of facing illness had had time to reflect further on what Christ really taught?
So, I listened and sadly it was the old moralist, therapeutic deism which came across. As regular as Wizzard’s “I wish it could be Christmas every day”, the King’s speech repeats the same narrative every year.
Moralism
“Courage and service are the values which have shaped our country and the Commonwealth.”
“It seems to me that we need to cherish the values of compassion and reconciliation; the way our Lord lived and died.”
All this was backed up by various photo ops of different members of the Royal Family doing good – serving meals, visiting hospitals etc.
Diversity
“In this, with the great diversity of our communities, we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong.”
This was a repeat of his 2024 message where he stated that “diversity of culture, ethnicity and faith provides strength not weakness”.
Inter Faith
“To this day, in times of uncertainty, these ways of living are treasured by all the great faiths and provide us with deep wells of hope”
“As I meet people of different faiths, I find it enormously encouraging to hear how much we have in common; a shared longing for peace and a deep respect for all life. If we can find time in our journey through life to think on these virtues we can all make the future more hopeful.”
If only we have these then we will have peace on earth.
“That prayer for peace and reconciliation – for ‘doing to others as we would have them do to us’ – which rang out over the fields near Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago, still reverberates from there and around the world today.”
The King’s ‘gospel’ is one that is shared by many – including Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London who in his Christmas message offered us this pearl of wisdom: “No matter our religion. Jesus’ story offers lessons to us all … to open our hearts and doors to those who are different from us.”
Fraser Nelson goes on to observe that “so many who wade into this territory are ignorant about all religion. The King is not.”
But is this true? What is wrong with what the King said? The trouble is that while it fits the doctrines of the new State religion, it is way out of step with the religion of the One whose birth we were supposed to be celebrating. It is not that there is nothing Christian in it, but rather that it is a ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ version of Christ’s teaching. But as a wise man (Augustine) once said: “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”
So, what does Christ say about this new State religion?
Moralism
Jesus did not come to show us how to be good, compassionate and kind – though he was. He taught that there is no one that is good, no not one (Mark 10:18). A reliance on the innate inner goodness of people is the very opposite of what Jesus taught. He didn’t come to die for good people; he came to die for sinners.
Simply stating that Jesus showed us and told us how to be courageous and serve others is a million miles from the actual Gospel. Christ taught that we couldn’t even see the kingdom of God – let alone serve in it – unless we were born again (John 3).
Fraser Nelson stated that the King defined faith as not being “about tribal identity. It is about how we live together.” That’s not faith. That’s moralism. Faith in Christ should indeed change our relationships but sometimes, it causes division: Jesus says, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but division” (Luke 12:51). As I pointed out in this earlier CT article, Jesus is more divisive than Tommy Robinson.
I am fascinated by how intelligent people just don’t seem to get the Gospel or the message of Jesus, while at the same time proclaiming they agree with it. Moralistic therapeutic deism is the religion of the governing classes – as it always has been. It permits virtue signalling, moral superiority and a kind of nice Pharisaism. This message is constantly reinforced in schools, many churches and the media.
Diversity
Jesus reached out to all kinds of people. He came for all the peoples and nations of the world. But the fact that the church is diverse and for the whole world is very different from the diversity preached by the King and the mayor. The peace that the angels sing about is for those ‘on whom God’s favour rests’.
Jesus taught that one day he will separate the sheep from the goats – the former heading to heaven and the latter heading towards eternal punishment (Matthew 25:31-46). Jesus did not come to tell us all to be nice and he would accept us all no matter what we do, who we are, or what religion we follow. He came to change and transform us, not just make us nicer.
As regards the buzzword of diversity, the King needs to remember that people who live in palaces shouldn’t throw stones at those who don’t have that privilege and are worried about housing, schooling and healthcare – as well as losing their country.
Diversity is wonderful but it only works if there is a common set of values. The UK had those from Christianity. In the past, on the whole, when people came from other countries, they accepted the social contract based on those values. Then the woke left and the progressives destroyed that foundation and under the guise of 'diversity' imported large groups of people with different values. As a result, diversity has become our weakness, not our strength. The King should be aware that his beloved doctrine of ‘diversity’ is now tearing his kingdom apart.
The real diversity that I have seen displayed in many churches is where people come together on the basis of a common faith in Christ – whatever their class, race, gender or societal status. It is Christ who breaks down the dividing wall of partition. Without him there will be no fundamental unity with diversity.
Interfaith
According to Fraser Nelson’s report “inter-faith tolerance, he says, is a fundamental part of Christianity”. All of us are for ‘tolerance’, but what is meant by “inter-faith tolerance”? If the King just means that we should have freedom of religion and people should be free to worship as they see fit in a pluralistic society, then most of us are not going to disagree with that. But he is moving beyond tolerance to a kind of spiritual smorgasbord where each religion is essentially the same.
As the Catholic Herald pointed out in its 2023 response to the King's speech: “multi-faith observance is not Christianity. The shibboleths of multi-culturalism are not Christianity.” Islam teaches that Jesus Christ is not the Son of God and that he did not die on the cross. It undermines the very heart of Christianity. In fact, if King Charles really believes that Jesus is the Son of God then Islam teaches that he has committed the serious sin of shirk and that he will therefore go to Hell unless he repents from this basic Anglican (and Christian) doctrine. The King seems to be profoundly ignorant both about Christian and Islamic theology.
Perhaps the most astounding response of Fraser’s column was his belief that, “Both King and Pope are showing a kind of bravery that is easily missed because it is so quiet. It would be simpler, in these heated times, to retreat into cliché or avoid the controversial stuff.”
Yet the King’s speech was so full of cliché that it read as though it had been written by AI. Before I heard the speech, I wrote down my King’s speech bingo card. I got all the subjects he would speak about – only his refraining from mentioning his own health kept me from having a full house! In that regard, whatever his views, all Christians should pray for the King, that he may fully recover and enjoy good health.
Nonetheless, there was no bravery in his speech. He repeated the values of his class and the clichés of his mentors. Speaking of class, there is a kind of snobbery that comes across in Fraser’s report. Contrasting the King's speech with the Tommy Robinson carol service, he noted that “Actual priests and vicars (as opposed to the Speakers’ Corner nutters that Robinson rounded up) will tell the story of the Samaritans”.
But here is my problem: I don’t know enough to dismiss all the speakers at the Robinson carol service as “nutters”, but I do know that many “actual priests and vicars” will be people who deny the Gospel at Christmas. If you contrast the message from the King with the message from Robinson’s carol service, I notice that the latter, while being a bit rough and unpolished, had a sincerity, reality and above all faithfulness to the Gospel that was missing from the King’s.
Whereas the King taught us that we are all good and just need to get on with one another, Robinson admitted he was a sinner and needed to know Christ. Imagine if King Charles had publicly repented for his adultery and treatment of his former wife? That would have been revolutionary! Not for the first time the poor seem to get the message of King Jesus a whole lot better than the rich.
The Christmas special of the wonderful “All Creatures Great and Small” told us that “Christmas is about finding love wherever we can”.
But what is love? The new State religion tells us that ‘love is love’ – the ultimate in meaningless memes. The Christmas message tells us that God is love, but what does that mean? I can put it no better than Jesus himself. If the King (or any one of his subjects) wants to be saved then they need to listen to the Saviour. Perhaps all of us should reflect on this as we enter the New Year? Don’t pick ‘n’ mix. Take the Gospel, the whole Gospel, and nothing but the Gospel!
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God” (John 3:16-21).
