Diverse people, various beliefs, one country. A reply to Guy Walters.

(I am aware that there is a campaign to discourage people from visiting the Daily Mail website as they can charge more for advertising the more visits they get, but it is hard to engage with the article without reading it. Read as quick as you can, over someone’s shoulder.) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2332998/One-country-religions-telling-pictures-The-pews-churches-just-yards-overcrowded-mosque.html

This is a guest blog post by my friend and housemate Leanne, who saw the Walters article via Twitter and could not help but write a reply. We are Christians who live, work and worship in Tower Hamlets, and love the people who we live alongside. We do not accept Guy Walters picture of ‘2 religions’ in Tower Hamlets, and we stand against his divisive journalism.

Over to Leanne Sedin:

There is so much about this shining example of journalism that makes me want to swear and throw things.

1. The fact that there are lots of Muslims in Tower Hamlets is not news. To anyone.

2. St Mary’s Cable St is just yards from my house. Yes it has a small congregation, but this is not the sole measure of its mark in this community. Father Peter is great. And Guy Walters would know that if he talked to him for longer than the time took them to get a quote that sounded like it proved his point.

3. You know what else is just yards from my house? St Paul’s Shadwell: my church.  A church with about 150 people in regular attendance.  If this was the only inconvenient fact to Guy Walters’ argument (it isn’t), it would be enough to make his article at best a bad case of selective research, and at worst, a blatant misrepresentation of the facts.

4. Across Tower Hamlets, there are many brilliant churches, large and small, working to make the love of Christ known in this community.  As my good friend Darren Prince just reminded me: this article might seem devastating if the ‘success’ of the Church was measured by what happens within the confines of church walls on Sundays. It isn’t: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2013:18-21&version=NIV.

5. You know what ISN’T “just yards” from St Mary’s Cable St?  The Brune St Estate mosque.  It is, in fact, nearly 2000 yards, as the crow flies (and yes I did look that up onhttp://www.freemaptools.com/distance-between-uk-postcodes.htm), which might be better described as “about a mile”.  But that sounds a bit further doesn’t it.  Actually, there are several mosques that ARE “just yards” from St Mary’s, but these have much more modest numbers of worshippers. Shame.

6. Bad journalism and a poor understanding of Christian theology aside, the thing that annoys me most about this article is its not-very-veiled subtext: “Argh! The UK is being over-run by Muslims! Run for your lives!”  I appreciate your concern, Daily Mail, but we don’t need your help.  Your scaremongering serves no purpose other than to encourage people to hate other people and to shout at them from a distance.  I can get quite enough of that by visiting the EDL website, thank you very much.

Seeing as the Daily Mail is so concerned with the teachings of Christ governing our thoughts and deeds all of a sudden, they might want to take this to heart: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%2012:28-31&version=NIV.