Should Boris Johnson be sent empty away?

George Pitcher is surely right to bewail the Church of England’s silence over the prospect of a Boris Johnson premiership (My battered church should take a stand on Boris Johnson, Journal, 18 June). But the central question that might hopefully be asked by church leaders would be about his suitability to lead one of the most unequal societies in the world, where the gap between rich and poor has never been more evident. The Church of England was not always so timid: 1983 saw the publication of Bishop David Sheppard’s Bias to the Poor, followed in 1985 by the Church of England’s report Faith in the City, highlighting the levels of unemployment, housing needs and dire poverty in our inner cities. The report was rubbished by some Conservative politicians, and Margaret Thatcher lamented its focus on state action. Bishop David Jenkins also denounced government actions on mine closures and spoke up for the miners’ strike.

Jesus said there should be good news for the poor and that they must be lifted up and the rich sent empty away. Boris Johnson knows what it means to be rich, picking up £120,000 for a speech and £275,000 for a weekly Daily Telegraph column in addition to his MP’s salary. Meanwhile the Trussell Trust reports a record number of people using food banks and The Children’s Society reports that one in three children in the UK live in poverty. So it is time for the bishops to ask how such a man, from such a background, who is advocating tax cuts for the well paid, can ever hope to bring about a more equal and just society. Should he in fact be sent empty away?
Rev Adrian Alker
Chair, Progressive Christianity Network Britain

• In a society largely engulfed in individualism, self-interest and greed, it is not surprising that Boris Johnson, who embodies these attributes, is by far the most popular candidate in the Tory leadership race. The focus of Christians and all others who are concerned about our society’s values should be concentrated on counteracting the values of the prevalent culture.
Ahilya Noone
Glasgow

• The Church of England, with other churches, recently prayed “Thy Kingdom come” over nine days from Ascension to Pentecost. It wasn’t a prayer for Boris Johnson. Christians find the God of Good Friday and Easter to be trustworthy. Whatever qualities Johnson has, being trustworthy is not one of them. God’s kingdom is heralded by a suffering king, not by the fear of foreigners and lies on buses.
Rev John Longuet-Higgins
Hartpury, Gloucestershire

• It’s interesting that the Church of England is being questioned over its lack of noise about Boris Johnson and that “it’s a central tenet of our Christian faith to welcome people exactly as they are”. This from a member of the established church that is exempt from the Equality Act, thereby allowing the continuance of its discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. Removal of mote from own eye, I think.
David Mason
Raithby, Lincolnshire

• No, George Pitcher, the church should not be apolitical. Have you forgotten that Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: “When people say that the Bible and politics don’t mix, I ask them what Bible they are reading.”
Rev Catherine Dyer
Salisbury

• I joined the Labour party the year I was ordained, believing there to be a synergy between the church and the party. During active ministry, I have served as Labour district councillor and chaired the policy committee of the council. My dismay at the party’s ambiguity in respect of Brexit, and the need for a clear commitment to a confirmatory vote and remain stance, forced me to vote Liberal Democrat in the European elections. After Alastair Campbell’s expulsion, I informed my constituency party with an invitation to possible expulsion. I await excommunication! It is hard to believe that socialists in the party do not perceive and advocate the benefits of EU membership. One that is rarely mentioned is that no EU country can practise capital punishment. If we leave, does that mean that capital punishment is back on the agenda, and might such be subject to a referendum?

George Pitcher asks where is the church’s critique of a possible Boris Johnson premiership? I for one would suggest that the combination of Trump, Putin and Johnson would indicate a creeping fascism not that dissimilar to that witnessed in the 1930s. The current bishop of Liverpool undertook his training placement with me as chair of Christians Against Racism and Fascism.
Canon David Jennings
Canon theologian, Leicester Cathedral

• Under pressure from Sajid Javid, Boris Johnson has “committed to commissioning an independent investigation into Islamophobia in the Conservative party” (Islamophobia inquiry, 19 June). So have all the other candidates, but Johnson is the one who matters, and the one most likely to find the investigation embarrassing.

This is not just because of his recent remarks about letterboxes and bank robbers, which he may want to dismiss as lighthearted, but because of what he wrote seriously and explicitly in the Spectator in 2005: “To any non-Muslim reader of the Koran, Islamophobia – fear of Islam – seems a natural reaction, and, indeed, exactly what that text is intended to provoke … it is the most viciously sectarian of all religions in its heartlessness towards unbelievers.”
Donald Mackinnon
Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

• Mary Brown (Letters, 15 June) asks: wouldn’t it be more honest to call Boris Johnson the “sacked foreign secretary”? No it wouldn’t, because he resigned, 47 hours after endorsing Theresa May’s Chequers plan for Brexit – when he discovered that after all he did not agree with it (although he later voted for it in parliament).

After Mrs May’s vacillation and dithering, such consistency of purpose as shown by Johnson on Brexit is just what the nation needs.
Dr David Lowry
Stoneleigh, Surrey

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