Cabinet ministers to speak at Christian nationalist conference

The National Secular Society has expressed alarm over plans for cabinet ministers to speak alongside anti-LGBT campaigners at a conference organised by Christian nationalists.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman MP and Communities minister Michael Gove MP will deliver keynote speeches at the National Conservativism conference (NatCon) in London next week, according to the conference website.

Other MPs and peers, including former minister Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, are also confirmed as attending as speakers.

NatCon is based on a 'Statement of Principles' which asserts "public life should be rooted in Christianity" where a "Christian majority" exists.

The Statement of Principles adds that no nation "can long endure without humility and gratitude before God and fear of his judgment" and that for millennia "the Bible has been our surest guide" to "public morals" and "political traditions". Christianity's "moral vision", it says, should be "honoured by the state and other institutions both public and private".

It also appears to reject same-sex relationships, stating "the traditional family" is built around a "bond between a man and a woman" and is "the source of society's virtues".

The Statement of Principles embodies many characteristics of Christian nationalism. The Christian nationalist movement in the US, which saw a rise during the Trump administration, holds that the US is meant to be a Christian nation. Christian nationalist campaigners have been linked to the revocation of the right to an abortion and the January 2021 attack on the Capitol.

The conference is organised by the Edmund Burke Foundation, a US group with the aim of "strengthening the principles of national conservatism in Western and other democratic countries".

Same sex marriage is "a really bad social experiment"

Speakers at this year's conference include Kevin Roberts, head of the right-wing US think tank The Heritage Foundation. In an interview with the New York Post, Roberts set out his desire to repeal the constitutional right to same-sex marriage in the US: "We would like to see a court case go up to the Supreme Court and completely tear out, root and branch, Obergefell."

Asked if that would mean existing same-sex marriages would have to be annulled, Roberts replied: "I hope so. That would be good for civil society". He described same-sex marriage as "a really bad social experiment that we're only beginning to see the rotten fruit of" and claimed the effects of children raised in such families are "negative."

Christian group "has contended that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in paedophilia"

Lois McLatchie, spokesperson of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) UK, a Christian activism group will also be in attendance. ADF-UK is an 2018 offshoot of the US based ADF, which according to the Southern Poverty Law Center has "supported the recriminalisation of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has contended that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in paedophilia; and claims that a 'homosexual agenda' will destroy Christianity and society."

ADF also seeks to "recover the robust Christendomic theology of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries".

An investigation by openDemocracy found ADF had spent more than £410,000 in the UK between 2017 and 2019.

Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who said the 2020 US election was "stolen", will also speak.

Previous speakers: Tucker Carlson and Josh Hawley

Previous conference speakers include former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson, who once described Iraqis as "semi-literate primitive monkeys" and has said immigrants make the US "dirtier". Senator Josh Hawley, who raised objections to certifying the electoral college count in the 2020 US election, has also spoken at NatCon.

NSS: 'Ministers should think carefully about sharing a stage with virulent homophobes'

NSS campaigns officer Alejandro Sanchez said: "It is alarming to see ministers headlining a conference to promote Christian nationalism.

"As we've seen from its rise in the US, Christian nationalism is corrosive to the principles of secular democracy. It puts theology at the heart of policy-making, making those of other religions and beliefs second-class citizens and stripping LGBT people of basic rights.

"We should be working to disentangle church from state in the UK to guarantee equality for all citizens of every religion or belief. Politicians aligning themselves with Christian nationalists will further entrench Christian privilege in our state, as well as putting the rights of LGBT people, women and non-Christians at risk.

"The government should think carefully about whether it wishes to lend this conference credibility by having senior cabinet ministers in attendance."