What on earth has Telegram, Greenbelt and Christian unity got to do with one another, one may well ask. To find the answer, at least from my sharing of my own personal perspective, then read on …

The short answer is that over this Bank Holiday weekend, from my social media feeds (principally Facebook and Telegram) I have been both reading about how (and to an extent why) the Founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has recently been arrested and the popular in the UK Greenbelt festival with its strapline, gotten from its Facebook page: “ARTISTRY. ACTIVISM. BELIEF. In a world on fire, we’re somewhere to believe in” that has been going on that some of my friends have been attending or purring over on their Facebook pages. As for Christian unity, encapsulated in the words of Jesus’ prayer: “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me” John 17:21, this has been something I have discussed with concerned friends and something I thought about when considering the life and work of the missionary, A.N.Groves (see here), who worked toward that end.

I note those Christians who share certain concerns around the direction the world is heading, along with the Great Reset agenda of the bad guys that includes depopulation and enslaving those of us who are left, such as have been raised in many of my blogs in recent years, comparing this with those of my Greenbelt enthusiast friends, including the practicing, knowledgeable sort. The two groups that, if they do overlap likely do so only barely, seem poles apart on what they deem to be important and are far from united. Having been branded by some as a Christian fundamentalist, far right extremist, conspiracy theorist (none of which I think is true) but having also been a community activist whose priorities and activism have been about serving the needy and those who are less fortunate, along with taking seriously social justice concerns, many of which I imagine would have been aired at Greenbelt, I have earned the right to speak and can identify with the concerns raised by folk from both camps.

One of my recent blogs was titled “Attacks on free speech and how we might prepare for the worst” (see here), not a subject I expect would have been covered in Greenbelt teaching sessions. Even someone I highly respect, the mathematician and Christian apologist, John Lennox, seems to think this is no big deal in his “I’m offended. I’m hurt” video (see here) as he takes to task those who play the victim card when seeing themselves as having been silenced. But as I pointed out, it goes much deeper than that set out when people tell the truth and point to alarming happenings in our world and are silenced and worse. It seems to me that we need people to speak out, if as is often is the case when not doing so we are not loving our neighbour when we should at least be warning them, and those who do so and go against “the narrative” (I define in my last blog) often have to pay a heavy price.

One of the examples of attacks on free speech is Facebook taking down innocuous posts and even banned for violating their community standards while often in cahoots with government and deep state players (such as what I experienced during the time of Covid lockdown), see for example the Gateway Pundit report detailing how pressure was put on Facebook by the Biden-Harris regime to censor millions of Americans (see here). It is ironic that the link I posted on my Facebook page to this post was taken down. I use Facebook because many of those I want to reach also use it but my preference is Telegram where such restrictions do not exist, although as seen by the arrest that platform along with the likes of Bitchute and Rumble may go. There are currently three Telegram channels I check out on a daily basis, that don’t always agree on certain subjects, e.g. what is going on in the war in Gaza, but each provide information I am unlikely to find on Facebook due to its censorship. This brings me to the recent arrest in France of its CEO, for reasons to do with it allowing content the French government disapproved off, including showing it in a bad light.

Two X (Twitter) feeds provide interesting commentary on what is going on and a sign of what we might expect from other free speech platforms. The first is by Candace Owens (see here): “Do you understand the severity of what is happening yet? Pavel Durov truly believes in free speech and created a platform the deep state doesn’t have access to, so now they have arrested him. This is madness. The western world is not free. Perhaps it never has been”. The second is by Tucker Carlson (see here): “Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech. It was a western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member, that locked him away. Pavel Durov sits in a French jail tonight, a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies. Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world. Here’s our interview with Durov from several months ago”.

We now turn to Greenbelt, from what I have picked up from those who I know (and in many cases esteem highly) who have written about what has been going on at the Festival that has just finished, it seems evident that the way the world is seen and how we should respond differs much from the above. The festival has been a popular, annual August Bank holiday event, since 1974 when it began. I recall once attending and enjoying it back in its early days (although a lot of the music wasn’t to my taste). I need to do more checking out before expressing a rounded view (approving or not) of its value but I sense there may well be many qualms, starting with the observation that the Christians who support the aims etc. of Greenbelt often don’t go along with the concerns I raise. That itself should not be an issue and before people in my theological camp get on their high horse and in the words of Bob Dylan’s times they are a changing song: “And don’t criticize What you can’t understand (see here)” they will also do well to recognise that authentic Christianity includes caring for the poor, disadvantaged, disempowered, “other” etc., and issues to do with social justice, the very things that Greenbelt organisers seek to bring to the fore and, as Eric Liddell was supposed to have said, what we find from the film “Chariots of Fire”: “God is not a spoilsport”.

As is invariably the case, we need, whatever camp we find ourselves in, a right balance – seeking to love what God loves, hate what God hates, become a holy people, truly loving our neighbour, speak and act out for the cause of truth and righteousness etc. We should avoid divide and conquer and recognise we should be about winning a world for Christ. This includes preaching the Gospel (see here) inviting people to repent of their sin and to turn to Christ. As for Christian unity, the third item this blog tries to cover, and the discussion I had over the weekend, we all have a long way to go!