Some may recall that more than two decades ago the then BNP launched a billboard campaign with an image of a very euro-western ‘blond’ looking Jesus while making a case for Jesus on their side: the underlying point being that they are on the side of reclaiming Britain’s Christian identity and so would be all those who voted for them. Writing in 2013 I observed the following:

“When the BNP placed their huge billboard with Jesus on their side, British Churches largely from the historic traditions (curiously the Black Majority Churches were silent), and their theologians were running around trying to mount an opposition to what they rightly considered  the pathetic hijacking of Jesus by a far-right political group….For the churches it was (and still is clear that the policies of the BNP are highly objectionable from a gospel imperative, and their narrow and excluding nationalism especially despicable.” [Jagessar 2013: 67-68,” For Christ Sake: Post-coding Jesus Talk”]

I also noted that from all the comments from churches and pundits…no one commented on the white-blond looking Jesus that accompanied the BNP’s campaign, nor even thought of reflecting how and where they got the image from and linked that image/faith to British identity and nationalist tendencies. Trawl through the mission archives of British churches and you would find the image in abundance! The image did not fall out of the skies – as there is a long back story to it! While some Churches did speak out against membership in the BNP and their racist policies, the reality remained that across ecclesial communities of all shades, Christian ‘imaging’ and ‘symbols’ remained largely uninterrogated.

And here we are again (December 2025) with a poster campaign from Anglicans intending to counter a dubious ‘far right’ alternative Christmas Carol event that would ‘put Christ back into Christmas’ (See, The Guardian December 8, 2025). While one side with their anti-immigrant message is bent on reclaiming Britain with their brand of Christianity, the other, among the historic keeper of Christianity in Britain, is going all out to reinforce that ‘Christ has aways been in Christmas’. As in 2009 episode of the BNP, ecclesial communities are taking a stand to confront and resist the hijacking of Christian symbols by populist elements towards exclusive/excluding/racist/ political ends.

While commending the quick response by Churches (their rapid resourcing countermoves), I would suggest that the efforts must go beyond this and much deeper. The hijacking of Christian language and symbols towards creating a more hostile and unwelcoming environment ought to raise questions of introspection for Churches, especially what they have been doing over the centuries. What are these Christian language and symbols which have been hijacked? To what end and what underlying motives have ecclesial communities deployed such in their own ‘catechizing’ (through liturgies, hymns, doctrines, teachings etc) over the centuries? What has been the (un)intended impact?  And for these sacred and inherited deposits (texts, language, symbols, garments, gestures etc) how and where are churches interrogating them for colonial, ideological and cultural presuppositions that favour dominant groups and encouraged notions of all sorts of exceptionalism?

“Euro-western indoctrination has been so thorough that Jesus, a Galilean/Palestinian Jew of the Asia minor region, has become blond and blue-eyed. BNP’s imaging of a European Jesus is the story of that unpleasant version of Christianity ‘coming home to roost’ and haunt Christians as we are yet to do our homework of expunging years of bad theology and theological imaging” [Jagessar 2013, 68]

Christ may still be in Christmas, but can it be that the Jewish Jesus of Bethlehem and Palestine may have been ‘photoshopped’ and distorted to offer a version of nationalist whiteness, the consequences of which we are seeing and reaping in our current hostile environment? As Amy Jill-Levine rightly observed: “if one takes the incarnation – that is the claim that the ‘Word became flesh and lived among us’ seriously, then one should take seriously the time when, place where, and the people among whom this event occurred.” [Amy Jill-Levine, The Misunderstood Jew, 2007:347]. Perhaps, a more helpful undertaking would be to put ‘incarnation’ (an embodied Jesus) back into Christmas. [see this WCRC resource]. So, as we ‘belt’ out those traditional well-sung hymns/carols and hear those familiar readings during advent and Christmas take some time to seriously consider what we wish to reclaim, ‘put back’, or ‘keep in place’. [see, Jagessar & Burns, Christian Worship: Postcolonial Perspectives (2011)].

jagessar@caribleaper (December 2025)