Church leaders condemn racism report

Black Church leaders have expressed their disappointment – and anger – over the government-instigated Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report, which was prompted by last year’s Black Lives Matter protests.

The charge was led by former General Director of the Evangelical Alliance and Commissioner of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, Joel Edwards. Speaking exclusively to Evangelicals Now, Edwards expressed his ‘deep annoyance and disappointment’ with the report, which he believed ‘was politically naïve and provocative’ and ended up simply ‘kow-towing to Conservatism’.

He also rejected the divisiveness it has engendered and criticised the ‘polemical views’ of the Commission’s chairperson, who believes (unlike the vast majority of UK people of colour) that ‘institutional racism has been expunged from British life’.