These words were penned for an article in the Times by Bear Grylls- born Edward Michael Grylls. The renowned British adventurer, survival expert, television presenter and devout Christian attempted to redirect the narrative of the far-right regarding the church, asserting that the true message of Jesus (peace be upon him) has been lost.
Central to his message was a portrayal of Christ as an outsider, aligning him with the marginalised and rejected. And, truth be told, Grylls makes a valid point.
In Mathew 2:13-15, Jesus travels to Egypt as a child.
The Qur’an affirms that Jesus- the mighty messenger of God, was rejected by the people,
“A group of the Children of Israel believed, and a group disbelieved…”
Surah As-Saff 61:14
Grylls’ narration of Jesus as a displaced refugee, cuts against a much louder and more politically charged narrative that has grown rapidly within a large corpus of the American and British Christian patriot movement. Individuals such as Jayda Fransen, Tommy Robinson, and Paul Golding often present Christianity as a marker of national identity, cultural defence, and political resistance.
However, this narrative is detached from present-day reality. British Patriots insist that Christendom is suffering because ‘Islam is taking over,’ and because Keir Starmer hasn’t ‘stopped the boats.’ These claims, however, are fundamentally flawed and unsupported by credible evidence.
Empirical data presents a very different picture. A Pew Research Centre study in January 2026 found that only 43–46% of adults in the UK identify as Christian, while a substantial 22% identified as either atheist or agnostic. Fertility in England and Wales has fallen to record lows in recent years, and this decline is reflected among Christians, who now make up an older and shrinking share of the population.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Census 2021, people who identified as Christian had the oldest median age of any major religious group (51 years), compared with 40 years for the population overall. Therefore, a large proportion of Christians in the UK are now beyond typical childbearing age.
Moreover, there are only 6-7% Muslims residing in the UK. Additionally, ONS Census 2020 deduces that the UK is still very much still a majority white British nation. Furthermore, the issue of grooming gangs in the UK cannot be falsely portrayed as an Islamic problem , nor unjustly framed as a national issue attributable to Muslims as a whole. To do so is both deeply misleading and intellectually dishonest. That said, the abuses perpetrated in regions such as Rotherham are unequivocally reprehensible, and those responsible for such heinous acts must be held fully accountable in the harshest of manners, irrespective of their background.
The so-called resurgence of Christianity among UK youth
During the Easter weekend, LBC aired a programme presented by Ali Miraj, exploring the supposed resurgence of Christianity among young adults in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, this conversation might have carried more weight if Miraj’s researchers had bothered to have read the subsequent findings.
Pew Research Centre deduce:
‘Many recent surveys have pointed to a Christian resurgence among young adults in the United Kingdom. This narrative, however, is misleading. These surveys canvass members of opt-in panels who have gned up to participate, often in response to website ads or email campaigns. Surveys using random samples of the population do not show clear evidence of a Christian resurgence. In such surveys, you can only participate if the researchers randomly select you to respond.’
Consequently, fraudulent polls have been exposed, alongside money being used to pro one a particular narrative.
“Christian Africans are not welcome in the UK”
Aside from believing in a distorted narrative that seeks to place responsibility for the decline of Christianity on Muslims, simultaneously many patriots erode any genuine sense of Christian fraternity. For instance, Jayda Fransen, speaking to our brother Dilly Hussain on the Blood Brothers podcast, was asked whether she would welcome an African Christian migrant to the United Kingdom; her response – “I want you to thrive in your own nations.”
Therefore, by its own logic, this brand of christianity would ‘stop the boats’ for Jesus Christ himself – a Palestinian of the West Bank with olive skin, who spoke Aramaic, and did not share the same attire or cultural norms of the White British man.
Has Bear Grylls understood the true message of Jesus?
Grylls has previously faced significant backlash and online ridicule for describing the Virgin Mary as Palestinian. His attempt to situate her within the historical and geographical reality of the region in which Mary (peace be upon her) was born and resided in reflects a commitment to historical accuracy over agenda-based sanitised abstraction. In the current climate, his refusal to conform to narratives peddled by the far-right is particularly noteworthy and, in many respects, commendable.
In his article, Grylls presents a vision of faith that strips away institution. He argues that organised religion has often distorted Jesus’s original message, pushing back against the idea of following rigid rules, insisting instead that “faith isn’t about going to church… it’s about a relationship. Grylls also speaks about homosexuality in christianity:
“One of my favourite cartoons is Jesus standing on a hillside with his arms aloft going, ‘There will be poverty, war, famine, disease and loneliness. And I want you to spend most of your time arguing about sexuality,’” Grylls says. “I don’t know the answer to that. What I do know is that Jesus never once… ever mentioned anyone’s sexuality.”
And herein lies the crisis within modern Christianity!
Across the West, two dominant expressions have emerged.
The first is a diluted, left-leaning form of Christianity, akin to that promoted by Bear Grylls. Here, the faith is watered down to the point of fragility. Its doctrinal core is steadily eroded. For instance, in 2024, within the Anglican Church, 32% of its 6,715 full-time clergy are women. According to Gallup, the church in America lost nearly 20% of its parishioners between 2010 and 2020. Meanwhile, decline is most acute within Catholicism, in 2015, there were three million fewer Catholics than in 2007. Furthermore, 67% of US Catholics supported Joe Biden receiving Communion despite his policy stance on abortion.
At the same time, figures such as Russell Brand appear to have drifted ideologically.
When hosting Tommy Robinson on his podcast, Robinson remarked:
“If we don’t have direct democracy now, in the next 15 years, we are going to be governed by Shariah.”
“I agree,” Brand responded. Furthermore, Brand has nonchalantly responded to and laughed at remarks from Randy Fine that placed dogs above Muslims. What emerges is an unsettling convergence. The boundaries between left-leaning Christianity and far-right rhetoric begin to blur. This is a development few anticipated.
The second is a far-right distortion. It is wilfully blind to the very essence of Jesus. It reflects a racialised, exclusionary instinct. It echoes the spirit that would have told Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister, to drink his coffee in a segregated establishment. It is marked by arrogance and rigidity. It resembles a crusading extremism that deflects its own failures. Declining congregations and falling birth rates are not met with introspection, but with blame directed at external groups who bear no responsibility. Within this camp, some profess support for Palestine, recognising that the bombing of children in distant lands serves only the agenda of the Zionists. Then there are the Christian Zionist Ethno-nationalists who are delusional beyond belief.
But the problem is more profound. Neither camp is truly conveying the message of Jesus. Moreover, prominent Christian apologists in the West, such as David Wood and Sam Shamoun devote their entire so-called evangelical careers to attacking Islam, synonymously abusing children and women. They fixate on desperate constructs such as the non-existent ‘Islamic Dilemma’ and the age of Aisha.
Ironically, those most frequently attacked by self-proclaimed followers of Jesus are among the nearly 2 billion on the planet who are upholding what Jesus (peace be upon him) actually taught. Muslims continue to affirm uncompromising monotheism. And, Jesus himself called for this. He taught that God alone is the only one worthy of worship.
"...Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one" (Mathew 12:29 NIV)
The fragmentation seen in the west reflects a wider spiritual disconnection. This is associated to how the message of Jesus has been interpreted and practiced. The result: moral decay and social disunity.
At the same time, Muslim communities in the UK are choosing to make Hijra- to migrate to countries where Muslims form the majority, and where they can focus on raising children where Liberal Secularism is not the dominant frame.
Rooted in their faith, Muslims are called to extend goodwill and care to all of those they reside among. And despite theological differences between Muslims and modern-day Christians who worship a triune god, both communities have coexisted for centuries in several parts of the world and have much in common. This coexistence has included great stability, shared civic life, and mutual understanding and trade. For instance, during the Ayyubid period after Salahhuddin’s recapture of Jerusalem in 1187, the custodianship of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Muslim families have played a formal role in holding and safeguarding the church keys. Today, the keys are traditionally kept by two Muslim families, the Nuseibeh family and the Joudeh family.
“…and you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say, “We are christians,” that is because among them are priests and monks, and because they are not arrogant” (Qur’an 5:82)
The Qur’an clearly asserts that,
“They are not all alike…” (referring to Christians) (3:113)
And if you are interested, I’d like to leave you with some book recommendations that are important to this discussion: ‘Peace be upon you: Fourteen centuries of Musim, Christian and Jewish Conflict and Cooperation’ by Zachary Karabell, Oxford and Havard historian. And ‘Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah’ by Abu Zakariya.
