Theology Down The Park!

Muscular Christianity: Saviour or Spoiler for Europe?

Bob Soco is a YouTuber active at Speakers Corner

7 to 9 min read

Speaker's Corner is situated in Hyde Park, London. It has long been a place for open debate and free expression. Here we can expect to find Bob Soco, who seems like a nice man. However, some may find him distasteful when he shouts in debates and uses sneaky sophism. Butting in and demanding evidence is comical before the brief moment of wordless bible page turning. It is an unusual gathering to watch. He really is a compelling character who could fit beautifully into a novel. Everyone should see the dialogue heat up; respect and self-restraint are called-for in that place, it can seem like it's balancing on a knife edge! 

Soco Studio captures all the footage of Bob as he dismantles Islamic views from his right-wing Christian paradigm. The videos are edited before being uploaded onto YouTube. Bob 'the Builder' Soco has praised Tommy Robinson, and stands firmly patriotic, proud of his English heritage—fair play. It is almost like a continuation of those old Atheism vs. Theism debates common during Christopher Hitchins days. Instead, however, Bob Soco brings Christianity vs. Islam, also he'll oppose the liberal media and secularism. Of course, his debates are selectively uploaded, cherry-picked for the target audience. I doubt Bob Soco would upload videos like this one below, where he is outplayed:

Response to Bob Soco's Blog here: Why Europe Needs a Muscular Christianity

Embellishing his blog, Bob Soco has an excellent image of what appears to be a modern-styled Templar Knight with a firearm. Perhaps, just for respect, we should not assume this is the actual image he had in mind when he literally refers to 'Muscular Christianity'. 

As I write this, the UK has protested and counter-protested and many criminals rioted. The hundreds of people who have peacefully expressed legitimate concerns about mass immigration, knife crime and Islamism are tarred with the same far-right brush brandished by the British government, leftists and mainstream media. Sadly, grandmothers and grandfathers, moderates and neutrals have all been recorded by social media content creators, one in particular filmed himself being dragged into the same police vans! 

Now, go back to Soco, who, before all of this, called Islam an evil religion; think of all those non-violent moderates, blameless of any crime and sat in the back of a police riot van on the evening of the Westminster protest. 

Bob's prosecution and labelling of an entire religion as 'evil' is not just overly simplistic, but ignorant of the complexity, cultures, and nuances within any faith! Historical atrocities of Christianity clearly exist, such as the Crusades to the Spanish Inquisition. The church castrated choir boys and targeted children for unspeakable crimes—no single religion holds a monopoly on moral virtue! Simplistic religious comparisons or judgments are often inaccurate and unfair. Bob, why do you not see that despite all of our faults and virtues, people bring their own ideas and interpretations to their religions? There has to be a better way? 

"You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

                                    in the Bible somewhere

In his blog, Bob Soco says Europe will need Muscular Christianity, especially due to its low birth rates. I don't know what this kind of Christianity entails precisely, but it is supposed to defend us against his perceived threat coming from his baneful 'elites' who support Islam. It is not implausible. 

His blog accuses the immigration policies of liberal politicians and secularism for Europe's decline, while pointing at that old Jewish-focused conspiracy theory blaming Jews for distraction and manipulation. Bob offers no meaty evidence. It is a dry read and confusing in places, but his overuse of 'elites' and 'super elites' are the familiar conspiracy theory buzzwords we've all heard before! 

This interesting character points to the fact that immigration is high, a risk, he said, that will change European culture. This is a valid concern and vital for political discussion and not a beefy theocratic counter religion. Such monotheism could not be expected to pressurise Europeans into breeding more! It cannot force Islamic youth to use contraception! These are harsh ideas for peace time Europe, it shows why Church and State need to be separate. 

Western secularism is a principle that emerged from the enlightenment, and it guides the Western world, shaping British culture. It has promoted scientific fact, while also granting a multi-faith country. It also supported Catholicism in the 17th century, as well as the other major faiths today. It is not anti-theistic, many western secularists have a religion. That being said, such principles could still restrict religious practices that are perceived to be harmful to anyone, and end public funding for such activities; it can influence the regulation of immigration wisely. Some of these elected secular politicians have not listened to the people when they should have. This does not mean western secularism is the enemy. 

As we have seen, Bob 'the Builder' Soco genuinely portrays Islam as a kind of clashing civilization holding dangerous values. Indeed, we can say, similar sentiments may have once been held by his own Saxon ancestors when their holy sites were vandalised by Emperor Charlemagne. This Christian Holy Roman muscle did what Bob is accusing the Islamic folk of doing in his videos; they butchered people—pagan Germanic people. These people died because they did not care to convert to his Jesus religion. 

Not all Christians/Muslims are violent, yet both religions have profound histories in conquest. If you accept varying degrees of anti-social behaviour do exist across our vast spectrum of religiosity, you'll see that when Christians demonising Islam it is simply committing another antisocial act in itself! Don't ignore that both the Quran and the Bible have passages that can be interpreted as extreme! There is moral religious inconsistency. 

Primarily, we aren't Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist, but human. These labels are another layer, clothing for the soul, but yet, often weaponised. There's quite a radical feel to Bob's blog and his YouTube channel—things must have been heating up for some time in London. I hope it improves soon.