We need to talk about King Charles and specifically this: is the British monarch basically a traitor? Dr Gavin Ashenden is a former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, and he says he may be. The king is attempting to change the job description of the British monarch from “defender of the faith” to the more inclusive “protector of the space for faith within the multifaith nation”, and you can see why someone who regularly appears on GB News to lament the “woke takeover” of the church and who suggests that Islam is inherently and uniquely violent would object to this. And then some.
“While the monarch cannot technically be a traitor, we might take refuge in grammar and find that the verb carries our feelings even if the noun cannot,” spluttered Ashenden. “Parliament and the oath it presented to the king as a condition of being crowned are betrayed; the Church of England is betrayed. The constitution is betrayed; Anglicans are specifically betrayed. And Christians in general will legitimately feel abandoned at the very least. Some of them too will feel betrayed.”
And it’s not just him on the smelling salts. “Christianity, not some multifaith mishmash, is the bedrock of our nation’s laws and culture,” said Ciarán Kelly, director of the Christian Institute. “This latest move seems designed to convey the message that Christianity is just one religion among many, and that all are equally valid. They are not.”
But there are at least half a dozen problems with all this carping. » | Ravi Holy | Monday, July 6, 2026
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