christians-from-the-united-kingdom

"Poverty in the UK is too high and the experiences of many people in poverty are now getting worse. Governments of all colours have worked hard to change that picture, but as a society, we have failed to make significant progress."

"They have had among themselves a complete despotism from the remotest antiquity; a despotism, the most remarkable for its power and duration that the world has ever seen. It has pervaded their government, their religions, and their laws. It has formed by its various ramifications the essentials of the character which they have always had, as far as the light of history goes, and which they still posess; that character, which has made them a prey to every invader, indifferent to all their rulers, and easy in the change of them; as a people, void of public spirit, honour, attachment; and in society, base, dishonest, and faithless. (1796:32)"

"The Persians and Tartars, who have poured into it from early ages, have generally been soldiers of fortune, who brought little with them but their swords. With these they have not unfrequently carved their way to dignity and empire. Power has been, and is their darling object ; nothing was scrupled by them to obtain it; the history of Mahomedan rule in Hindostan is full of treasons, affaffinations, fratricides, even parricide is not unknown to it."

"In contrast to the Orientalists, Grant ([1790] 1970) stressed the absolute difference, in all respects, between the British and the despicable natives of the subcontinent: "In the worst parts of Europe, there are no doubt great numbers of men who are sincere, upright, and conscientious. In Bengal, a man of real veracity and integrity is a great phenomenon" (21). Most significantly, he made absolutely no reference to the kinship of Sanskrit and the European languages except, possibly, to note that "the discoveries of science invalidate none of the truths of revelation" (71). Nor did Grant have any regard for enthusiastic depictions of India. Grant was quick to criticize scholars who had never even visited India, thereby undermining the relevance of their scholarship to the real world: "Europeans who, not having resided in Asia, are acquainted only with a few detached features of the Indian character" (24)."

"We proceed then to observe, that it is perfectly in the power of this country, by degrees, to impart to the Hindoos our language; afterwards, through that medium, to make them acquainted .... with the simple elements of our arts, our philosophy and religion. These acquisitions would silently undermine, and at length subvert, the fabric of error..."

"The argument from silence was once regarded as a weak argument, to be used sparingly and with care, but for some time now authors have become responsible for the infinity of what they do not say, and they are liable to be charged with erasures, elisions, suppressions, guilty silences, and significant omissions. The argument from silence is made more easily today, but even by the higher standard of the past, the complete silence of Grant and Mill on the core argument of Jones is surely significant of a tendency to stress the difference "every way" of the Indians and the British."

"It has suited the views of some philosophers to represent that people as amiable and respectable; and a few late travellers have chosen rather to place some softer traits of their characters in an engaging light, than to give a just delineation of the whole. The generality, however, of those who have written concerning Hindostán, appear to have concurred in affirming what foreign residents there have as generally thought, nay, what the natives themselves freely acknowledge of each other, that they are a people exceedingly depraved. (1796:20)"

"This uncompromising judgment falls especially upon those Indians who are under British rule, the Bengalis, and among them especially the Hindus, and the content of their moral depravity (which Grant descants upon at length) is that they are lacking in truth, honesty, and good faith to a degree not found in European society. Grant is blunt in the interest not of condemning the Indians but of determining "their true place in the moral scale," ... What he insists upon is the universality of this great depravity in Hindu society, giving it a general moral hue, "between which and the European moral complexion there is a difference analogous to the difference of the natural colour of the two races" (1796:25). But the purpose is neither condemnation for its own sake nor to assert the permanent inferiority of another race."

"It is worth saying again: Indophobia did not spring up naturally from the soil of Britain, it was deliberately built. India was very different from Britain, to be sure, but Britons did not believe they were "every way different" from the Indians until Grant taught them to think so."

"British Indomania did not die of natural causes; it was killed off. The Indophobia that became the norm in early-nineteenth-century Britain was constructed by Evangelicalism and Utilitarianism, and its chief architects were Charles Grant and James Mill."

"Of the Mahomedans, who mix in considerable numbers with the former inhabitants of all the countries subdued by their arms in Hindostan, it is necessary also to say a few words. Originally of the Tartar race, proud, fierce, and lawless ; attached also to their superstition,... they were rendered ... yet more proud, sanguinary, sensual, and bigotted."

"Upon the whole, then, we cannot avoid recognizing in the people of Hindostan, a race of men lamentably degenerate and base, retaining but a feeble sense of moral obligation, yet obstinate in their disregard of what they know to be right, governed by malevolent and licentious passions, strongly exemplifying the effects produced on society by great and general corruption of manners, and sunk in misery by their vices, in a country peculiarly calculated by its natural advantages to promote the happiness of its inhabitants."

"‘Hindooism’, the word that came to fill the gap, had originally been coined back in the 1780s. The first man known to have used it was an Evangelical. Charles Grant, a Scot who had served the Company both as a soldier and on its board of trade, had initially felt little sense of Christian mission. He had travelled to India with the goal of getting rich. Accordingly, he had seen no reason to disagree with the settled policy of the Company: that its only business was business. Any attempt to convert Hindus to Christianity would risk the precarious foundations of its rule. Its purpose was the making of money, not the winning of souls. But then had come the great crisis in Grant’s life. Gambling debts had threatened his finances. Two of his children had died of smallpox within ten days of each other. Grant, in the depths of his agony, had found himself redeemed by grace. From that moment on, the great object of his life had been to win the Hindus for Christ. Convinced that they were lost in ignorance, he had pledged himself to saving them from all their idolatries and superstitions. These were what he had meant by ‘Hindooism’."

"I want to read you something from Amber Rudd's speech yesterday. "For the state must draw a sharp line of distinction between those who, as members of the nation, are the foundation and support of its existence and greatness, and those who are domiciled in the state, simply as earners of their livelihood there." .... No, that wasn't from Amber Rudd's speech yesterday, I'm really sorry, that's from Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler."

"So you think we have to leave the EU to get three-pin plugs?”"

"Insufferable, patronising, misogynistic wanker"

"What difference does it make what colour the person you buy your milk off is?"

"Suella Braverman is now perilously close to making Priti Patel look like the second most callous and ignorant Home Secretary in living memory."

"I Have Contempt For The Conmen and Compassion For The Conned."

"Boris Johnson, surrounded by the usual brain-dead ERG headbangers and DUP tub thumpers, Boris Johnson is threatening Rishi Sunak because Rishi Sunak is minded to abide by the terms of the treaty that Boris Johnson signed."

"What is the law? You know you were going to take short-term economic damage ... Every single customer in the country is going to be potentially worse off than they were before the vote. So I'm just wondering what those laws are that you won't have to obey any more that made you vote for this short-term economic hit. Can you name one?"

"I guess my gender has always been very fluid. Someone would call me ‘she’ or ‘her’ and I wouldn’t think about it, but I knew that if someone called me ‘he’ it was a bit exciting. … I’m very much just a person. Being gendered isn’t something that I particularly like, but in terms of pronouns, I really couldn’t care less."

"Bella felt so real. It was like Ellie realized in live action. It didn’t feel like watching an actor."

"It’s only recently that I’ve accepted I am Ellie, and I can do it, and I am a good actor. But this will last for a few weeks and then I’ll think I’m terrible again. That’s just the process."

"We were looking for a specific combination of contradictions: Someone that can be funny and quirky, and violent and rough. I didn’t see Bella acting like Ellie — I saw Ellie."

"Buzzing to be baptised tonight!! My faith is such a massive part of my life and so now I’m ready to be dunked (yep it’s a full immersion baptism) and say publicly that Jesus is my Saviour."

"There isn’t always an answer but let me tell you this — there’s always a way out. There’s always light at the end of the tunnel no matter how dim it might seem. I am fortunate to have reached that light, at moments it felt non existent. But it was always there. For me that light was Jesus. My faith played a huge part in my recovery [from anorexia] and so did my family. I don’t know your stories but I felt compelled to share mine. Keep on speaking, do not be silent. Let’s continue to break the silence around mental health."

"I seriously considered that maybe I don’t want to be famous so I’m not going to do this show [The Last of Us] because it’s going propel me to a place I don’t want to go to in terms of being seen and being known. I like to blend in and hide."

"Stillness is neither dissipation nor dislocation. She is neither exclusion nor suppression. She is neither addiction to confusion nor fixation on separation.Stillness is ineffable freedom. Everything is ineffably free in true stillness. She is inexhaustible. She is endless. ‘After fire, a still small voice.’"

"Stillness does not come and go. It is we who come and go. Stillness abides, like a vast evenness, limpid and pure. It is a transcendent realm of infinite clarity."

"So, true stillness is of God, from God, and wholly in God. With this we begin to enter into our rest. We begin to rest in peace. We begin to taste the bright mysteries of holy dying, that overcome death through death.Stillness is resurrection. It overcomes death by death. It reveals glory to wisdom. It unveils vision and wonder. Such wonder binds confused, divided thoughts. It is serene."

"Genuine wisdom astounds. It astonishes. It amazes. It transmutes pious opinion into silent reverence. It penetrates dogmas to unveil their core. It reveals. It illumines. It deifies. The two-edged sword was never totally lost, like lost gospels in caves and sand. But when the ancient neglected texts are found again, wisdom knows her own."

"Stillness is neither thought nor the cessation of thought. Stillness stands steadfast as wisdom when the heart is luminous and clear. Uncontrived and unfabricated, wisdom is overlooked by blind oblivion.Stillness is not one state opposed to another. It is not an external phenomenon. It is incomprehensible and ineffable because at root, it is uncreated and unconditioned. It unifies, so as to ground what is integral. It illumines, so as to clarify what is translucent. It glorifies, to liberate the glorified. It deifies, to transfigure the deified."

"In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says that whoever drinks his wisdom, shall become like him. God’s ‘I AM’ is recognized as ‘I AM’ from ‘I AM.’ The Name of God is all consuming fire. Yet the bush is not consumed."

"I am ‘I AM,’ thy God."

"In the Odes of Solomon, Christ says, “I opened the gates that were shut; and I broke in pieces the bars of iron. My fetters grew hot and melted before me, and nothing seemed to me to be shut, because I was the opening of everything.” He also says his prayer was his love, releasing the prisoner’s bonds. Such prayer, inspired by the Spirit, inspires intercession in the desert in the spirit of liberating openness. Ineffable openness is eternally open to love’s openness to love, eternally overcoming separation at the heart of separation. Eternal oneness is eternally one with love’s overcoming of separation at the heart of separation. Uncreated presence is eternally present at the heart of separation, overcoming separation. So when love assumes separation to overcome separation, separation dissolves. When oneness assumes confusion to cure confusion, confusion is released. When presence assumes absence to undo absence, absence transmutes into ever present completeness."

"In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says we all come from the light, destined to be children of light, chosen of the living Father. Our origin is light, and our end is light, and when we reside in primordial light, we awaken to the light of the glory of the age to come."

"Kneeling is an act of humility, of dedication to something greater, of awe, of reverence. Being at church isn’t essentially about being part of a community—it’s about worshipping God. In worshipping—recognizing God’s true worth and therefore sinking to our knees before him—does in fact bind us as a community, both with one another in the present time and with those who have gone before and will come after us."

"In all circumstances we are leaving the European Union on 31 October"

"I do not believe that we will be a truly sovereign United Kingdom through the deal that is now proposed"

"I think it is right that government should have passed legislation that requires that relationships and sex education is taught in schools, but at the same time, I also agree that it is right that parents should be able to choose the moment at which their children become exposed to that information"

"There will be no second referendums on my watch - not on Scottish independence and not on EU membership."

"the UK cannot be trapped in a permanent customs arrangement"

"I envisage there being absolutely no regulation whatsoever—no minimum wage, no maternity or paternity rights, no unfair dismissal rights, no pension rights—for the smallest companies that are trying to get off the ground, in order to give them a chance."

"But as I say, sterling has really not moved since the prime minister announced the starting gun for the referendum. So my best expectation, with my 30 years of financial experience, is that there will not be an economic impact."

"We are clear we won't be delaying Article 50. We won't be revoking it."

"You can’t block no deal. You can’t put into law that you can’t leave without a deal."

"I wholeheartedly believe that same-sex couples have as valid a relationship with their partner as do heterosexuals. I also believe that in the eyes of the state we all deserve to be treated equally"

"What is so weird about Tony [Blair] is that when he is speaking, it's almost hypnotic – you start to just accept what he is saying, and like Mowgli when he was being hypnotised by Kaa the python in Jungle Book, you have to kick yourself out of it."

"If the government has any courage, it will punish those at the top of failed banks. Accountability is critical in every area of human endeavour – there has to be a penalty for failure otherwise it's only a matter of time before the economic pain our banks have caused to so many innocent businesses and home owners is forgotten."