Thank God for immigration. It’s reviving our dead churches

Many churches in urban areas are experiencing huge growth. As the already critically-acclaimed book This is Not America argues, we’ve immigrant Christians and their children to thank for holding back the tide of secularism in the UK, says Kayode Adeniran

Anyone who has ventured to Brixton underground station in south London will resonate with the following scene: the loud (and sometimes confusing) hubbub which greets you as you exit; the slightly imposing smell of incense sticks and crystals being sold by jovial Caribbean men; the West African street preachers accompanied with their microphones and amplifiers offering salvation (via either Jesus or Mohammed) and the rather more serious-looking black radicals, earnestly engaging members of the public on oppression and racism in the UK.

In his book This is Not America, Tomiwa Owolade comments that the ideas behind that last vignette is one we’ve likely imported from the US. It’s part of the (British?) trend of uncritically allowing America’s history and politics to shape our own public discourse, with sometimes unhelpful results. Owolade argues that, in the context of race, our conversations are often based on US assumptions and filtered through an American lens. This is problematic, as our history and relationship with minorities are different in the UK.