“Christ is risen, Alleluia. He is risen indeed, Alleluia, Alleluia.” Thus spake Jacob Rees-Mogg on Easter Sunday, on Twitter. (How does the guy manage to sound posh quoting something that surely sprang forth before poshness was invented?)
Rees-Mogg was then immediately taken to task by the wonderful cook and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe on the same platform – let’s call it Godly Twitter – who wrote: “Jesus would have flipped the table and driven you out of the temple, FYI.” She went on to quote from the book of Titus: “They claim to know God, but by their actions, they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.” (Monroe, you will note, manages to make the Bible sound as if it was written yesterday.)
I’ve picked up a thing or two about Jesus over the years, and it sounds pretty open-and-shut, whose side he would be on, between Rees-Mogg, a multimillionaire and bringer of financial devastation to innocent families, and … well, anyone else. But what do I know? I’m no Christian.
Meanwhile, the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, took not to the socials but to a pulpit, to castigate the Home Office plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. It “cannot stand up to the judgment of God”, he said. In case this left anyone in any doubt, he added that the policy was “the opposite of the nature of God”.
Various Conservative MPs objected to his “moralising”, which five years ago would have been funny – what next, are they going to object to their surgeon being a know-it-all for pointing out where their spleen is? But these days, slating an archbishop for having Christian values is probably the least embarrassing thing they will be asked to do this week. A special mention here for the rightwing pundit Tim Montgomerie, whose response to Welby was: “Jesus is risen. And the sun is out. And I’ve been given a huge chocolate egg.” Credit to the man, isn’t that the real meaning of Easter? That it’s a time to put aside the suffering of others, and concentrate on the happiness of the man who looks after No 1?
It’s a tricky one for the Conservatives, the Church of England. Can’t live with it, can’t privatise it.
• Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
