From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
The co-owner of GB News, a British TV channel accused of broadcasting climate change denial, has donated £28m to influential Church of England institutions that support climate action.
This raises “serious questions”, say Christian leaders, given that Sir Paul Marshall’s views on the climate crisis and those frequently broadcast on the TV channel are “in direct opposition” to the Church of England, which believes that “responding to the climate crisis is an essential part of our responsibility to safeguard God’s creation and achieve a just world”.
Marshall, a hedge fund manager and Christian who said recently that the UK had been infected by “climate derangement syndrome”, gave at least £13m to Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) church and the Church Revitalisation Trust (CRT) via his Sequoia Trust between 2018 and 2025, according to Guardian analysis of accounts filed with the Charity Commission.
HTB is the largest church in the Church of England, with a congregation of about 4,000, and is home to the evangelical Alpha Course, which has reached 37 million people in more than 175 countries, according to Alpha International. Marshall has been a member of the congregation since 1997.
The CRT, also known as the Re-vitalise Trust, is run from HTB, and has established more than 100 evangelical churches around the UK. Marshall is also a director of CRT.
Some critics of Marshall’s views fear that the money could influence the church institutions’ attitudes towards the climate crisis.
Rev Dr Darrell Hannah, the chair of Operation Noah, a leading UK Christian climate charity, said: “As the climate crisis intensifies, we’re increasingly concerned that a fellow Christian – one with more money and power than virtually any other Christian in the UK – continues to share problematic and highly influential views on the most important issue of our time. This cannot go unchallenged.” Operation Noah was instrumental in getting nearly every UK denomination to divest from fossil fuels.
“Marshall’s views are in direct opposition to those of the Church of England,” Hannah said. “Given his outsized influence on our country – and in light of his problematic views on the most significant moral and practical challenge of our time – serious questions need to be asked about Sir Paul Marshall’s donations to faith groups, and specifically to the Church of England.”
The Church of England has a routemap for all parts of the church to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and has divested its multibillion-pound endowment and pension funds from fossil fuels.
GB News broadcast 953 attacks on climate science and climate action around the 2024 general election, according to a report. The channel has been accused of broadcasting climate change denial, including descriptions of global heating as “the climate scam” and suggestions the government was going to introduce “enforced veganism”.
Marshall, who has a net worth of £950m, said recently that efforts to cut planet-heating emissions were “impoverishing people”. Marshall also owns the Spectator magazine and UnHerd website and has given large donations to schools and the London School of Economics.
https://www.aol.co.uk/articles/christian-leaders-alarmed-climate-crisis-060046000.html
Why is it that the left are so keen on clamping down on free speech?
Much of what Sir Paul Marshall says is certainly worth debating, if nothing else. His reference to “efforts to cut planet-heating emissions were “impoverishing people“, for example.
As for the Church’s claim that “responding to the climate crisis is an essential part of our responsibility to safeguard God’s creation and achieve a just world”, where is their evidence that eliminating fossil fuels will make the world “more just”. Almost certainly, the reverse is true – fossil fuels have made the whole of the world, rich and poor, much better off than ever before. What is “just” about returning the population of Africa to the dark ages?
Anybody who claims they know God’s thoughts and beliefs is a charlatan.
The Guardian headline refers to “Christian leaders”. In fact, Operation Noah is nothing of the sort, it is just a small charity (their own description”), and do not reflect the policies and beliefs of the C of E.
They are just another climate lobby group, set up in 2004 “in response to the (so-called) climate crisis”.
