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What really happened in Keswick and why the Christian backlash?

Aug 07, 2024     |    

On Wednesday 24th July our Liverpool team held a public education display which has received some highly publicised disapproval by the Keswick Convention. This article is to set the facts straight and respond to some of the false rumours being shared on social media.

Why target Keswick?

We went to Keswick because it hosts the 3 week Keswick Convention where ”Christians from all over the UK and from around the world gather in Keswick to hear the Word of God and to sing God’s praises, to be encouraged, inspired and equipped to love and live for Christ in His world.” 

Christians, above all people, need to be awakened to the greatest injustice of our day, the mass-killing of 250,000 babies a year in the UK, in what should be the safest place in the world - their mother’s womb. The plight of unborn children and their mothers, in our nation, has been largely neglected by the church. So we came to the centre of Keswick with a team of 7 Educators, holding up a single banner showing a beautiful image of a living 9 week fetus in the womb. We gave out postcards of a similar image, had conversations with passersby and surveyed Christians on their experience of the teaching on abortion within the church. 

Note - there were no graphic abortion images, on this occasion we wanted to focus on showing the humanity of babies in the womb.

Why didn’t we exhibit inside the Keswick Convention?

This was not our first time in Keswick. Last year, we emailed organisers to request hiring an exhibition stand inside the Convention to reach Christians, as many other organisations do. However, we were told that it wouldn’t work to have a CBR UK stand at their Base Camp. Dave Brennan, who heads up our Brephos project to help churches respond to abortion, continued to engage with leaders of the Keswick Convention, informing them of our plans to hold a display in the city centre of Keswick. This way we could still reach the many Christians, gathering in Keswick, to highlight the plight of the unborn. So we held a public education display last year, then repeated it again this year.

Response to rumours of our conduct and public reaction

On both occasions, a few pro-abortion individuals held up a sheet to block the image on our banner. Last year a video of this shared on Instagram reached tens of thousands of people, who couldn’t believe that individuals would be so offended by a picture of a living baby in the womb - to the point they didn’t want anyone else to see it.

This year, as well as a repeat of the coverup, we had a man launch at our banner ripping the fabric off the frame and stealing it. Thankfully our Support Leader was able to retrieve it, but in the process the offender fell to the ground. This incident was witnessed and misreported back to Keswick organisers and on social media platforms as a “street fight”, completely misrepresenting the conduct of our highly trained and peaceful Educators. We filed a police report of this incident, and after reviewing our security camera footage (which we wear for exactly incidents like this), the police described the man’s conduct as "attempted criminal damage to property." The police affirmed that we had a common law right to defend our property, commended our conduct, and more generally at the end of our display, thanked us for our cooperation.

As well as the opposition from abortion supporters, we also had lots of good conversations, particularly with Christians from the Convention who were encouraged by our work. Again, this led to rumours of people claiming that we were wearing Keswick Convention t-shirts to appear to be linked to the Convention - which was completely false, as all of our Educators wear low-vis maroon vests to identify them apart from passersby.

“Convention saddened by anti-abortion protest in town”

Keswick Reminder

This was the headline in a local paper, The Keswick Reminder. The article is also online here.

This is Keswick Convention’s full statement:

"We are aware that Brephos, an organisation not affiliated with Keswick Ministries, are taking part in a ‘public education’ event in Keswick town today. We are saddened by this approach at targeting Keswick Convention visitors which we recognise also impacts others within the town. We would like to emphasise that this group has no affiliation with Keswick Ministries. As soon as we were aware that this activity might be a possibility, we contacted the organisers and requested they not use their public display in Keswick. Keswick Ministries are delighted to work closely with the police who are aware of the situation." 24/07/2024

Media storm and Christian backlash to Convention response

The incident has been responded to by public Christian figures, including Theologian Dr. Aaron Edwards who in his blog post Reputation, Reputation, Reputation -The Corrosive Effects of the Fear of Disrepute puts it perfectly:

“Sadly, like many institutions today, it is now ‘saddened’ not by heinous evil but by potential loss of its own reputation before the world. Note the pitiful contrast of emotions here. They are ‘saddened’ by brothers and sisters boldly standing for truth and justice; and they are ‘delighted’ to work with the police who oppose such Christians as though they’re bad for society.”

Theologian Dr Joseph Boot also commented on X:

Many other Christian media publications have waded in to report on the event and backlash, including:

Podcast: Keswick Convention does this offend you?

Dave Brennan and Tim Lewis spoke on the Keswick Convention’s response on the Brephos About Abortion podcast, discussing these questions:

Is it really always wrong to offend? Do we need to keep people happy in order to share the gospel? Does the Kingdom of God depend on our organisational reputation to advance? Do we grant angry pagans a heckler's veto? Is this historic, evangelical ministry with such a rich and wonderful heritage really adhering to the teachings of Scripture on this occasion?

New responses from the Church, the media and Brephos (Updated 23/08/24)

Since first publishing this article the Keswick situation continues to be reported on and responded to.

Beth Davey discusses with Dr Aaron Edwards and Pastor Regan King, on the Brephos About Abortion podcast, on why it is necessary to confront fellow believers and Christian ministries, and why it is important that we don't just brush these events under the carpet but continue to talk about them.