The FP Interview: British Baptist Matt Sellers
FP: Who is Matt Sellers?
MS: I'm soon to be 29 on St. George's Day (23rd April). St. George is the Patron Saint of England but our saint's day isn't celebrated anywhere near as much as St. Patrick's Day, although he seems to have been catching up over the last few years (the reasons for the resurgence in English patriotism are worth studying in themselves.) Shakespeare was also born on St. George's Day; and Harold Wilson, the then Labour Prime Minister, ironcially resigned on the day I was born.
I was born in Portsmouth in the centre of the South Coast, home to a major Naval Base and most famously the embarcation point for most of the D-Day soldiers in 1944 (including both my Grandads). At the age of 5 (in 1981) my family moved to Birmingham, the UK's second city, and we started attending Sutton Coldfield Baptist Church. I was baptised at the age of 16 in 1992 and from then on became passionate about mission, particularly to Muslims, and went on two summer campaigns in the South of France in 1993 and 94. In 1996 I went on a trip to North Africa. From 1994-98 I returned to Portsmouth to attend university, and I graduated with a degree in Computer Science. For much of that time I attended an Assemblies of God (AOG) church which had 16 members when I started, but had grown to about 200 when I left. I became great friends with one of the pastors, and even lodged with him in my Final Year. My pastor's background in the Anglican and even Anglo-Catholic denominations before he moved to Pentecostal ministry gave me a very wide view on church traditions that I believe really broadened my own views and experiences of the Church as a whole - from early Church Fathers to the use of icons in worship and what became known as The Toronto Blessing of the mid-nineties.
I was International Secretary of University of Portsmouth Christian Union in 1995/6 and recently went back there as a guest speaker in January this year - 10 years on! In an even more amazing piece of symmetry my brother is the current International Secretary of Aston University!
I returned to Birmingham in 1998 and married my wife Heidi in 2000 in her home town of Chorley, Lancashire (near Manchester). We are settled in Birmingham and both lead a student-aged small group, and have been blessed with many friends of that age-range - it helps to keep us young! Heidi is a youth worker in a very tough area nearby, and has major responsibility for sexual health initiatives.
I have travelled extensively, visiting France, Spain, Germany, Holland, USA (California), North Africa and Australia (Queensland), as well as passing through a few more countries.
Through travelling, especially in North Africa, I developed an increasing interest in social justice and have become more and more disillusioned with the way western governments, corporations and media treat and report the rest of the world. In September last year I became self-employed in a large part due to my disillusionment with the corporate world, and in order to experiment with a tent-making ministry (Paul made tents to supplement his missionary journeys). At the moment we are heavily involved with the student scene, but I feel this is a stepping stone to something else - probably abroad.
FP: When and why did you start your Blog?
MS: I started the blog in July 2004 as a journal of my day-to-day life and thoughts. It's since evolved into a far more political blog with some photos and Christian commentary thrown in (you will also see occasional posts on Aston Villa - the football team I have supported all my life; and a few more on my favourite sport - cricket). At the time I didn't really know where it was going to go, but I was really excited about the medium itself and the way that it threatens Big Media, much in the same way as the Pamphleteers threatened the Establishment when the printing-press was invented. Unfortunately when I started my blog I wasn't aware of the convention of creating a clever name for yourself, so MattSellers.co.uk seems a bit out of place, but at least I'm not tied to any one subject!
FP: We understand that you are a proud Baptist. How large is the Baptist Church in the UK? What is going on in the life of the Baptist Church in the UK?
MS: According to the Baptist Union of Great Britain website there are around 150,000 members of Baptist Churches affiliated to the Baptist Union in around 2,150 churches. Considering there are 60 million people in the UK this doesn't seem many, but on the other hand church attendance is much lower in the UK than it is in the USA. Each Baptist Chuch is independent of all the others and so it is difficult to talk in general terms of "What is going on in the life of the Baptist Church in the UK" - instead I think it is far more interesting to talk about Evangelical Christians within the UK. The only group that is growing are the Evangelicals, whom the media generally portray as dangerous fundamentalists, much in the same way as the "Religious Right" of the USA. However, many Evangelical Christians have socialist economic opinions, even though they have conservative moral views.
Our church is committed to the local community, and in particular the children, youth and disadvantaged of the area. We have many ongoing projects and the church buildings are used so much we are looking at expansion plans. Current membership of the church is about 550 and rising (probably in the top five biggest Baptist Churches in the country). I think this kind of community view of the church is becoming more prevalent up and down the country, and I'm hoping that some great long-lasting initiatives and reforms will come out of it - just like the great reforms of the 19th Century - we are beginning to see this with the Drop the Debt initiative and Fair Trade movements, and more recently the Make Poverty History initiative. From a spiritual point-of-view, I believe there was a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the church in this country in the mid-1990s that kick-started many of these things, and I am eagerly awaiting His next wave!
FP: You wrote recently you've "looked into the Liberal Democrats a lot over the past couple of months because I am so disillusioned with Labour..." What are your biggest complaints with Labour?
MS: The Labour Party was founded by Christians and is supposed to be an agent for social justice. They have sold out to big business and pandered to the wealthy by:
1.) Doing nothing to raise income tax for the wealthy but instead increasing indirect taxation in underhand ways.
2.) Allowing private finance into schools and hospitals to the detriment of those public services. For example, cleaning contracts for hospitals invariably go to the lowest bidder and therefore they aren't cleaned properly. School meals are similarly outsourced and children's health is subsequently exploited.
3.) Allowing universities to charge fees to students - when I was at university my local government authority paid the fees. This is prohibiting poorer families from sending their children on to higher education and causing a massive increase in student debt and drop-out rates. Education should be available to all regardless of ability to pay - the same as healthcare, because it ultimately benefits society as a whole.
4.) Following a right-wing agenda on Foreign Policy - and of top of that lying to us about it! The UK never sent troops to Vietnam and our "special relationship" didn't suffer, so why sell out this time?
5.) Following a right-wing agenda on crime and "terrorism". Tony Blair famously said that Labour would be "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime" - we haven't seen anywhere near enough action on "the causes of crime". Trying to institute ID Cards for all British Citizens. Keeping suspect terrorists under house arrest with no knowledge of what they have supposed to have done, and no idea of how long they will be imprisoned for.
FP: What do you take to be the biggest differences in the political culture of the US and the UK? How, if at all, are these differences shaped by religion?
MS: The emphasis on religion is the biggest difference between the political culture of the US and UK. I heard someone say last week that you can guarantee the two Presidential Candidates will always have to make a statement on abortion, for example. That kind of moral issue is almost never talked about during political campaigns over here, and if I had to say why, I suppose it would be that most people are disturbed by the politicization of specific moral issues. The head of the Catholic Church made a statement on abortion a couple of weeks ago and the debate was about whether it was right for him to become involved in trying to politicize this issue, and there wasn't really much debate about the issue itself. Also, it is generally accepted to be political suicide to mention God in any political speech, and it is well known that Tony Blair's own political advisors have removed the 'G' word from his speeches on at least one occasion. People are very suspicious and even cynical of any politician who mixes his faith and his politics. This has been one of the major problems for Blair in being associated with the "right-wing fundamentalist Christian" President Bush.
FP: Who are your favorite thinkers and writers in the areas of theology and politics?
MS: Theology: by far my favourite author would have to be Richard Foster, author of Streams of Living Water and Celebration of Discipline.
Politics and Journalism: John Pilger, Noam Chomsky, George Monbiot , Robert Fisk (Middle East correspondent for
The Independent.
FP: Are there one or two posts you are most proud of?
MS: The Shade of Swords
Faith Schools Undermine Citizenship
MS: I'm soon to be 29 on St. George's Day (23rd April). St. George is the Patron Saint of England but our saint's day isn't celebrated anywhere near as much as St. Patrick's Day, although he seems to have been catching up over the last few years (the reasons for the resurgence in English patriotism are worth studying in themselves.) Shakespeare was also born on St. George's Day; and Harold Wilson, the then Labour Prime Minister, ironcially resigned on the day I was born.
I was born in Portsmouth in the centre of the South Coast, home to a major Naval Base and most famously the embarcation point for most of the D-Day soldiers in 1944 (including both my Grandads). At the age of 5 (in 1981) my family moved to Birmingham, the UK's second city, and we started attending Sutton Coldfield Baptist Church. I was baptised at the age of 16 in 1992 and from then on became passionate about mission, particularly to Muslims, and went on two summer campaigns in the South of France in 1993 and 94. In 1996 I went on a trip to North Africa. From 1994-98 I returned to Portsmouth to attend university, and I graduated with a degree in Computer Science. For much of that time I attended an Assemblies of God (AOG) church which had 16 members when I started, but had grown to about 200 when I left. I became great friends with one of the pastors, and even lodged with him in my Final Year. My pastor's background in the Anglican and even Anglo-Catholic denominations before he moved to Pentecostal ministry gave me a very wide view on church traditions that I believe really broadened my own views and experiences of the Church as a whole - from early Church Fathers to the use of icons in worship and what became known as The Toronto Blessing of the mid-nineties.
I was International Secretary of University of Portsmouth Christian Union in 1995/6 and recently went back there as a guest speaker in January this year - 10 years on! In an even more amazing piece of symmetry my brother is the current International Secretary of Aston University!
I returned to Birmingham in 1998 and married my wife Heidi in 2000 in her home town of Chorley, Lancashire (near Manchester). We are settled in Birmingham and both lead a student-aged small group, and have been blessed with many friends of that age-range - it helps to keep us young! Heidi is a youth worker in a very tough area nearby, and has major responsibility for sexual health initiatives.
I have travelled extensively, visiting France, Spain, Germany, Holland, USA (California), North Africa and Australia (Queensland), as well as passing through a few more countries.
Through travelling, especially in North Africa, I developed an increasing interest in social justice and have become more and more disillusioned with the way western governments, corporations and media treat and report the rest of the world. In September last year I became self-employed in a large part due to my disillusionment with the corporate world, and in order to experiment with a tent-making ministry (Paul made tents to supplement his missionary journeys). At the moment we are heavily involved with the student scene, but I feel this is a stepping stone to something else - probably abroad.
FP: When and why did you start your Blog?
MS: I started the blog in July 2004 as a journal of my day-to-day life and thoughts. It's since evolved into a far more political blog with some photos and Christian commentary thrown in (you will also see occasional posts on Aston Villa - the football team I have supported all my life; and a few more on my favourite sport - cricket). At the time I didn't really know where it was going to go, but I was really excited about the medium itself and the way that it threatens Big Media, much in the same way as the Pamphleteers threatened the Establishment when the printing-press was invented. Unfortunately when I started my blog I wasn't aware of the convention of creating a clever name for yourself, so MattSellers.co.uk seems a bit out of place, but at least I'm not tied to any one subject!
FP: We understand that you are a proud Baptist. How large is the Baptist Church in the UK? What is going on in the life of the Baptist Church in the UK?
MS: According to the Baptist Union of Great Britain website there are around 150,000 members of Baptist Churches affiliated to the Baptist Union in around 2,150 churches. Considering there are 60 million people in the UK this doesn't seem many, but on the other hand church attendance is much lower in the UK than it is in the USA. Each Baptist Chuch is independent of all the others and so it is difficult to talk in general terms of "What is going on in the life of the Baptist Church in the UK" - instead I think it is far more interesting to talk about Evangelical Christians within the UK. The only group that is growing are the Evangelicals, whom the media generally portray as dangerous fundamentalists, much in the same way as the "Religious Right" of the USA. However, many Evangelical Christians have socialist economic opinions, even though they have conservative moral views.
Our church is committed to the local community, and in particular the children, youth and disadvantaged of the area. We have many ongoing projects and the church buildings are used so much we are looking at expansion plans. Current membership of the church is about 550 and rising (probably in the top five biggest Baptist Churches in the country). I think this kind of community view of the church is becoming more prevalent up and down the country, and I'm hoping that some great long-lasting initiatives and reforms will come out of it - just like the great reforms of the 19th Century - we are beginning to see this with the Drop the Debt initiative and Fair Trade movements, and more recently the Make Poverty History initiative. From a spiritual point-of-view, I believe there was a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the church in this country in the mid-1990s that kick-started many of these things, and I am eagerly awaiting His next wave!
FP: You wrote recently you've "looked into the Liberal Democrats a lot over the past couple of months because I am so disillusioned with Labour..." What are your biggest complaints with Labour?
MS: The Labour Party was founded by Christians and is supposed to be an agent for social justice. They have sold out to big business and pandered to the wealthy by:
1.) Doing nothing to raise income tax for the wealthy but instead increasing indirect taxation in underhand ways.
2.) Allowing private finance into schools and hospitals to the detriment of those public services. For example, cleaning contracts for hospitals invariably go to the lowest bidder and therefore they aren't cleaned properly. School meals are similarly outsourced and children's health is subsequently exploited.
3.) Allowing universities to charge fees to students - when I was at university my local government authority paid the fees. This is prohibiting poorer families from sending their children on to higher education and causing a massive increase in student debt and drop-out rates. Education should be available to all regardless of ability to pay - the same as healthcare, because it ultimately benefits society as a whole.
4.) Following a right-wing agenda on Foreign Policy - and of top of that lying to us about it! The UK never sent troops to Vietnam and our "special relationship" didn't suffer, so why sell out this time?
5.) Following a right-wing agenda on crime and "terrorism". Tony Blair famously said that Labour would be "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime" - we haven't seen anywhere near enough action on "the causes of crime". Trying to institute ID Cards for all British Citizens. Keeping suspect terrorists under house arrest with no knowledge of what they have supposed to have done, and no idea of how long they will be imprisoned for.
FP: What do you take to be the biggest differences in the political culture of the US and the UK? How, if at all, are these differences shaped by religion?
MS: The emphasis on religion is the biggest difference between the political culture of the US and UK. I heard someone say last week that you can guarantee the two Presidential Candidates will always have to make a statement on abortion, for example. That kind of moral issue is almost never talked about during political campaigns over here, and if I had to say why, I suppose it would be that most people are disturbed by the politicization of specific moral issues. The head of the Catholic Church made a statement on abortion a couple of weeks ago and the debate was about whether it was right for him to become involved in trying to politicize this issue, and there wasn't really much debate about the issue itself. Also, it is generally accepted to be political suicide to mention God in any political speech, and it is well known that Tony Blair's own political advisors have removed the 'G' word from his speeches on at least one occasion. People are very suspicious and even cynical of any politician who mixes his faith and his politics. This has been one of the major problems for Blair in being associated with the "right-wing fundamentalist Christian" President Bush.
FP: Who are your favorite thinkers and writers in the areas of theology and politics?
MS: Theology: by far my favourite author would have to be Richard Foster, author of Streams of Living Water and Celebration of Discipline.
Politics and Journalism: John Pilger, Noam Chomsky, George Monbiot , Robert Fisk (Middle East correspondent for
The Independent.
FP: Are there one or two posts you are most proud of?
MS: The Shade of Swords
Faith Schools Undermine Citizenship
posted by Faithful Progressive at 12:38 AM
3 Comments:
"... Also, it is generally accepted to be political suicide to mention God in any political speech, and it is well known that Tony Blair's own political advisors have removed the 'G' word from his speeches on at least one occasion. People are very suspicious and even cynical of any politician who mixes his faith and his politics. This has been one of the major problems for Blair in being associated with the "right-wing fundamentalist Christian" President Bush."
Very interesting!
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