Through The Jesus Candidate, I hope to alert Christians to the dangers and deceptions of the Religious Right, refuting claims that secular, democratic politics are anti-Christian. I hope also to advance understanding of the role of the independent church movement in creating the conditions for modern liberal democracy.
Home now is in east Kent where my wife Kay and I belong to Emmanuel church in Canterbury, and to the Friends International team working with students and refugees. Most of my working life has been as a trainer and consultant in housing and neighbourhood improvement in English cities. I became a Christian believer in my early thirties while working in Liverpool developing co-operatives to involve residents in new housing. Before that I spent some time in Uganda and Sudan working in development, education and journalism. Childhood was mostly in Hull, Yorkshire, and Dover, Kent. From Dover Grammar School I went with a scholarship to Hertford College, Oxford, to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics, where I specialised in Political Sociology and Development Economics and was a university prizewinner in Politics. Later I researched African politics at Leeds University and empowerment in housing for a M.Phil at Salford University.
Before The Jesus Candidate, my most recent publication was For Richer, For Richer, an analysis of the UK housing market, in Foxes have holes: Christian reflections on Britain’s housing need (Ekklesia, 2016). I have contributed many book reviews to Evangelicals Now. Links to all my publications are here.
