Calvin Robinson, Reverend, Political Adviser, TV/radio Presenter, Conservative Commentator

Calvin Robinson is Minister-in-Charge, Christ Church Harlesden.  Calvin is a political adviser, TV/radio presenter, and conservative commentator. You may well know him, from his appearances on GB News and his Common Sense Crusade (Sundays 2 - 4 pm).

Calvin started life in Mansfield, in the mining town area of Nottingham. He grew up in a family unit that exposed him to being engaged in the community and has carried this throughout his life.

He started out writing for pretty much every tabloid and broadsheet, from The Guardian to the Daily Express; The Telegraph and Daily Mail. Finally taking up residence at GB News.

Having trained between 2020 and 2022 for ordination in the Church of England at St Stephen's House, Oxford, he was refused ordination by Jonathan Baker, the Bishop of Fulham, and chose to leave the church for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). He was ordained as a deacon on 25 June 2022 in the Free Church of England.

We talked about:

• Culture
• Society
• Critical Race Theory
• Schools
• Activist Infiltration
• Self Leadership
• Calvin's life journey
• The Church

To find out more about Guy Bloom and his award winning work in Team Coaching, Leadership Development and Executive Coaching click below.

The link to everything CLICK HERE
UK: 07827 953814
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Transcript

Guy Bloom    00:00 

Welcome to leadership bites with myself, your host, guy bloom. This is a leadership podcast where I have conversations with colleagues, I chat with guests, and sometimes they'll be just me talking. You can connect with me at livingbrave.com and when you enjoy the episode, subscribe and please tell everyone. Calvin, absolutely fantastic to have you on this episode of Leadership Bytes welcome guys,
 
 

Calvin Robinson    00:25 

My pleasure. Thank you for the invitation.
 
 

Guy Bloom    00:26 

Well, I'm actually anticipating having you as the hundredth. Episode that's how excited I am actually quite something wow i know. Well, I've been building up to it and I thought, who's the right person? And I think it's you. And we'll get into that as as to why.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    00:40 

But you know, I respect that as well because I get invited onto a lot of podcasts and and quite a lot of people invite now before they've even launched a podcast. And I think they think, you know, get someone with a bit of a profile, it will help boost the point, but it doesn't work like that. The way to grow a podcast, as we were talking about off here, is through consistency, keeping it going and building an audience. So I respect that you've managed to get to hundred that's quite an achievement.
 
 

Guy Bloom    01:01 

Well I do, I do kind of. I go down that. I mean most people will know who are Joe Rogan is in the terms of being awesome podcaster and of course I'm a I'm a minnow compared to his gargantuan thus in terms of what he's achieved. But I do just kind of on a very minor note when somebody says to Joe Rogan. The other pools and think about what you've achieved he goes no because if I do it will frighten me. Even when I get to 100 episodes I kind of think don't look at the numbers. Don't look at the stats, just keep going you know don't worry about it. But so anyway listen here we are and Cowan I do know you are as I'm sure many people will but there will also be some people that don't. So it be great just to get from you. You're at a party and somebody says So what do you do then? How do you how do you answer that with with the broad spectrum that is you.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    01:44 

I've always struggled with that question, but I usually say. I'm an Anglican Deacon and a TV slash radio presenter.
 
 

Guy Bloom    01:52 

And even that is this great combination of just, it's not like fish and chips, it's like fish and ice cream. You know that I.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    02:01 

See them as one of the same because it's all about ministry. I've got my parish ministry and my public broadcast ministry brilliant so on that note, I would love to know because you are, you know, there are personal letters, there are characters in this world and we've just been talking about Pulp Fiction or fair, as we do, and there's a fantastic scene in it where mister Wolf says to the lady. To scrap yard, they're using at some point just because you are a character doesn't mean you have character and that's one of my kind of I I love you as we said many moments from that film, but I think you. Have character. And I say that as an observer without, you know, obviously being around your house for Tate. So I would like you to bring to life what does, call it a week, call it a month, but what does your life look like? And I think that will set context that we can then have some conversation about. Well, I think there's quite a lot there that we could have a little bit of a go at. But just before we do, then Calvin, you know, just walk me through that, added Calvin, get to where he is today. What was that stepping stones that took you to this place that you now inhabit?
 
 

Calvin Robinson    04:43 

A shift in focus, a shift in perspective. And I say this to a lot of people yeah you mentioned Joe Rogan never stops to think about what he's achieved and I'm the same in that sometimes people say you've got a bit of a profile or you've you know you're not well known in this area and I don't honestly don't focus on that. I don't, I don't take it in because I'm constantly working on on my ministry and constantly working on building my platform for my ministry but never for the ends in and of itself. And what I mean by that is people say things like well how do I get to right for the Telegraph or the Daily Mail. How do I get my own TV show. How do I XYZA look at the they look at my. Milestones as goals in them. So I find it very, very strange. And I was like, well, if you want to write for the Telegraph, get writing. And they're like, can you introduce me to someone? And this and that. It's like people always want to skip to the end, but always the end is the focus. And I find that very sad because you know what? When I do anything that I do, I'm always at least trying to do it for the great glory of God. When I got to where I am through through writing prolifically writing about what I was seeing in education because it it hurt me what I was seeing, this indoctrination of young people and I wanted to make people aware of it. So I wrote about it. Not to become a well known writer or not to get in certain papers, just because I thought it was important to do so. And I think that's what people need to focus on. Focus on your mission and the platform comes as a result. If you focus on the platform, you're looking at the wrong thing. And I say this all these young people that are obsessed with how many followers they have or how many likes and retweets they get. It means nothing, you know, I continuously, every every year or two, I wiped my Twitter, for example, get rid of all the treats and you know, because you get stuck in all that one's got a million retweets, ray. But it's like it's not important. These things are distractions and it's the mission that should be at the forefront of our minds and everything else falls into place. I think that was a bit of a tangent. You asked me how I got where I am, but that's that's the advice I give. But how I got where I am is just through through writing and through caring about certain issues. And eventually people started to notice and ask me for my opinion on those issues.
 
 

Guy Bloom    06:42 

So I do hear some stuff there about focus on the message. And become an ex. Well not maybe not an expert at it but you know put your energy in your effort into knowing and understanding and creating output and there is a bit of a build it and they will come I think there which is if you've got something to say that people actually want to listen to if you've got a platform that's big or got that capability. But actually you haven't got anything to say than the reality is it going to work cabin. You know how did you grow up? How did you move into that ministry space? What is it that took you down that road?
 
 

Calvin Robinson    07:16 

Well, I grew up in the Midlands in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, Robin Hood country.
 
 

Guy Bloom    07:20 

I used to live in bilsthorpe.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    07:21 

No way. Yeah, this is looking whenever I used to, when I first moved to London a long, long time ago, I used to say ohh from the East Midlands somewhere. I never used to say specifically, but cause I thought, no one's gonna have heard of Mansfield whenever I do. Everyone's heard of it for some reason or another, which find strange. It's a it's a former miners town, it's a market town, you know, not much happens there, but it's a place, you know, outside of this bubble of Westminster where people still. Even community and growing up community was important. You know, my mother always had around our table Labour politicians, conservative politicians should have the head of the local football team, the head of the local rugby team. She'd have all these so-called important people should be bashing their heads together and making sure that they're working for the community. Like should arrange litter picking sessions and get everyone out there, you know, with litter pickers making sure the streets are clean or should make sure that there were enough bins or like really basic stuff, but so important. For the local area, like having that pride in your community and and being part of something bigger than yourself but also bigger than your own, personal politics was always something that was important to my mother and I I think I grew up around the idea that conversations should come from both angles and it shouldn't just be your own perspective that you're listening to. And she was great at that. So that probably is has something to do with my interest in politics at least. You know, we were planting trees from the moment we could walk and my mum ran the community centres and that kind of thing. But I I didn't get involved in politics myself until quite late. And I got involved through local residents association first and foremost. Campaigning actually firstly to get rid of the horrible bosses going up and down the High Street and people won't think I'm the most green person ever from a lot of the things I say. But having those constant buses going up and down with full of pollution with no one on them, it just didn't make much sense. So we petitioned to get more greener buses and actually to try and cut down on the number of Ghostbusters. That was my first taste into politics and I realised very quickly when we were petitioning, actually I think it was against Boris Johnson at the time. So again, it wasn't party political that to get anything done you needed to get closer to the source and that's when I started to get into more party political issues and eventually. Um yeah, became a campaigner myself and then stood for office in certain roles. But all whilst doing that I was maintaining my writing and getting on with focusing on the issues themselves and trying to spread awareness and I suppose. That's the political front, and then the faith side of the story is a whole other journey.
 
 

Guy Bloom    10:00 

And is there a A A synopsis on that? That said, that's when I realised that was a path for me.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    10:07 

Yeah, the synopsis would be that. I was after uni. I entered industry, loved industry, but it was very superficial and it wasn't fulfilling and I realised quite quickly that this is not this not how I wanted to spend my life. I didn't want to spend it chasing money and I didn't want to spend it just getting drunk and having fun. As great as that sounds, it's it's soulless and I looked at a way of I hate the term, giving something back. It sounds really pompous, but I wanted. Something more rewarding from life, I suppose nourishing yes,
 
 

Guy Bloom    10:41 

Yes, spiritually nourishing. And through that I became a teacher. And that was the start of my vocation, the start of my calling. And upon entering teaching, I further discerned and further explored my calling and realised that I was supposed to be in ordained ministry. And this is something that God had been nudging me towards for a long time. And it was great when I finally acknowledged that and spoke to the church about it, and they also saw that calling and acknowledged it. And then I went towards. Training and the rest, as they say, is history. And can I ask a a naive question here, when one somebody makes that decision to go into the ministry, is it college, is it university? Is it a dedicated space that you go to? I literally I'm not sure of that entry route.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    11:24 

Yeah, no, that's a very good question. If it was up to me, everyone would take a residential route, and that's the way it used to be. You go to seminary like a theological college, and you spend two or three years there with other people also training and. I think again, it's rooted in community. And the one that I went to, I went to Oxford. Saint Stephen's House is the name of the college and everyday was rooted around prayer. So we started the day seven thirty with morning prayer. We ended the day at five thirty with evening prayer and everything else fit around that. And I think that's important to start off your ministry, fitting your life around prayer rather than trying to fit prayer around your life that these days anyone can get into ministry any, any route. They've lowered the expectations and the standards. You can just do an evening Class A couple of times a week. And get ordained. And I think that's to our detriment really.
 
 

Guy Bloom    12:13 

Over what period of time would that be?
 
 

Calvin Robinson    12:15 

Well, it depends. Depends on your age. The the older you are, you can. You can do these things in a year. I don't know how much of a theological backing you can get doing a few evening classes in a year. To be honest with you. I think that's probably got something to do with the state of affairs that we're in today.
 
 

Guy Bloom    12:30 

So interesting. I teach martial arts and in traditional martial arts it takes a, you know, a minimum of usually three to five years before you can get a black belt. And sometimes some systems it's ten years. In the last decade or so there's been a a change where some people, it's for the money. They run courses where you do an 18 day course and you're an instructor, might come along to instructor training for what I do. And they really try and hold space with people that have been doing it for 10 years or for 20 years. And just even though the will, the motivation. The point may be that the endurance, the insight, the tenacity, the resilience, all those things, the discipline. Thank you. Yes, that's that's an even better word. The discipline isn't there. And that's probably true regardless of content or context. It's just whatever discipline you're going into. So I recognise that. That's something I can talk.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    13:19 

About for some time, which is another podcast.
 
 

Guy Bloom    13:24 

Well, there we are. You say there's a few topics here and I think one of them then is, and I don't know if they're the same thing, but common sense Crusade, which I also hear you talk about education and indoctrination and these kind of things, and it's a big sphere, but maybe we kick on that first, which is you were a teacher, so you've got insight. You're not just talking about it as an observer. So I think there's a credibility piece there. I understand that. So what have you seen that he's giving you red flags? What are you saying that says, listen, this male may not even be about faith. This might be just about what is inherently right or wrong. Now I can possibly attach faith to it, I just wonder if you could plot that out a little bit for us.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    14:04 

Yeah, I just released a documentary with the New Culture forum called Heresy's. I think it's episode 10. On this issue of indoctrination in schools and I gave a little bit of my perspective but also interviewed teachers parents, gardeners and looked at the political statements and and really stretched this out for parents because the biggest thing I've come up against so far is parents saying well it's not happening in my kids school and that worries me because how do you know and when I say this what do I mean? There are so many things happening but it's all down to the critical theories that's all down to Neo Marxism that has infiltrated.
 
 

Guy Bloom    14:42 

Our education system. This is critical race theory when you say critical theories.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    14:46 

Critical race theory, gender theory, queer theory, it's all from that same Frankfurt School of thought where critical, critical theories came from in Europe before it went to America and then back over to England. And what it does is it undermines our very way of life because that's what new Max is. That's what Marxism is all about. It's essentially, I mean, just to breakdown one element of this telling young people. That they can decide their gender. Other than the gender that was assigned to them at birth. Completely mitigating the biological fact that people are born either male or female. You know I'm I'm not gonna debate the idea that you know, different people can have different perspectives on whether they are a man or a woman. But the idea of male and female is a biological fact that that we used to always be taught in science and now we're seeing that the curriculum has been shifted so rapidly to take on board these contested ideologies that what they're doing is well for example in in the UK and in English schools that sex education has moved from secondary school it down into. Primary school and we're having lessons for five year olds about well stimulating body ports essentially teaching young kids to masturbate and all of this comes from these theories and people don't always put two and two together and people don't always see the bread crumbs on my journey has been laying that out for them and saying look this is what's on the curriculum. This is what your kid might be being taught. Just ask your school ask them what are they teaching in RCP SHE citizenship and what we found is a lot of parents have come back and said well the school aren't going to say. Their school have said they can't share what they're teaching. That should be a red flag right there. No school should ever say we cannot tell you what we're teaching your child because the school is there to be supplemental. It's there to support the parent, not to replace them, and certainly not to replace their values or ideology.
 
 

Guy Bloom    16:37 

I've got two boys, one's tenam, one's 8, so this is a prime time for their education. There is something there about number one. If you said to me, guy, do you pay attention, then the answer would be no, not really. Yeah, and that's because at 53 I am referencing school through the lens that I experienced, not the one that's current, but I'm also on social media and I know a lot of people my age that aren't and you know, they they don't look at tick tock and they don't look at this kind of stuff. And I don't look at tick tock and look at tick tocks every now and then. It's amusing. I primarily look at tick tock as a way of taking a pulse on the world and understanding what my ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen year old will be viewing and the way that fifteen sixteen seventeen. 18 year olds are experiencing life and the way that those in their early twenties are I guess offering their truths into the world. Social media will either tell you that the world is full of puppies or Armageddon is tomorrow you know. But the full reality of watching soul from media does make me go there's something not in all schools but the schools are at risk dependent potentially on maybe the Council that's in or the like the party that's in and and maybe the history that goes with it. But there are risk factors there so that asking and saying to a school. I would like to understand the curriculum. I would like to understand the content. It's not available online is it? It's it's you know, you think actually this is our curriculum there. It is for the year. Just cop onto the website. Those are the lessons we're covering. There should be.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    18:06 

Transparency there should be and we're seeing a lot of push back at the moment around copyright because schools have been told they've got to teach relationship and sexual education, which is the new sex Ed RSS E at quite short notice so so not being subject matter. Experts in this because, you know, most teachers, trainers specific area, they've recruited external agencies into schools and up until recently that has been mostly Stonewall and mermaids, who as we know are very politically ideological organisations. And what we've seen is that these organisations have said to schools you cannot share our resources because that would break our copyright, and scores have taken that quite literally. And said parents, we can't show you the content we're teaching your child because it would break copyright. And of course that's nonsense because it's not about it's there's no commercial competition going on there, parents aren't.
 
 

Guy Bloom    18:56 

Use itself propagate.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    18:58 

It it's it's absolutely just an excuse being used to block off parents. But then we're also seeing some schools go further than that and say to teachers, you must call this child by his or her. Preferred pronouns and not tell the parent about this. So it's undermining parenthood and parental responsibility and authority, and that is very dangerous. That is essentially grooming.
 
 

Guy Bloom    19:23 

Again, I'm interested in my 10 year old would look at a teacher and go what do you mean? I'm obviously A and then he would announce he because in his world it's that simple. I can wrap my head around a child that if. Off their own back, they were having that conversation internally and they wanted to be identified in a certain way. That's a different conversation, which again, I'm not gonna get into now, but I think what I do observe. And fair. Possibly more in the US than in the UK, but what happens there comes here, and I'm sure it exists. Here is where teachers have an agenda that may not be. Machiavellian in the context of their predators. But their ideology is the Machiavellian elements, where there's a vocabulary and an intent to challenge children to think in a manner that they would actually offer as being the wrong way of thinking, which is what they've learned at the home. And to take on board this centralised view that they're offering. That's the bit then where I go. It's not about you indoctrinating, it's about you guiding and allowing them to live with multiple truths, etcetera so yeah, when you said that it's worse. I love to hear about.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    20:37 

That, yeah. Well, I mean in America at least parents are fighting back over here. Parents don't recognise that it's happening yet. So that's that's the first bit. But when I say it's worse, I mean it's worse than ideological teachers, it's worse than activist teachers because they, I imagine they are still in the minority. But why it's worse is because it's all about the activists infiltrating schools. So I did some polling when I was a part of a think tank to find out what is being taught in schools and we discovered that the vast majority of schools are no longer using experts so it's very difficult for them to show you. And we've got to say here, this is what we're teaching. What they're doing is they're downloading resources off the Internet. And the biggest, most popular teaching resource website is called the Tees, which used to be the Times educational substitute. And I know this website, I've used it myself. And what teachers do is the download resources they make, edit a few things, then they go and teach this in class. And especially when teachers don't have any subject matter expertise in an area, they'll download the resources. And we found that I think it was about 70 % of classes were being taught, resources downloaded. And then so I looked at the resources on taxes and the vast majority of them were infiltrated already with ideologies. So what the activists are doing, they're not necessarily in the classrooms, they're infiltrating the resources that teachers are downloading, whether the teachers are activists or not. They're then teaching these things which are contested and telling kids about white privilege and and and that if they are black they are oppressed and you know, pushing this critical race theory nonsense. Because it's it's very, you know, it comes from a good place but they don't realise that they're undermining our way of life and they're undermining parents at home and it's all very toxic and divisive.
 
 

Guy Bloom    22:13 

I think I am quite fascinated by whenever you talk about that is I don't quite know how to maybe verbalise this, but is the the fear potentially of push back in those spaces and there is this phrase talking truth to power and it seems to me that you believe what you believe and there are those that don't believe. Probably have a sense of fear, of being alienated, isolated, vilified within their own community. And in that respect, I think it sometimes gives a sense that there's more people believing in things than there are, because many stay quiet and I wonder if you have that experience of people saying I'm I wouldn't dare bring it up.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    22:50 

Yeah, yeah. You know, peer pressure plays a large part in this, both in the adult summit and the and the pupils. In terms of the pupils, we now have, you know, you'll go around the class and let's announce our pronouns. To him she her etcetera etcetera and then it gets to pupil that doesn't feel the need to announce their presence and or may not want to but of course they're granted because they're gonna feel that peer pressure and that's what you have to do. We see the same with the adults. You know at the end of the email signature the teachers now put she her. It's like well I know Karen that you're a she her because your name's Karen. You don't need to ensure pronouns to me but by doing that what they're doing is making people who don't do that feel ostracised and pushed out and and in order to feel more inclusive they're actually excluding. People but it's the hypocrisy doesn't always evident but you're right, there are lots of people that go against this or would would want to stand up against it, but didn't and won't because they won't want to stick their heads above the.
 
 

Guy Bloom    23:43 

Parapet inclusivity in that context is quite interesting if it's inclusivity in the sense of as long as you agree. So if inclusivity is complete disagreement is also palatable, then that's inclusive, right? But actually, if it's no, if you don't agree, actually by definition not inclusive, and it's it's an argument that. Kind of wins itself, but it's a bit like saying that table's got four legs, that Dog's got four legs, therefore that dog's a table. You go, well, yeah, if that was actually true. But it's such a false logic that in some respects it seems to hold weight with people. And I'm, I'm fascinated by a lot of the arguments that I see, like the Matt Walsh thing, which is the moment, which is, you know, what is a woman. And he's absolute struggle to get that question answered because in the answering of it lies the ridiculousness, I guess, of of the situation that some people are in.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    24:32 

People don't want to be rude. Put on to hurt each other. Of course people are going to be careful and try an egg shells. But at the same time, we all know what a woman is. Everyone knows what a woman is. Even toddlers and babies know the difference between a man and a woman. They can't articulate it, of course they can't, but they can tell you the difference that you know that's Mummy, that's Daddy. They know that's a man and that's a woman. But the problem we have is we're breaking down this idea that there is a universal truth and we're giving people ownership of their own truths and that's that's pushing us away from the Enlightenment. I'm not a massive fan of the Enlightenment myself, but we've been saying. Years and years. The Enlightenment is is what makes us better now than our forebears. And if we're pushing in the opposite direction, surely that's a bad thing. But the thing I I don't understand yet is that, you know, people, detractors of mine, people who say that my views and opinions are outdated or bigoted or whatever, they're welcome to that opinion. That's fine, but I don't see them have a question. But what if he's right? Or what if I'm wrong? That's the problem I think I am struggling with at the moment, because yes, we've made a lot of progress in lots of ways over the last hundred. Years we've made more technological progress than we have in a thousand years. Like things are moving at a rapid pace, but that doesn't mean that we're making moral progress or ethical progress. But we always assume that we are, and we assume that progress is linear. I don't think it is. I think there are ups and downs, peaks and troughs, and we make mistakes and sometimes they get corrected. And we've seen empires rise and fall continuously over mankind's history. And I think we might be at the fall of Rome in Western society at the moment. I think I feel that I might be wrong. But what if I'm right? What if what we're doing now is harmful to the next generation? What if we're making a massive mistake? Surely we're just we owe them a duty of at least asking that question.
 
 

Guy Bloom    26:11 

At one level, I don't think you have to be right. I think you have, you have the right to be heard in a manner that you would give to anybody else. So I think that's my my first stepping stone. I'm always intrigued now by this Council culture and this absolute desire to damage by people that are talking about inclusivity and equality and fairness and yet they punish at a rate which is very concerned, right. I saw a T-shirt once that said, as I have tattoos and. They said, you know the difference between somebody with tattoos without tattoos. And then on the back it said the person with tattoos doesn't mind that you haven't got any. It's that kind of attitude that says, well, your belief is your belief. That's fine, but it's when you try and force it as an agenda, because we're never going to get to a Nirvana where we all believe the same thing and we all like the same food and we all like the same look, and that's a given. But actually we seem to have fallen out of love. Or maybe we should head towards that, enjoying the differences. Yeah, tolerance is an interesting word, but. Enjoying the fact that Bob likes anchovies and he's an ice cream. In terms of ideology, it doesn't matter how bonkers it is, as long as it's just yours and then it doesn't damage outside of you. I can agree with it, I can disagree with it. But if I try and take it further by cancelling you from work, damaging you on social media, punishing you in ways, that's when I think I see something that sits beyond even the argument. There's something about the nature of the human being. I believe the most important thing to protect is the quality of the conversation and the willingness to meet in the middle. And be curious and to try and understand and almost enjoy the differences. But there's no enjoyment of the differences between dent on your view or your perspective. People almost aren't willing to spend time with you or know you or well if that's how you think. I don't know if you see that or experience that or or even your thoughts on that.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    27:53 

I think everything has been sensationalised to the point that you said we should all have different views unless one something is harmful to other people outside of that, but I think we think everything is harmful at this point. I personally wouldn't want to put. Pronouns in my social media bio. I wouldn't feel the need to. I think it's quite obvious that I'm a man and I think there are only men and women. I don't think there are other genders, so therefore I wouldn't have a need or want to express that, but I wouldn't take issue with someone else that does. However, the people that would put their pronouns in the bio, whether it's whether they believe that it's inclusive or whether they are, you know, thinking that they are non binary and outside of the traditional spectrum, therefore need to proclaim their pronouns, the people, what I find most often is those people. Take issue with me not and think that my not is harmful to them because I'm not being inclusive and it's it's like my belief structure isn't harmful to yours cause it doesn't affect you unless you make it so. Like just I just as yours could affect me if I made it so. But we don't, we don't meet in that common ground and it's all sensationalised. It's all everyone thinks that everything is the most important issue in the world these days and it is a dividing factor. And we I think a lot of this came from Brexit. I do you know I I voted. Leave and I campaigned to leave the European Union for a lot of reasons. But what I did not expect is the idea that people are being friends with my entire life would cut me off because I thought differently to what they did over a very political issue, and that that has been getting worse ever since that vote, I think.
 
 

Guy Bloom    29:25 

See, that's fascinating. I I think it's like relationships or or marriage, right? If you don't enjoy the lunacy of the person that you're with, it's probably not going to work. They leave all the lights on in the house when they go out and you come home and every time all the lights are on. If that winds you up, it's not going to work if you go right. I wonder how many other lights are on. You can see a joy in it. If I'm for Brexit and you're not, I would still want to sit across with a Curry and a glass of of whatever is our favourite beverage and me look at you and go your bonkers you are and you go, I'm bonkers and we can still be great friends because the discussion is in the middle, but the humanity is still.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    29:59 

There, even if you don't take joy in it, even if having the lights left on annoys the bejesus out of you every single time you get home, you still appreciate the other things, like you get to watch Game of Thrones. Whether or she cooks you a lovely meal, like there are things you do appreciate, even if there are things that you cannot find joy in. And it's about addressing that balance, isn't it?
 
 

Guy Bloom    30:17 

So I think to me the arguments are the arguments because they will ebb and flow. I think what I'm almost more worried about is the the reaction of people to other people's opinions. Insert opinion here and that reality of we can't even be friends or we can't communicate if you hold a different ideology or a different perspective than me. And that's because I I think I heard you say, this is it's almost as if. The thinking now is that your opinion now is damaging rather than just an opinion. If you don't agree with me, it's not just so much that we don't agree. I think I heard you say, no, you're damaging the world, you're damaging society. You don't value me. And it almost becomes my the other side is attacking, and I think that's what I heard you say there.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    30:59 

Yeah, yeah. And the irony is that that thought process is damaging. And unless we get away from that, we are going to become more divided because we will never let you said we'll never reach Nirvana, where everyone agrees it's just not humanly possible. We've never been, and I don't think we've ever had a society like that. So we're just gonna get pushed further and further apart. And the if the small issues keep becoming bigger issues eventually, where does that end up? Civil war? You know, I mean, it sounds hyperbolic, but that's the natural conclusion of things. If we can't live together, if we can't find common ground over things that are trivial, eventually we fall out over something that's big hmm moving along to GB News, I know you were on it as a guest for some time, and so that there was a natural transition there and you have to go, right, I'm about to go and do this. Or actually, no, that's completely within your. I know. I'm asking a question I've already got the answer to, by the way.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    31:46 

No, no, it's good. So I've been involved with GB since before it launched because I used to go on talk radio a lot as a contributor and a lot of the good, the lot of the good hosts from talk radio were going over to GB news and they invited me to be part of that process from from I was going to say one, but before day. Once I was there for the rehearsals and helping them get things ready in the form much ready for their show, and then I was a regular contributor. For the first few months and then. There was a change in leadership and a really good guy took over and he said why is no one ever asked you if you wanted your show? I was like, I don't know. And we had a conversation about it and this and we signed up and this was a year ago now. So my show has been a long time coming. But yeah, we made an agreement and I agreed to come on for one day a week that, you know, I was off for different things. Would you do, you know, first of all to get some experience I did 2 weeks everyday, every weekday. Two weeks. And that was that was entertaining, but not something.
 
 

Guy Bloom    32:46 

I'm looking. I do remember seeing you a lot. And then yeah.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    32:49 

Just to get a screen time to build up some experience. I had that and they offered me weekend show, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And I said look, I'm not looking to become a TV presenter, I'm looking this is not career goal again going back to the start of our conversation. But I do want to use the platform to spread the good news and to proclaim the truth as best I can. And I would love to have a faith show or a show centred on current events but from a faith and family perspective. And they said Okay, what about Sunday morning? I was like well, where do you think my audience is going to be honest, Sunday morning. So we settled for Sunday afternoon and I've got 2 till four slots and you know that's we launched what, five weeks ago now was recorded this and it's going quite well. It's going out for the first few weeks. I've beat Sky News consecutively. So ratings wise it's going good and social wise, we've got a video up that by the time this goes out, we'll have reached 3000000 views on Tik tok and again i agree with you it's a toxic horrible platform but i'm using it to kind of i'm trying to flood it with an alternative narrative to the what i see as a cultural subversion that's going on tick tock but yeah i use my show as a platform not for me but for a for the truth and b for the wider you know to make clips for social media to get things out there and get conversations heard that wouldn't necessarily be on tv for example in my last show as recalled this i started with a conversation on abortion but i'm avidly pro life i think the sanctity of life is the most important thing in the world so i want to talk about that and i ended the show with a prayer and i don't think you see many mainstream outlets that will end with a prayer these days or even have a prayer on on television these days other than maybe songs of praise so yeah just doing what i can with the platform that i've been gifted and making sure that i always remember i mean we all we all have to humble ourselves and and turn down our ego and stuff but i always try to remember at least that this is not for me this is for the good news and i'm only gifted this platform as long as i'm proclaiming the good news and if i ever overstep my mark it will be gone i think that's the same with all platforms you know people often say it's great you've got two hundred thousand followers on twitter is like yeah that could have gone tomorrow and it most probably will be at some point so i don't rely on it and i don't celebrate it because it could be you know taken away from me at at the blink of an eye it's not therefore it's not about me.
 
 

Guy Bloom    35:09 

So this is about ministry.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    35:11 

Yeah, yeah. It's all about ministry hmm and do you ever? I don't know what the parameters are for being on television, but do you have a sense of in regards to those that? That maybe look to you who are observing you and maybe even monitoring you. The church, Oregon, outside of the church. Do you have an inbuilt radar of best not or do you go? No as long as I believe it and I'm saying it with elegance, I I'm I am prepared to face into that truth and I will verbalise it. I just wonder how you balance these things.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    35:44 

Not within the church. Some of my bishops are fantastic, and I had the best theological training you can get in this country. So I like to think I've got a decent foundation and I I won't step into heresy and I won't. Well, try not to anyway, and I won't be vicious or vindictive.
 
 

Guy Bloom    35:59 

That's not who you are right so I I I don't get in trouble from the church. And I think I would have done if I got ordained within the state church. I think that would have been a battle against Wokeness constantly. Cause I think weakness has taken hold of the state church unfortunately over theology. So that's not an issue. My only issue is political. You know I have to play by Ofcom's rules and and Ofcom is a political body, although it's supposed to be an independent ombudsman. You know throughout the pandemic we saw they changed their guidelines that dated you cannot question or undermine public health bodies in this country will find that very very troubling. The idea you should be able to question our public health but of course you should able to question them, always undermine them during a pandemic. I can kind of see where they coming from that. But the question I find very troubling a different organisation that I worked at. They wouldn't let me talk about vaccines on the show at all which is why I no longer work at that organisation but the one that I'm right now. I've had some push back on certain topics. But for the most part, they've been really, really good.
 
 

Guy Bloom    36:57 

So what I also notice is on platforms like Twitter with vaccine commentary, people have just been cancelled and taken off. And now we're finding of course that a lot of the queries around what some of these organizations have or haven't done or haven't tested, and some of the, I guess can seen as conspiracy thinking is actually already coming forward as well. Actually, it turns out that they hadn't tested it in that way. Or it turns out that actually the deaths have increased or actually what happened to the good old flu. Where did? Where's that gone? Yeah, there are just lots of things that come out like that.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    37:31 

Guy, pick up a dictionary from the twentieth century and you'll look up coronavirus and you'll see, you know, a common cold. And if you look at vaccine in those, in those dictionaries, you'll see it's something that provides immunity, which is something that the COVID job doesn't really do. And then of course, we've got the news that they never tested it for transmissibility, even though politicians and mainstream media are pushing that this will stop you spreading it to other people. It's like, well, how will it if it's never been tested for transmissibility? For transmission rates like there's so many questions there, but. For something so important as life and death, we should always be able to ask questions. And the fact that, you know, big, big news corporations didn't ask the questions and social media and big tech companies shut people down for asking questions. We've got a lot to look forward to in terms of independent tribunals and investigations and so many people, politicians need to be held to account for the the approach throughout the pandemic.
 
 

Guy Bloom    38:22 

So your position in that ministry space is one of more than just somebody who has a job in an organization you're representative? Of many things that it stands for, which is care and humanity and having a sense of. I talk about contribution when I'm working with teams, I talk about the willingness to help others outside of your own need, which is in essence I think where I where are you coming from? So you could, if you stayed local, we wouldn't know you probably we wouldn't hear anything from you because you just been working at that that local level. So there is something about that willingness to stand and hold space. When you know you're putting yourself in some form of risk, I guess so I applaud that. Again, it doesn't matter if I agree with your disagree. That's not about what this is about. I think it's the willingness to hold space. And I talk about leadership of self. And leadership and self is to have a sense of your own identity and to hold space on it, but to calibrate, to make sure that you're on, that you're not fooling yourself. So I guess I wonder how you calibrate because it's easier yes.
 
 

Guy Bloom    39:29 

Ok.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    39:31 

Right. As long as I'm sticking to this, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. And This is why I don't mind sticking my head above the parapet because we're called to, well quite literally to matter ourselves for the faith. So if, if, if a modern day context that means you're your Twitter account gets closed or you're no longer allowed on TV, it's not a big deal compared to what the the fathers of the church went through who literally laid down their lives for the faith. I think it's a small ask that I'm that wall that we are called to do these days, which is why I get really frustrated. When people do stay quiet or do stay safe on the people say, well, when I just get this next job or this next promotion or just get over this hurdle, then I'll be able to. It's like, no, you won't because they'll always be another hurdle. If you're not winning to proclaim the truth now, you never will be able to. So just do it. Stand up for the truth and die for the truth. That's what we'll call to do as Christians, really.
 
 

Guy Bloom    40:19 

And do you have other people within the ministry that are seeking your advice and your Council about maybe finding their own voice because you have a confidence and an eloquence? Around you that works for you and for others, maybe it will be if they can find it or they've got it, but maybe they don't have the confidence. They're very, they're very knowledgeable in their topic, but they maybe just don't have that presence yet. So do you ever have those kind of conversations with those that are looking to be more than just in their local area and they not so much be you but they want to have an impact? Do you get approached for that?
 
 

Calvin Robinson    40:50 

Of course. And first of all, you know, I'm still involved in the local area. I still have my local parish church and school. I do the day-to-day stuff on the ground as well. I think that helps the anchors me, but yeah. Have those conversations all the time with people, and I find it difficult. I suggest people refer back to this, go read the gospel, prey on it. And because I can't, people can't follow my path. I'm not very good at. I'm not very diplomatic, I don't think I'm not very good at saying something and meaning something else. I just say what I think. And sometimes people take offence to that. Sometimes people find strength in that. But I'm not. I'm not very good at packaging things up in a pretty parcel. You you know where you stand with me. I'm, you know, wizzywig. What you see is what you get but not everyone could do that and I I respect people who are able to put things in a pretty package cause it actually helps them get further down the conversation quite often and it helps them get into certain places where they need to be having the conversations, you know, it helps people become ministers and stuff like that. So I don't ever advise people follow my path, but I suppose praying and discernment and remembering to stick to the mission and stick to the truth as the core rather than again the platform or their end goals that they got in mind.
 
 

Guy Bloom    42:01 

So do you have a strategy? Do you have a, you know, if I, if I see you in five years?
 
 

Calvin Robinson    42:06 

Ohh gosh. No, no, no. That's all. They're not all. You know, I've got in those days. I literally just tried to walkthrough the doors that God opens for me. And sometimes that's very difficult, you know? And when I just finished my ordination training at Oxford and I've got everything lined up for me in the Church of England and it was snatched away like that, that was heart breaking to to have this idea that perhaps I wasn't going to be involved in Parish ministry. You know, I've already got my platform in in media, but I was I I thought I was called to parish ministry and to have that snatched away, it was like, ohh, okay. So maybe I was wrong with that. But then another door opened and I walked through it and I now have my parish ministry and it's actually worked out better for me cause I don't have that woke battle within the church that would have had. So you know these things always happen for a reason and we can't see them at the time necessarily cause we're not zoomed out as as as God is. But you know he has a plan in store for us and it's trying to always have faith in that plan and when I say I walked through the doors God opens for me. I don't want to sound arrogant because as in. We also have to work towards something. We have to contribute. We have to be active. I'm not saying we have to be passive in our lives and God takes care of everything, but we have to be, have our ears to the ground and at least look for the door to be opened and then walk through it. So we can't just wait for everything to be done for us, but we've got to contribute to our lives too.
 
 

Guy Bloom    43:25 

Well, if we make movement ripples happen and people pick up on those and then they may be approaching. So I'm just alert to time that snatched away from you physically taken suggested that you. Move on. Again, I do know the answer, but just to hear you bring that to life would be worth just understanding that.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    43:41 

Yeah, it's not clear cut because. The bishops within the Church of England are very political. The very good at that thing. I was just talking about in saying one thing and meaning attent other things, you never get a clear yes or no. So I was never told that there weren't going to update me. I was never actually rejected. I ended up leaving because the plan that they'd put in place for me had fallen through and there is no plan to replace it. So they wanted me to hang around in this limbo forever. And that's how something is, you know, in the in in industry would be seen as constructive dismissal. But in the church you're not actually an employee, so you don't you don't have employee rights and there's no tribunal. Or anything. It's a very antiquated system because it's been around before. We had employment rights. But essentially, I'd finished my training, I'd succeeded at everything, passed everything. I had a parish lined up, I had met the priest, met the congregation, the Bishop had approved it it all. All the boxes had been ticked, except the paperwork hadn't been filled in. And I've been told to postpone and postpone, postpone the announcement. And this went from a short term to an indefinite amount of term, time and. Essentially, they constructively got rid of Maine. And to the point that I had to say, look, the off this is clearly not gonna work. You don't want me here for for political reasons that they hinted at but never made explicit. So I was like, OK, it's time to call it a day.
 
 

Guy Bloom    45:00 

Well, listen, I applaud you. I applaud your tenacity. And I didn't bring you on to agree or disagree with you. I brought you on cause I think you're a value in the world and I see you adding value. I do admire tenacity and I do admire people that are clear about what they're about. Regardless of what my thoughts and opinions on that are, so I just wanna say thank you for coming on the show. If people wanted to find out more about you to connect with you. What's the best way of doing that, Calvin?
 
 

Calvin Robinson    45:28 

calvinrobinson.com or my socials are on there. I've got a sub stack that I've started now ohh my if people want my email, address all my postal address or whatever. It's all out there so sure OK. Well, I'll put that in the the write up that I do as well. So listen, just for me, Calvin, thank you. You're so gracious finding the time the world of Google exists for people that want to know. Or and see more, but I think this is a great introduction to.
 
 

Calvin Robinson    45:49 

That I should say Guy, I'm terrible upset promotion. I should say Sunday's 2 till four on GB News. Calvin's Common sense crusade.
 
 

Guy Bloom    45:57 

I would definitely watch it. Well, I do watch it when I'm around. So I I think it's really valuable and I think you add great value in it. So listen, I'm gonna say thank you. I'm gonna get you hold on for a few moments just while everything loads up on that note from me to you and those that are listening. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you. Thank you. God bless. That's it. So I hope you enjoyed the episode. Please share so others. Get to hear about us and subscribe so you keep up to date on new episodes. Also visit living brave com if you want to connect with me and find out more about executive coaching, team effectiveness and changing culture ohh and of course you can buy my book living Brave leadership on Amazon. So on that note, see you soon.