Jason Arday and the Identity We're All Chasing

I never imagined I would end up writing about a former Cambridge professor who has dominated the news for the past few weeks. But the story of Jason Arday has undoubtably gripped the nation. In part, this is because it has so many of the ingredients that make up a good tale. There’s exaggeration, mystery, bare-faced lies, pressure, a victim, perpetrators and most crucially of all, it is a culture war issue and a lightning rod for critics of diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI).

Just three years ago, Jason Arday was a bright light in the academic world. At just 37 years old, he was appointed as the youngest ever professor at Cambridge, one of our most prestigious universities. As a black man, he was hailed as evidence that the university was finally starting to reflect modern Britain in its faculty.

It is, I think, worth dropping in a warning here. Success quickly in life can easily breed arrogance. Our sinful hearts need no encouragement! The Apostle Paul brings real wisdom to the fore when he commands that elders in churches must not be recent converts or else they will become conceited. Was Arday failed by a system who promoted him too quicky?

And Arday certainly seemed successful. He was not just an academic at the top of his game, but also, apparently, a brilliant runner, philanthropist and author.

But everything began to unravel in late 2025. He faced allegations that he had plagiarized parts of his PhD thesis and other academic research. He strenuously rejected these claims. According to the Telegraph, an analysis found more than 100 passages in his PhD were similar to another thesis by Paula Zwozdiak-Myers who had published six years previously.

An investigation by Liverpool John Moores University did not uphold the charge but did say the mistake were probably caused by ‘honest and reasonable error’.

Arday also seems to have falsely claimed he was a visiting professor at Ohio State University and the University of Glasgow. But both universities deny this. Arday said he completed a masters in psychodynamic practices by Birkbeck University of London. But they couldn’t find any record of a student named Jason Arday having studied there.

He also said he’d run 30 marathons in 35 days to raise money for charity. He later added that he did this with a fractured leg. He also added that he’d run 600 miles in six days, which would put him on a par with the world’s best endurance runners.

Then there are the claims over his charity work. Arday said he’s raised £5m for charities over 20 years. This is a staggering amount for someone without significant public fame. He said he’d visited South America and west Africa to install water points with WaterAid. But the charity said it never sends volunteers abroad.

Predictably, this sorry saga has prompted fury from both those on the right and those on the left. To the former, Arday is proof of how sinister DEI really is. For the latter, another black man, who also claims to be neurodiverse, has been hounded by the establishment and the right to the point where he has resigned.

There is, however, a more nuanced approach to this story. At CARE, we are for truth and grace. And this is not just a slogan for us. It is our guiding light in how we communicate. Do we always get this right? No! But we try to bring together the beautiful truth of God’s word and the grace we see so clearly in Jesus. I want to show you what I think is a distinctly Christian response to this story.

It starts by emphasising that lies and deceit are grievous and deadly sins. If you go back to the Garden, the Devil used deceit and manipulation of the truth to confuse and tempt Eve and Adam. Later, Cain lies through silence when he doesn’t admit to God where his dead brother is. Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife. Isaac later did the same.

In the Ten Commandments, we read: “Do not give false witness", which obviously includes lying. In the New Testament, Jesus teaches us to let our yes be yes and our no, our no. He also calls Satan the father of lies in a confrontation with the Pharisees (John 8:44). Followers of Jesus are commanded, to stop lying because this is evidence of our old, sinful nature (Colossians 3:9).

It would appear very clearly that in the case of Mr Arday, a lot of lies and half-truths have been told. In turn, this has destroyed any trust in anything he says. But before we go ahead and judge him harshly, remember how easy it is for us to lie. Even if it is a small, ‘white lie’, we excuse it and tell ourselves that what we’ve done is not so bad.

Mr Arday might be very dishonest, but it does appear that he has been on the receiving end of brutal treatment. I don’t mean the news stories about his dishonesty. I think mostly that is journalists simply doing their job and investigating the facts of the story and bringing deception to light.

However, we know that Mr Arday received hostile and racist emails after he was appointed at Cambridge. Whatever we might think of the standard of his work, Christians should condemn this completely. There is no place, whatsoever, for racism in the Kingdom of God.

After all, Jesus came to unite both Jew and Gentile together as one, new humanity in his kingdom. God made all humanity equally in his image (Gen. 1:26-27). The diversity of people with different skin colours is part of the beauty of God’s world and reflects the wonder of the Trinity itself.

It is possible to condemn lying and truth-twisting and yet also feel very sad at the hate and grief Mr Arday has clearly suffered. One message I saw on X said this: "In a way, Arday is a tragic figure. He was hyped by the establishment, and they all rushed to his defense for as long as that seemed to be the high-status thing to do. Now that it's no longer high-status to defend him, they're dropping him like a hot potato."

I think there is a lot of truth in those words. Cambridge University have a lot of questions to answer which is partly why the college that appointed Mr Arday, Jesus College, has launched a review. But I trust and hope that the college is also reaching out to Mr Arday to make sure he is okay. Imagine your life falling apart in our media. It is brutal, unrelenting and at times, very cruel. The vindicative delight some have taken in his fall is completely unchristian.

This whole story, to my mind, is actually one about identity. All of us are ultimately seeking an answer to that fundamental question: who am I?

In recent years, the rise of critical race theory has answered that question in a very particular way. Put simply, the world is the history of oppressed people struggling to find their voice in systems that deliberately suppress them. This way of looking at the world majors on identity politics. This means we are told that to find our truest self, we must identify a key characteristic. It could be our biological sex, or ethnicity, or our profession, or a disability we might have. Society encourages us to major in these identity markers. In this worldview, our truest identity is that particular characteristic.

It seems as if this was uppermost in the minds of those at Cambridge who employed Mr Arday. Did he get the job because of a rigorous examination of his academic work and the conclusion that it was of a high enough standard that he merited the role? Or was he invited onto faculty chiefly because the University knew it had an issue with representation and wanted to show that it was changing? If it was the latter, the fault lies as much with Cambridge University as it does with Jason Arday.

When it comes to identity, the scriptures are our clearest and most helpful guide. It turns out that our chief identity is in relationship to God: we are first and foremost his creatures, designed and made by him, gifted by him too so we might know him and worship him. In the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism’s answer to the question: what is the chief end of man?, the Catechism brilliantly answers: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”

Our primary identity before we are saved is that of being an image-bearer of God. If we start there, life begins to make sense! But if we place our identity chiefly in some other area, we begin to go wrong.

In Galatians 3:26-29, the Apostle Paul says this: “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

“All are one in Christ Jesus”. Here is the Christian’s new identity, namely that we are in Christ. And this has preeminence over every other characteristic that we might have. Paul does not mean we ignore our biological sex, or cultural heritage. After all, he was shaped by his and willing to follow cultural customs like head-shaving because of a vow he had made. But scripture speaks against making our ethnicity a higher point of identity than our being a dependent creature of the Lord’s.

It is striking that this story has had so much traction. There have been examples of plagiarism before, but those story has not garnered as much media attention. Part of why this story has been given so much airtime is because it’s the summer, and parliament is in recess. The media call this time, silly season’ where stories that normally would not get much coverage are amplified in the absence of other options.

But it is also a story that has so many angles; from deception, to diversity, from academia to authenticity. My plea in this article has been very basic. You do not need to fall into line with the cries of rage from the right or the left. It is possible, and dare I say Christian, to chart a more nuanced path and one, I humbly submit, that brings truth and grace together.

At the heart of the story is a desire for belonging and value. Society tells us today that we can such things from ourselves. But the Bible points us in another direction altogether. Our value and identity flow from our being made in God's image (Gen. 1:26-27). Only when we are in a right relationship with our creator will our lives begin to truly make sense.

I am praying that Mr Arday would know God's abundant grace and mercy. I pray for his wellbeing and that of his family as well. And for all who long to discover who they are, I hope and trust that each in time will take a long, hard look at Christianity and its unique claims. I'm sure each of us who knows Jesus as our Saviour and Lord would testify to the same thing: it was when we put our trust in him that we truly began to live, just as he promised: "I have come that they might have life in all its fullness" (John 10:10).