Why is David Cameron speaking up for Christianity?

17 December 2011

David Cameron has said that the UK is a Christian country “and we should not be afraid to say so”.

It is good to hear the Prime Minister articulating a key policy of the Scottish Christian Party.

However David Cameron wants the Church of England to agree with his plan to redefine marriage to include homosexual couples, and he needs to get them ‘on side’, to win friends and influence people.

History of recent Prime Ministers and party leaders
Although American presidents regularly say “God bless America”, Tony Blair as Prime Minister was prevented by his advisers from ending his address to the nation, at the start of hostilities in Iraq, with the words: “God bless you.” On a later occasion, Alastair Campbell, his director of strategy and communications at the time, interrupted an interview with Tony Blair to say: “We do not do God”, in order to prevent the Prime Minister from answering a question about his religious faith.  However, Blair is more religious than Cameron, and on leaving office Blair became a Roman Catholic and set up his “Faith Foundation” to promote inter-faith dialogue.

Gordon Brown sometimes spoke about the values he inherited from his father who was a Church of Scotland minister, but he rarely spoke about faith.  More recently, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg became the first leader of a major party to openly declare he does not believe in God.  He was quickly followed by atheist Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, who told us in his first leader’s speech to “get over it” that he got married after he had his first child.

Immediate context
So David Cameron’s intervention contrasts with the recent trend.  One would like to think that this is the result of the emergence of the Christian Party, but the immediate occasion of his comments was his speech in Oxford on the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible.  Inevitably he had to say something religious, and he invoked religion to help in his call for a revival of traditional Christian values to counter Britain’s “moral collapse”. 

However he is keen to put it into a multifaith context, by adding that it was wrong to suggest that standing up for Christianity was “somehow doing down other faiths”.  He claimed it was “easier for people to believe and practise other faiths when Britain has confidence in its Christian identity.  Many people tell me it is much easier to be Jewish or Muslim here in Britain than it is in a secular country like France.  Why? Because the tolerance that Christianity demands of our society provides greater space for other religious faiths too.”

This is not quite the Christian leadership that the Scottish Christian Party has called for, but we are thankful for the reminder that the UK is a Christian country, and that Christianity is a tolerant religion.

So religion may be useful for the Prime Minister’s political agenda.  However, it is not Christianity but “traditional Christian values” which he extols, which are shared by various religions.  It is ultimately a multifaith agenda which conventiently refers to Christianity; on another occasion it will be values extolled by Islam or Judaism.

Ultimately the values he extols are the values of Conservativism - his version of Conservatism.

Wider context
The Archbishop of Canterbury recently entered the debate on morality and finance, and now David Cameron has called upon the Church of England to speak up for Christianity.  What is he thinking of?  What does he mean?  Does he mean that the church is to blame for our moral failure?  If so, blame can be better laid at the feet of politicians who have marginalised Christianity in schools and by legislation.

However there is another context.  David Cameron backs same-sex ‘marriage’ and he says the Church of England should accept ‘full equality’ for homosexuals. He wants the Church of England to change the minds of middle England for him.  In June 2010 David Cameron became the first Tory Prime Minister to host a Downing Street reception for homosexual campaigners and celebrities, which he repeated in 2011.  He has apologized for the Tory’s former support for Clause 28.

David Cameron’s revised Conservative Party plans to use the Westminster Parliament to redefine marriage to include homosexual couples.  The Scottish Parliament plans the same, but it has run into opposition from the Church of Scotland, the Scottish Episcopalians and the Roman Catholics.  David Cameron will need the support of the Church of England, and a charm offensive fits in quite well at this stage.

Limited, moderate religion
There was much concern expressed by pundits whether Tony Blair and George W. Bush prayed together.  This was vigorously denied at the time.  So David Cameron, in reminding us of constitutional, institutional Christianity, wants to reassure people that he is not a fundamentalist who prays to a real God. 

He was keen to distance himself from the thought that he prays to God for guidance.  He said: “I believe in God and I’m a Christian and I worship - not as regularly as I should - but I go to church.  Do I drop to my knees and ask for guidance whenever an issue comes up? No, I don’t. But it’s part of who I am.  For me, and I suspect for lots of other people too, bad things actually sometimes make you think more about faith and the fact that you’re not facing these things on your own.”  So religion is useful for its comfort-value, but not for guidance on the real affairs of life.

This contrasts with some great statesmen in history.  Joseph, the Prime Minister of Egypt, the greatest dynasty of its day; Daniel, recognised by successive administrations of the greatest empires of the time, openly displayed his godly prayerfulness, much resented by his contemporaries.

Cameron was also keen to distance himself from religious political parties.  In commenting on “politicians shouldn’t ‘do God’” he said: “If by that they mean we shouldn’t try to claim a direct line to God for one particular political party, they could not be more right.”  So would he rather have an indirect route to God? via the priest, the church, or possibly via the Tory party?  Would it not be very useful for every political party to have a direct line to God?  What he meant was that no political party should claim that God is solely on their side.  For the sake of the record, the Scottish Christian Party makes no such claim.  However, does the Prime Minister know such a political party? or is he casting aspersions on those who would like to think, that through the Lord Jesus Christ, they do indeed have a direct line to God?  It will be a good day for the world when every political party makes use of this direct line to God.

This thinking is understandable from a man who describes himself as a “committed” but only “vaguely practising” Christian, and “full of doubts” about big theological issues.  This shows the need for good Christian teachers in public life.

Politics using religion
People object to the Scottish Christian Party involving religion in our politics.  We do not.  We involve Christianity in our politics.  However, David Cameron is happy enough to use religion for the advancement of his politics.

David Cameron is employing religion:
1. to promote conscience to deal with social unrest;
2. to instil morality where corruption is so manifestly endemic in our society and eating at its fabric like a cancer;
3. to promote his multifaith agenda, which has the advantage of having Prince Charles’ support, in preparation for a change in male royal succession, the Act of Settlement, and the coronation oath which Prince Charles wants to change;
4. to promote Conservative values by calling them Christian values, or multifaith values, where they overlap; and
5. where they do not overlap, he will encourage, cajole or scold the Church of England to persuade middle England to accept the redefining of marriage to include homsexual couples.

This is modern Conservatism.  If the Prime Minister can use religion for his agenda, we will use Christianity to make Britain Great again.

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