Cameron and Christianity

Well, our Prime Minister has decided to done his sackcloth and has taken the opportunity of the season to chide the Church on not doing enough to promote the idea that Britain is a Christian country, and that we should return to traditional Christian values.

I can see where Cameron is coming from but he's clearly not done much to understand what has been going on in this country for the last 50 years or more. Firstly, the predominant problems in our society are to do with people who would have been born into families that once would have followed the ethos of the Christian Church. In the 1960s and then on there was a rebellion against the Church and nothing, sadly, properly replaced the function of the Church. Except other religions and spiritual paths for those who still felt that an 'inner' life was an important factor.

It is a fact that over these last 40 years there has been a substantial influx of Asians who have brought with them their Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist faiths, and it is those communities that have, by and large, upheld what we might now term old-fashioned spiritual values. Their communities have taken over some of the grounds (and heavens!) that were once the province of the Christian Church.

Furthermore, the Christian Church has over the years had to learn more and more that they need to work with those other faiths.

So why is Cameron pushing the idea of Britain being a Christian country? Is it some kind of yearning that the white middle and upper classes have for the old Victorian days when they ruled the world and the White God was supreme (to them at least)?

I am a great admirer of the Victorians, but I also like to think that we have progressed spiritually since then. We do have an enormous problem to bring a peaceful and moral society back on track, but, with the cooperation of all faiths and beliefs, it can be done. It is not merely the Christian Church that should be the standard bearer in that direction. And the Church knows that. All paths lead to one origin and no individual faith should be highlighted as being the leader in the society we now have.

No, Pope Cameron, I think you have missed the point.
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