According to Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s spin doctor, “we don’t do God.” Despite the fact that Blair himself was a fanatical catholic, little of his religion appeared when his government was in power. Good. The last thing we want is politicians handing out political instruction. Bad. The current PM, the daughter of a vicar, has started doing just that. God help us all.
Mrs May said that Christians should not be afraid of of speaking “freely” about their faith at work and in public places. Christianity should be “celebrated, not denigrated”, added a mew report. Many employers will have “little problem” with Christians discussing their faith at work “in the same way you might talk about sport, hobbies and family life”, says the same report by someone with too much time on their hands. And I’m not buying it.
This is more of the “they’re trying to band Christmas” nonsense. Expect, from the usual media suspects, the usual examples of how some council or other is banning Christmas decorations, always for fear of offending others, meaning Muslims. And like the age-old myths about Winterval replacing Christmas, it’s completely untrue.
To the best of my knowledge, employers are not falling over themselves to stop staff talking “freely” about their faith at work, although I would say that employers and employees usually have plenty of other things to be getting on with, like work. If people in my office want to have a discussion about the hymns that were sung on Songs of Praise, as I would discuss Liverpool’s victory against Leeds, then I am sure they would. If they wanted to debate biblical matters, they could do that, though preferably away from the work station. Employers will not have a problem discussions on faith, as long as it doesn’t affect the reason that someone goes to work for in the workplace. If you are a vicar, clearly you will not be prevented from talking about faith.
The report, by the Evangelical Alliance and the Lawyers Christian Fellowship (I think you will get the idea where they are coming from now), say that society is forgetting “that its many freedoms derive from centuries of applying the Bible to public life”, which is a bit like saying you can only get your morals from reading the bible or qu’ran. There are plenty of places and people from whom we get our morals and bloodthirsty religious texts should hardly be amongst them.
Let’s make it crystal clear yet again. No one has been banned from talking about God, Christmas has never been banned, Christianity is not under attack. Most of us have little interest in religion and hardly any of us go to church, except for the odd wedding or funeral. It is the changing society as well the advancement of science and reason that religion is becoming less important. No one is trying to ban something that’s dying out anyway.
Mrs May and her pals have, I suggest, other and more critical matters to deal with than in creating a phoney war about a non existent attack on Christianity. I am happy for her to “do God” but not as part of her day job.
