{"id":12750,"date":"2014-04-21T07:22:10","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T07:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/?p=12750"},"modified":"2014-04-21T07:22:10","modified_gmt":"2014-04-21T07:22:10","slug":"religion-is-a-personal-issue-and-it-should-stay-that-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/21\/religion-is-a-personal-issue-and-it-should-stay-that-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Religion is a personal issue, and it should stay that way"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Cameron said earlier this month, in an article for the Church Times, that Christians should be “confident” in standing up to defend their values.<\/p>\n

The prime minister also spoke of his faith in his Easter message, saying he found “peace” in Christianity.<\/p>\n

Referring to a 2011 speech in which he made his comments about Christianity, the Downing Street spokeswoman said: “As the PM set out in his speech to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, the UK is a Christian country and should not be afraid to say so.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is particularly worrisome, especially after seeing how GWB’s US cabinet was essentially a prayer circle, pushing a fundamentalist-like Christian agenda. We saw how well that went.  Fundies, of any flavour, scare me. It’s impossible to have a rational debate with someone whose answer is “because God says so”. When the person using that argument is the leader of the country… I still remember being horrified when Dubya said he was doing God’s work. Now, Cameron is calling himself an agent of God. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issues with his faith. The issues I have are with him using his position and influence to push it into the public eye, where it doesn’t belong. <\/p>\n

In a letter to the Telegraph, scientists, authors and academics have voiced their concerns in a, IMHO, well written rebuke to Cameron:<\/p>\n

Most Britons are not Christians<\/strong><\/p>\n

SIR \u2013 We respect the Prime Minister\u2019s right to his religious beliefs and the fact that they necessarily affect his own life as a politician. However, we object to his characterisation of Britain as a \u201cChristian country\u201d and the negative consequences for politics and society that this engenders.<\/p>\n

Apart from in the narrow constitutional sense that we continue to have an established Church, Britain is not a \u201cChristian country\u201d. Repeated surveys, polls and studies show that most of us as individuals are not Christian in our beliefs or our religious identities.<\/p>\n

Constantly to claim otherwise fosters alienation and division in our society. Although it is right to recognise the contribution made by many Christians to social action, it is wrong to try to exceptionalise their contribution when it is equalled by British people of different beliefs. This needlessly fuels enervating sectarian debates that are by and large absent from the lives of most British people, who do not want religions or religious identities to be actively prioritised by their elected government.<\/p>\n

Professor Jim Al-Khalil<\/em>
\nPhilip Pullman<\/em>
\nTim Minchin<\/em>
\nDr Simon Singh<\/em>
\nKen Follett<\/em>
\nDr Adam Rutherford<\/em>
\nSir John Sulston<\/em>
\nSir David Smith <\/em>
\nProfessor Jonathan Glover<\/em>
\nProfessor Anthony Grayling<\/em>
\nNick Ross<\/em>
\nVirginia Ironside<\/em>
\nProfessor Steven Rose<\/em>
\nNatalie Haynes<\/em>
\nPeter Tatchell<\/em>
\nProfessor Raymond Tallis <\/em>
\nDr Iolo ap Gwynn <\/em>
\nStephen Volk<\/em>
\nProfessor Steve Jones<\/em>
\nSir Terry Pratchett <\/em>
\nDr Evan Harris<\/em>
\nDr Richard Bartle<\/em>
\nSian Berry<\/em>
\nC J De Mooi<\/em>
\nProfessor John A Lee<\/em>
\nProfessor Richard Norman<\/em>
\nZoe Margolis<\/em>
\nJoan Smith<\/em>
\nMichael Gore<\/em>
\nDerek McAuley<\/em>
\nLorraine Barratt<\/em>
\nDr Susan Blackmore<\/em>
\nDr Harry Stopes-Roe<\/em>
\nSir Geoffrey Bindman QC<\/em>
\nAdele Anderson<\/em>
\nDr Helena Cronin<\/em>
\nProfessor Alice Roberts<\/em>
\nProfessor Chris French<\/em>
\nSir Tom Blundell<\/em>
\nMaureen Duffy<\/em>
\nBaroness Whitaker<\/em>
\nLord Avebury<\/em>
\nRichard Herring<\/em>
\nMartin Rowson<\/em>
\nTony Hawks<\/em>
\nPeter Cave<\/em>
\nDiane Munday<\/em>
\nProfessor Norman MacLean<\/em>
\nProfessor Sir Harold Kroto<\/em>
\nSir Richard Dalton<\/em>
\nSir David Blatherwick<\/em>
\nMichael Rubenstein<\/em>
\nPolly Toynbee<\/em>
\nLord O’Neill<\/em>
\nDr Simon Singh<\/em>
\nDan Snow<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr Cameron said earlier this month, in an article for the Church Times, that Christians should be “confident” in standing up to defend their values. The prime minister also spoke of his faith in his Easter message, saying he found “peace” in Christianity. Referring to a 2011 speech in which he made his comments about…<\/p>\n

Read More “Religion is a personal issue, and it should stay that way”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[263,458],"class_list":["post-12750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-god-save-the-queen","tag-potd2014"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3u9vK-3jE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12751,"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12750\/revisions\/12751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}