Britain was built on Christianity. So why ARE our politicians so terrified of even a whiff of religion?
By Giles Fraser, Mailonline
The thing about our three main political parties is not how different they are, but how depressingly similar they are. Little wonder so many of us are bored with the General Election campaign even before it has begun.
Whatever happened to big vision politics? To the idea that politics is where we ask important questions about what human society ought to look like?
Part of what is different now has to do with what has happened to God.
For previous generations, Christianity provided politics with a spur to a more ambitious engagement with the problems of the world.
The original Labour Party was shaped as much by Methodism as by Marx. And when Mrs Thatcher won in 1979, she famously stood outside No10 and quoted St Francis of Assisi:
‘Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.’
Christianity didn’t lead the different parties to think the same political thoughts, but it did encourage them to think big thoughts, to raise their sights above mere managerialism.
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