Saturday 6 February 2010

David Cameron On Theology

Ruth Gledhill (The Times) has done a fun breakdown of the David Cameron/Johann Hari interview, which was originally printed in Attitude magazine.

http://tinyurl.com/yaldzgq

I notice how David Cameron’s take on theology is rather, er, “traditional”. Take a look at this for instance:

(David Cameron) was asked if the Tory party still has a problem with homophobia in its ranks.

“Honestly, conservative parties do always include some people of very strong religious faith, and that is true in the Conservative party. I think it's also true in some parts of the Labour party too, actually. It's always been the case, but I think the idea now is that there is a shared consensus bedrock view that this is a party for equal rights whether you are male, female, black white urban rural straight or gay. Actually I could find you quite a lot of relatively religious conservatives who totally agree that we must never go back.”

So a person of “very strong religious faith” is meant to translate as “bible literalist”. By this rationale, a liberal believer is “relatively religious” and less of a believer in God. That’s nonsense. Just because someone is a liberal it does not mean that s/he is less of a believer than a creationist. And isn’t the Tory party supposed to uphold liberal values? Someone should have a quiet word with Mr Cameron.

7 comments:

Gorilla Bananas said...

Do you think God is a liberal? I've always thought of him as a narcissist with authoritarian tendencies.

Karen Burke said...

I don't think the question is: "Is God a liberal?"

I think the question is: "Are liberals less spiritual than traditionalists?"

And I think the answer is no.

Karen Burke said...

I think it depends on which bible passages the reader looks at, as well as the values/political philosophy of the reader. Then there is always the consideration of modern day standards imposed upon ancient societies.

Paul Taberham said...

I'm sure you're right about the values of the reader.

Everything I know about Jesus tells me that he was a leftie, but then there's plenty I don't know about the man...

As for God, the idea that divine justice is something quite alien from my own sense of justice is intriguing to me. But doubtless all varieties of people with a belief in god think that their doing God's work

Karen Burke said...

Ok, well, here's a side that you might not know...

This is from Matthew 19.8:

"Jesus said to them: 'It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but at the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.'"

...Sounds a bit like the Pope.

Matthew Wilson said...

According to no less an authority than Sir Elton John, Jesus was gay. So it's probably safe to say he was a liberal. A Jewish liberal, even.

Matthew Wilson said...

Here's Peter Tatchell's - admirably balanced - take on the issue:

http://www.petertatchell.net/religion/jesus.htm

Mind you, Karen, if you fancy some more headlines for the Methodist Church, perhaps you could get someone to go on the record agreeing with Sir Reg :)