In a seemingly politically-motivated speech given to church leaders at 10 Downing Street, designed to win back support lost over issues such as same-sex 'marriage', David Cameron has suggested that Britain is a 'Christian country'.
Despite the fact that the Prime Minister has urged Britain to be unashamedly “evangelical” about its Christian faith, the reality is that under his leadership, the opposite has taken place.
Christian adoption agencies have closed or been forced to dumb-down their Christian ethos, and there has been restriction of freedom for Christians to live out their lives in obedience to the teachings of Jesus Christ in the public sphere, and especially in the workplace environment.
Andrea Williams of Christian Concern said: “It is not apparent from Mr Cameron’s comments that he recognises there has been a huge breach of trust between the Christian community and this Government because of such actions as the introduction of same-sex marriage; the restriction of freedom of speech in banning a Christian conference discussing same-sex ‘marrriage’ from taking place in a government building, the QEII Centre in London; and the opposition by government-appointed lawyers to Christians fighting against discrimination in cases before the European Court of Human Rights.
"In those cases, the Government argued that the cross was not a recognised symbol of the Christian faith; that belief in sexual ethics was not a manifestation of faith; and that the freedom of Christians to live out their faith in the workplace was their freedom to resign (which is no freedom at all).
“We are looking to David Cameron and Ministers such as Eric Pickles, who has also spoken about respect for Christian beliefs, to translate their convictions into actions which uphold rather than undermine Christian values."
Watch Andrew Marsh, Campaigns Director for Christian Concern discussing the issue on ITV News
In his blog, Dr Peter Saunders asks whether David Cameron has "missed the whole point of Easter". Read his article here >
Read more about the Prime Minister's comments here >