“It is easier for a politician to admit to smoking weed or watching porn than it is to admit that they might take prayer seriously in their daily life”, a cabinet minister has said.
Stephen Crabb, the Secretary of State for Wales, made the comment while speaking at the annual Conservative Christian Fellowship (CCF) lecture.
The MP also warned that Britain’s “hard-edged” secularism provides an unsatisfactory answer to the problem of Islamic radicalisation.
Ridicule
Crabb said that in our current culture, “faith gets squeezed further into the margins of public life and religion becomes delegitimised through suspicion, fear or ridicule”.
He criticised the “watering down of religious belief” which aims to “satisfy everyone and pleases no-one”.
There is nothing to respect or admire about some watered-down common religious offering in the name of multiculturalism.
Stephen Crabb MP
“There is nothing to respect or admire about some watered-down common religious offering in the name of multiculturalism.”
Secularism
The MP warned that the prevalence of secularism may have implications when it comes to confronting violent extremism.
“The answer to the seduction of Isil”, said Crabb, is not a “greater dose of secularism”.
Despite increasing marginalisation, he said there is still an important role for the church to play in Britain.
“In an age where society is characterised by enormous loneliness and fragmentation, Church needs to be a place that stands on the side of community, relationships, and reaching out.”