Sky News’ outgoing Political Editor has suggested that the Prime Minister’s remarks about Britain being a Christian country were simply to gain more votes.
Professing Anglicanism “should helpfully shore up the Conservatives’ core vote”, wrote Adam Boulton in the Sunday Times.
He said the core Tory vote had come “under threat from UKIP” and been “rattled by the introduction of same-sex marriage”.
Election
“This election season Cameron has a problem with his Christian Conservative voters”, he declared.
“Cameron may simply be describing his personal spiritual journey”, commented Boulton. “But when the prime minister takes to the columns of the Church Times to advocate Christian engagement and holds an official Easter reception, the personal has become political.
“Especially when his three main opponents do not profess his faith. Clegg is an atheist, Ed Miliband says, ‘I am not religious but I am Jewish’, and Nigel Farage is agnostic”, he added.
Disestablishment
Last week the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called for the disestablishment of the Church of England during his weekly radio phone-in programme.
“In the long run it would be better for the Church, and better for people of faith, and better for Anglicans, if the Church and the state were over time to stand on their own two separate feet”, said Clegg.
But Cameron rejected the calls, explaining that “our arrangements work well in this country”.
Atheists
The Daily Telegraph’s political correspondent said that disestablishing the Church of England is a “demand of many atheists, who believe religion should have no position in the British constitution”.
An editorial in The Times newspaper said that a “strictly godless state would feel alien to British traditions”.
And a Daily Telegraph editorial also criticised Clegg’s calls for the Church’s disestablishment.
Christian
It said, “it would not only be incredibly difficult to accomplish in contemporary England, but also wholly undesirable”.
Earlier this month David Cameron was accused of fostering “alienation and division” by 55 prominent atheists after his comments that Britain is a Christian country.
Cameron explained he was “proud of the fact that we are a Christian country” during a Downing Street Easter reception and in an article for the Church Times he highlighted “the role that faith can play in helping people to have a moral code”.