Matters temporal and spiritual
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
In the US, religion has increasingly played a more important role in politics.
Many Americans take a very keen interest in the religious attitudes and faith of any candidate seeking the Presidency and this will surely be seen in the run up to the 2008 Presidential Elections. Elected representatives talking about their religious beliefs is very much part of the political process there.
In Britain it is quite different, and was pithily summarised by Alistair Campbell’s riposte to a journalist who asked Tony Blair a question about his own religious practices: “We don’t do God”.
Running in tandem with what has happened in the United States, across the world we have seen the rise of Islamic consciousness and its inevitable impact on the political agenda. This was highlighted in a report published today by Policy Exchange entitled Living Apart Together. Amongst its many findings, it reports that more than a third of young Muslims would prefer to live under Islamic law rather than British law. At the same time, we have the Catholic Church embroiled in a row with politicians over an exemption to rules surrounding adoption by gay couples.
British MPs have been, and should be, free to make up their own minds on social and moral issues like gay rights and abortion. They are free to vote according to their own individual consciences. It is one of the most admirable traditions in British politics. Long may it continue…