Cameron and Christians

Sir, Jesus encouraged his disciples to be as ‘innocent as doves,’ but also ‘as wise as serpents’ (Matthew 10:16) and following the latter injunction, mainstream Christians are not likely to be taken in by David Cameron’s overtures to his present day followers.

Whilst welcoming his support for persecuted Christians in the Middle East and for maintaining the Overseas Aid budget, they will be more critical in regard to policies which may have led to more people becoming dependent on food banks.

What is more, there remains concern about the continuing failure to properly recognise marriage in the tax system, the promotion instead of so-called ‘Gay Marriage,’ and also by the Government’s manifest failure to accommodate the conscience of Christians in the workplace. For people losing their jobs or failing to be promoted on account of their Faith, talk about ‘triple locks’ is utterly meaningless! Again, if David Cameron were really sincere in his pronouncement why has his Government sidelined the teaching of RE and stopped bursaries for trainee specialist teachers in this shortage subject?

Though in the past I have been a Conservative supporter I have now unhesitatingly thrown in my lot with the Christian Peoples Alliance, a Party with a strong social concern for the most vulnerable in society as well as one which believes that genuine equality and human rights must apply to Faith communities as much as to their secular opponents.

John Wainwright, Potters Bar