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| Christianity and the brotherhood of man (and woman) | Christianity and the brotherhood of man (and woman) |
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| You are quite right to criticise the prime minister for his insulting claim that Christianity lies at the foundation of all our values. But your editorial (3 April)makes a claim as equally ahistorical by asserting that the idea of human beings having a moral claim on other human beings simply by virtue of their humanity “entered the world with Christianity”. | You are quite right to criticise the prime minister for his insulting claim that Christianity lies at the foundation of all our values. But your editorial (3 April)makes a claim as equally ahistorical by asserting that the idea of human beings having a moral claim on other human beings simply by virtue of their humanity “entered the world with Christianity”. |
| It would come as a shock to Confucians or Jains, happily preaching reciprocity on the basis of our shared human nature, that they owed their moral sense to a religion still several centuries away from invention; and even in Europe there are abundant examples of such thinking before Christianity from the Stoics and others. | It would come as a shock to Confucians or Jains, happily preaching reciprocity on the basis of our shared human nature, that they owed their moral sense to a religion still several centuries away from invention; and even in Europe there are abundant examples of such thinking before Christianity from the Stoics and others. |
| The overclaiming parochial mindset embodied in your editorial is not a good way to challenge the divisive statements that it seeks to challenge. The fact is – as most Britons in opinion polls now believe – that social values arise from our human need to live in community with one another, and religion is not needed either for their origin or their maintenance.Andrew CopsonChief executive, British Humanist Association | The overclaiming parochial mindset embodied in your editorial is not a good way to challenge the divisive statements that it seeks to challenge. The fact is – as most Britons in opinion polls now believe – that social values arise from our human need to live in community with one another, and religion is not needed either for their origin or their maintenance.Andrew CopsonChief executive, British Humanist Association |
| Social values arise from our need to live in community with one another, and religion is not needed for their origin | Social values arise from our need to live in community with one another, and religion is not needed for their origin |
| • Your editorial on Christian values in relation to politics was quite simply superb. It identified the essential contribution of Christianity to the world: the principle, hitherto more or less unknown, that every individual is of equal and infinite worth, including women, the poor, and racial minorities. In so doing, it supplied, as you rightly noted, the moral basis of the welfare state and in that sense is the antithesis of Conservative values and David Cameron’s unfair austerity drive. | • Your editorial on Christian values in relation to politics was quite simply superb. It identified the essential contribution of Christianity to the world: the principle, hitherto more or less unknown, that every individual is of equal and infinite worth, including women, the poor, and racial minorities. In so doing, it supplied, as you rightly noted, the moral basis of the welfare state and in that sense is the antithesis of Conservative values and David Cameron’s unfair austerity drive. |
| Christianity also promoted the concept of community, the ideal of a world fellowship. This idea was first properly developed politically by the Christian Socialists of 1848, men of extraordinary vision such as FD Maurice, John Ludlow and Thomas Hughes. And they believed that it applies not just to Christians but to everybody. They called it “mere brotherhood”. I believe that it is this supreme value (including of course sisterhood) that we need to spread as we journey further into a fracturing, 21st-century information age.Professor Alistair DuffCumbernauld | Christianity also promoted the concept of community, the ideal of a world fellowship. This idea was first properly developed politically by the Christian Socialists of 1848, men of extraordinary vision such as FD Maurice, John Ludlow and Thomas Hughes. And they believed that it applies not just to Christians but to everybody. They called it “mere brotherhood”. I believe that it is this supreme value (including of course sisterhood) that we need to spread as we journey further into a fracturing, 21st-century information age.Professor Alistair DuffCumbernauld |
| • If you are correct in saying that “surveys show that ordinary Christians in this country are consistently to the right of their clergy on many questions” and “the pews are full of people muttering against scroungers, who believe that poverty is the fault of the poor”, this does not apply to Catholics. Analysis of voting in the 2010 election indicates that had the rest of the country voted as they tended to, we would have had a Labour government these past five years.Terry PhilpotLimpsfield Chart, Surrey | • If you are correct in saying that “surveys show that ordinary Christians in this country are consistently to the right of their clergy on many questions” and “the pews are full of people muttering against scroungers, who believe that poverty is the fault of the poor”, this does not apply to Catholics. Analysis of voting in the 2010 election indicates that had the rest of the country voted as they tended to, we would have had a Labour government these past five years.Terry PhilpotLimpsfield Chart, Surrey |
| • It is surely desperate logic to berate David Cameron for being anti-Christian for promoting hard work. Jesus also urged multiplying one’s talents (a Roman monetary unit) and rendering unto Caesar his due, with its clear injunction to be a responsible hardworking citizen, which included paying taxes. Given the benefits bill and its unsustainable upwards trajectory, it is surely responsible to ask if everyone is multiplying their talents to best effect. Had Jesus returned today, it would not have been as an editorial writer at the Guardian.Ray TillerDurham | • It is surely desperate logic to berate David Cameron for being anti-Christian for promoting hard work. Jesus also urged multiplying one’s talents (a Roman monetary unit) and rendering unto Caesar his due, with its clear injunction to be a responsible hardworking citizen, which included paying taxes. Given the benefits bill and its unsustainable upwards trajectory, it is surely responsible to ask if everyone is multiplying their talents to best effect. Had Jesus returned today, it would not have been as an editorial writer at the Guardian.Ray TillerDurham |
| Related: Jesus gave no get-out in helping the vulnerable | Letter from Penelope Standford | |
| • The example of David Cameron reaching out to faith groups is nothing new. It has been done by many of his predecessors in a variety of ways. Indeed, after a young Tony Blair, as leader of the opposition, gave an interview which insinuated that the Bible convinced him he could never be a Conservative, his advisers discouraged him from talking about faith in public. While a politician’s personal faith is one thing, faith groups are an important source of social capital and values, which politicians of all parties are understandably keen to cultivate.Zaki CooperTrustee, Council of Christians and Jews | • The example of David Cameron reaching out to faith groups is nothing new. It has been done by many of his predecessors in a variety of ways. Indeed, after a young Tony Blair, as leader of the opposition, gave an interview which insinuated that the Bible convinced him he could never be a Conservative, his advisers discouraged him from talking about faith in public. While a politician’s personal faith is one thing, faith groups are an important source of social capital and values, which politicians of all parties are understandably keen to cultivate.Zaki CooperTrustee, Council of Christians and Jews |
| • I am delighted to read the joint letter advocating open admissions arrangements for Church of England schools (Letters, 2 April). The case for this is greatly strengthened by remembering that Church of England schools were originally founded for the benefit of local children, not for the advantage of churchgoing families; and that parish churches exist to serve their parishioners, not just their congregations.Rev Philip WelshLondon | • I am delighted to read the joint letter advocating open admissions arrangements for Church of England schools (Letters, 2 April). The case for this is greatly strengthened by remembering that Church of England schools were originally founded for the benefit of local children, not for the advantage of churchgoing families; and that parish churches exist to serve their parishioners, not just their congregations.Rev Philip WelshLondon |
| • The Anglicans urging the Church to stop selecting pupils on grounds of church attendance, while commendable, are remarkably naive if they think the actual level of “false church attendance” among parents is anything remotely as low as the 6% or 10% who admit to it. Liars are likely to lie when asked if they are lying – and parents pretending to be religious to secure a middle-class school place are, if asked, surely likely to keep on pretending to be religious.Peter McKennaLiverpool | • The Anglicans urging the Church to stop selecting pupils on grounds of church attendance, while commendable, are remarkably naive if they think the actual level of “false church attendance” among parents is anything remotely as low as the 6% or 10% who admit to it. Liars are likely to lie when asked if they are lying – and parents pretending to be religious to secure a middle-class school place are, if asked, surely likely to keep on pretending to be religious.Peter McKennaLiverpool |
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