David Cameron, the Bible and Eddie Arthur

While my blog has been pretty quiet of late, my friend and colleague Eddie Arthur has been more typically prolific.

When Prime Minister David Cameron recently spoke at the KJB 400th celebrations at Oxford and commented on the teaching of the Bible for our somewhat broken society, I wanted to write something. But I couldn’t think of anything that might have been useful to the debate… a lack of inspiration or a divine prompt to shut up and avoid writing something inane!

However Eddie has written something akin to what I wished I could have written – and did it much better: The PM, The Bible and Cultural Christianity.

Yesterday, in a speech delivered to clergy in Oxford, the Prime Minister added his voice to the many who have spoken up over the last year (read it here). I tend to avoid political comment on this blog, but given that the Prime Minister has wandered into my territory, I reckon I can make a few comments on what he said.

Here are a few extracts from Eddie’s comments – but I urge you to read the whole thing for yourself.

It is good to see the Bible being discussed in the public arena. Famously, Tony Blair “didn’t do God”, so it’s good to see a politician who is prepared to speak out on these issues. Whatever the merits of the content of his speech (and they are mixed, at best) the fact that the Prime Minister has got people talking about the Bible is something we should be grateful for.

The Bible is not a book about Values. Though the Prime Minister had a number of good things to say, his speech was undermined because, for all of his classical education, he doesn’t really understand what the Bible is about. He never mentions the central narrative of the Bible: God reaching out to reconcile a fallen world and a fallen humanity to himself through the death of Christ on the Cross. Indeed, as far as I can tell, the words cross or crucifixion never get a mention.

And in a kind of bittersweet conclusion…

David Cameron has done us a great favour in bringing the Bible into the public discourse, but though he has much to say that is interesting and of some value, he ultimately misses the point, which is sad. We need to continue to pray for him and all of those in authority.

Do read it all for yourself: The PM, The Bible and Cultural Christianity

That’s enough for now, but I will comment soon on Eddie’s thoughts in an article in The Guardian’s Comment is free section…