A careful believer

Tim J

Perhaps a little harsh. I thought he sounded like virtually every CofE believer I've ever known. Do you think you ought to go to the gym more/drink less? Well why don't you then? Most people don't have a blazing certainty in their faith, and most people are happier when they're not having to analyse their levels of belief.

Vulture

I know he's the heir to Blair, but does he have to ape his role model in this too?

Pass the sick-bag, Alice.

Frank P

A whited sepulchre with treason in his black heart. Unfit for the purpose he posits. He like Blair and Brown threatens to continue the sell-out. Bastard multi-culti generation!

Paul D

Seems perfectly acceptable to me. Recognises the importance of religion as a guide to leading a good, moral and principled life; has the traditional English suspicion of overt displays of religious faith and doesn't believe the Church is always right but prepared to go to church for Hatches, Matches and Dispatches.

Sounds like the attitudes to religion of most English people I know!

Irene

What a load of rubbish you write - cheap journalism IMO

Alan Douglas

Too harsh - he sounds just as believing as the current A/b of Caterbury, with the exception of attendance in a church.

Alan Douglas

martin sewell

People should not be so harsh or sceptical. He is not a theologian and within an English cultural context, few of us are all that comfortable expressing our faith. Many feel less embarrassed talking about their sex lives!

I am a licensed Anglican Lay Reader, but would not be seen as horribly pious by those who know me, although I can and will talk about my faith in depth to those who wish to know.

Those who are not close to the faith have a somewhat bizarre idea that to be Christian is to claim to be perfect and yet Jesus was deserted by all his followers, and even the greatest Christians ( including St Paul) are painfully aware of their own shortcomings and unworthiness. In this tradition, a degree of modesty on DC's part is wholly reasonable and admirable.

Andy Carpark

What he is 'determined to seem' is not a 'position' on anything.

Martin Sewell

We ought not to be be too sceptical. He is not a theologian and like many lay people in an English cultural context, will not feel it easy to talk about such matters. In a country more at ease at talking about sex lives than faith lives, this only indicates how like most people he is. Yet like 70% of the country ( see last Census) he has a Christian faith which he speaks of only with modesty and humility.

There is a rather bizarre view amongst those not close to faith that to be a Christian is to assert moral superiority or consistency whereas all Jesus' followers deserted him and many of the best were all too conscious of their failures ( St Paul being a notable example.

I give him considerable credit that unlike Blair or Brown who can address Church audiences about their "faith" without actually mentioning God, Jesus, or the Bible, he does have some courage of conviction however circumscribed he may be about precisely how/where to place himself on the spectrum of faith.

Harinder

I think what Cameron is trying to say is each to their own and like many normal people he has days when he is believer and days when he is not.

Victor Southern

Blair and Bush took us to war based on their conversations with their god. Islamic fundamentalism is based on their conviction that they alone have the right view of god. The partition of India was on religious grounds. The Palestinian problem is essentially a clash of two religions as was that of Northern Ireland. Just yesterday a man ran amok on American spoil, killing and wounding indiscriminately whilst shouting "Allah Akbar".

Enough sanctified bloodshed thank you.

Cameron is right to have a moral guiding code, civilisation demands that.

Rhoda Klapp

If one were to ask him what his principles actually are, would one get the same sort of non-committal evasion? Sounds just like what one might expect from a PR politician. Is there any answer where he gives a certain unequivocal position on anything? It's not beyond the bounds of belief that I have simply missed it, of course, so could any supporter pick out a quote for me?

Boudicca

He sounds like the vast majority of the nominally Christian people in this country. They don't attend church very regularly, if at all; but have some kind of not very well defined faith and consider themselves Christian.

I find it very reassuring after manic Preacher Blair who used his faith to justify decisions which shouldn't have been made; and the current Son of the Manse who constantly tells us about his faith-based moral compass, when it is blindingly obvious from everything he does that he has NO moral compass whatsoever.

Neil Turner

I wonder what God thinks ?

Coney Weston

As long as he doesn't go to war like Blair in the name of "God" then he can believe what he likes.

CS

Fine by me. Having lived through the messianic certainties of Blair and Bush and Al Qaeda, I could do with a politician who isn't always 100% certain that he has a hotline to God.

But isn't Cameron, rather than dodging the question, just finding a more polite way of saying "it's none of your damn business if I pray or not". After all, the only reason the media asks politicians this question is in an attempt to embarrass them, not to elicit information about faith.

Cameron's answer makes him sound like 90% of CofE people. And I dread to think that anyone would ever take their lead in faith from half the people who post on Coffee House who seem to fervently believe in everything to do with Christ - except for the bits about peacemaking and love. I don't remember anything in the sermon on the mount about "cursed are the single mothers and the darkies and the foreigners".

The world will be a much kinder and happier place on the day that the slow readers among us eventually finish the Old Testament and start on the New.

Peter From Maidstone

CS, I am not sure that is fair. It is better not to judge one another. We know nothing about how we live. Who knows what support various people here provide to real single mothers, and foreigners. Such practical support, which you cannot know about, does not preclude asking questions about whether encouraging more single mothers is a good thing, or whether our own society should be destroyed by unrestricted immigration.

You are mixing up these two things. People here who wish to discourage single motherhood and unrestricted immigration as a public policy may also be entirely supportive of individuals facing difficulties in those circumstances.

TomTom

Now I see it was penned by Theo Hobson much becomes clearer. Cameron has no fixed principles but pragmatically espouses The Church to get his child into an over-subscribed London C of E school near his home, but he has no religious principles to get in the way of PR flexibility of all things to all men.

Cameron is part of the metropolitan bourgeoisie where Church is a lifestyle accessory rather than a core value system

The Bellman

To misquote Randall in *Clerks*: "Kinda? Sorta? Is that what they teach you at Eton and Oxford?"

Forget his contortions over Europe, or his miss-steps over the economy. This man is apparently a serious candidate for the appointment of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, yet he peppers his speech with 'kindas' and 'sortas' like a tryout for the cheerleader squad.

God help us.

Martin Sewell

CS I think you will find that some of the earliest initiatives supporting single mother ( and beaten wives) came from the Churches, not least the Mothers Union which few in this country know to be the largest woman's organisation in the world. Similarly, Churches ( like my own) are some of the few places in society where you do find people of different races, income, education, sexual orientation, social circumstances etc joined not only in worship but genuine community.

Having said that, it is not unchristian or lacking in compassion when some of us who have great experience of working with broken families and the children damaged by the lack of two parents, refer to the substantial evidence base and say that our current orthodoxy that "single parenthood is just fine" is a major contributor to societal difficulties. It is not a judgement, it is a factual observation.

hadrian

Pretty pathetic for a would-be world leader to be so dim about his spiritual/moral responsibilities and the Christian Protestant roots of our great Island nation's traditions of Toleration and civil Liberties.
If a man would rule well, he must rule as Scripture says, in the fear of God and with regard to the Creator's righteousness of which we all by nature fall so woefully far short. We thus need the idealism of the Christian faith tempered by its clear-eyed realism that sees man's innate frailities and foolishnesses. A Tory above all must have a firm grasp of the principle that politics is severely restricted in what it can achieve and is no substitute Messiah. We expose, not embrace, messianic fanatical politics and our basis is firmly the old fashioned Protestantism of these Islands that we are sinners needing grace and humility. We pray Cameron acquires this best of wisdom very clearly for the sake of the nation.

2trueblue

Judge not, or something like that comes to mind.
Just because we had Blair who could not declare what he was, so what? It is not really our business.
I had a friend who decided I was a lapsed catholic. She knew very little about my belief system and it is none of anyones business unless I chose to say so.
Am all for discussing aspects of politicians lives but this is below the belt.

John Lea

Sounds like a classic Church of England man: religious in a rather understated, let's not make a fuss, type way. Where every ecclesiastical debate can be resolved over a nice cup of tea. Rather nice.

Dieter Schneider

David Cameron, I have no doubt, is sincere, but his lack of understanding is understandable. Most good Anglican theologians have letters behind their names, like D.D., PhD., and D.E.A.D., with little to offer. It's about the blind leading the blind!