David Cameron says Christianity is not just for Easter. How does he explain the bedroom tax?

Whenever Church leaders intervene over benefit cuts or treatment of refugees, politicians tell them to stick to their religious knitting

David Cameron gave an Easter message in which he argued for Christian values to guide British life year round. (Getty Images)

It is inevitable, given what passes for public discourse in modern Britain, that any generalist statement the Prime Minister or any senior politician makes today will be subject to hate-filled ridicule. Or, to use the modern vernacular, trolling. So when David Cameron issues a public Easter statement, we know to expect the worst – even though what he said would once have been absolutely the norm.

Britain should be proud of being a “Christian country with Christian values,” the Prime Minister insisted. “But they are also values that speak to everyone in Britain – to people of every faith and none,” he continued. “And we must all stand together and defend them.”

It’s our degree of separation from events and our perceived inability to affect change for the better that threatens most people’s good intentions, Christian or otherwise.

That’s partly why when we see ordinary people thwarted while genuinely trying to affect change, we feel their pain or loss all the more. Here, I am thinking of brave Asad Shah, the Muslim shopkeeper who was killed after he posted Easter wishes online “to my beloved Christian nation”. Shah was an Islamic Ahmadiyya, a sect which preaches peace and tolerance towards other religions, much to the disgust of more militant Muslims, who pronounce them “kafir” or non-believers. To my mind, if a religion preaches ill on those who wish peace and tolerance on others, that religion has no place in my life.

However, if we are to take the PM seriously on Christian values then he needs to look within. What Christian values inspired the bedroom tax, cuts to disability benefits, hostility to refugees, whipping up anti-immigrant rhetoric and the greed at the heart of tax avoidance?

These are surely all contrary to Christian values, but whenever the Archbishop or any other religious leader has the temerity to suggest this, politicians tell him to stick to his religious knitting. If we are to take him and his Government seriously on the subject, then there has to be tangible action beyond the annual Easter platitudes. He has the power to govern with Christian values, and he is sorely failing to use it.