POLITICIANS across the board "fight shy" of stating the truth
about the country's moral roots in the Bible, the Archbishop of
York, Dr Sentamu, said last week.
In a strongly worded Good Friday message for The Yorkshire
Post, Dr Sentamu wrote: "The truth which needs to be told, and
of which politicians of all hues fight shy, is that the origin of
the United Kingdom's moral direction is grounded in the Bible. . .
Because of a misplaced sensitivity towards citizens of other faiths
and of no religion, there is a conspiracy to keep silent about our
living past. That's the equivalent of patricide and matricide in
the world of ideas."
He accused politicians of failing to meet young people's
"yearning for something more idealistic". This desire could be
"misdirected", he suggested, pointing to "how some teenagers have
been seduced by the promise of the false utopia of IS, or even
martyrdom to that cause".
He warned: "Government programmes to prevent the radicalisation
of young Muslims will be ineffective if all they can offer as an
alternative is the status quo. . . Something far more worthwhile
and exciting is needed."
The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, lamented that the
north-east had "the lowest levels of aspirations among young people
in the whole country".
He said: "We all need to give our children and young people a
sense of hope that their aspirations can be met rather than a sense
that they will fail to achieve their dreams. We need also to help
them have sensible hopes; not everyone can become a famous
celebrity. Good hopes and aspirations are about being people who
help others and contribute well to our whole society."
In a video message, the Prime Minister said: "We are a nation
that embraces, welcomes, and accepts all faiths and none, but we
are still a Christian country."
In a separate message, published in Premier magazine,
Mr Cameron said that, despite being "hardly a model churchgoing,
God-fearing Christian", he was "in no doubt about the matter: the
values of the Christian faith are the values on which our nation
was built".
The Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Revd Stanley Ntagali,
delivered an unapologetically political Easter sermon. After
referring to the trafficking of children and domestic violence, he
spoke of reports that suggest that Uganda loses about ten per cent
of its budget every year owing to corruption and bribes. "Most of
the people in Uganda who are involved in corruption are actually
parents who have children," he said. "This means that we are eating
our children's future. Surely, greed and corruption have no place
in our destiny."