I am not ashamed to be a Christian active in public life, but I am not backing the "Not Ashamed" campaign or marking Not Ashamed Day. The campaign aims to encourage only a certain sort of Christian to engage in particular forms of public life.
For some Christians, coalition cuts and the "Big Society" are an opportunity for churches to extend their influence by taking over services run by the state. But the Gospel is not about increasing our own influence. In seeking to love our neighbours as ourselves, we need to be ready to stand up and resist a vicious assault on the welfare state.
An advertisement campaign run by the hard-line Christian Party has headed up the Advertising Standards Authority’s Top 10 most complained about adverts in 2009.
British Christians have firmly rejected sectarian party politics by offering almost no support at all to the Christian Party, who secured less than two per cent of the vote in each of the 71 constituencies they contested.
For the first time in a British general election, significant numbers of voters will today have the opportunity to support candidates from parties described specifically as “Christian”. Symon Hill hopes that very few of them will choose to do so.
The role of religion in the general election is far from straightforward. Politicians and the media need to recognise the diversity of religious engagement with politics on a much wider range of issues than they sometimes seem to notice.
The Christian Party has defended a candidate accused of racism while apologising for his remarks. John Harrold, standing in the Vale of Glamorgan, said immigrants should "go home".
In the Law and Order section of the Christian Party manifesto they pledge to:
"Raise the motorway speed limit to 90mph".
Putting aside the obvious environmental implications of the increase in CO2 emissions of such a policy, the Parliamentary Transport Committee estimates that an increase in the speed limit from 70mph to just 80mph would result in a 10 per cent rise in casualties.