In the past, we’ve talked in this blog about changing attitudes to Christianity in British society. This week, Mark Pritchard MP called for a debate on Christianophobia in Westminster Hall. He told the BBC: ‘The debate is not about doing God or theocracy. It’s about ensuring that the Christian tradition of our nation is recognised.’ The MP also added that he would ‘seek to slay the fashionable dragon of political correctness’ which was ‘assaulting’ the nation’s Christmas traditions.
This comes in the same week that a Sunday Telegraph poll revealed that only one in five schools are planning to stage a traditional nativity play this Christmas. And Royal Mail has traditionally alternated between sacred and secular designs for their Christmas stamps, and this year it is the turn for a religious image. But in fact they have issued two designs this year: ‘angels’ are the first choice unless (as their website suggests) ‘you prefer a more religious image on your Christmas post’ when you can request a Madonna and Child.
Click here to listen to Simon Mayo’s Radio 5 show which discusses what life is like for Christians in the UK in 2007.