Christians are 'cowed' in modern Britain says Michael Gove

CHRISTIANITY is belittled and looked down upon in modern Britain, Tory Michael Gove claimed last night.

Michael GoveGETTY

Michael Gove believes that the Christian faith is viewed negatively

The former Education Secretary who has declared he is a "Christian and proud of it" said there was an "incoming tide of negativity" towards those practising the faith.

Writing in next week's edition of the Spectator he says: "To call yourself a Christian in contemporary Britain is to invite pity, condescension or cool dismissal.

Abuse "In a culture that prizes sophistication, non-judgmentalism, irony and detachment, it is to declare yourself intolerant, naive, superstitious and backward."

Mr Gove, who regularly attends St Mary Abbots Church in Kensington, London, went on to say that no matter what denomination worshippers were, they were all exposed to prejudice.

He said: "If we're Roman Catholic we're accessories to child abuse, if we're Anglo-Catholics we're homophobic bigots curiously attached to velvet and lace, if we're liberal Anglicans we're pointless hand-wringing conscience-hawkers, and if we're evangelicals we're creepy obsessives who are uncomfortable with anyone enjoying anything more louche than a slice of Battenberg."

To call yourself a Christian in contemporary Britain is to invite pity

Michael Gove

Defending his own beliefs, he said: "Christian faith - far from making any individual more invincibly convinced of their own righteousness - makes us realise just how flawed and fallible we all are.

"I am selfish, lazy, greedy, hypocritical, confused, self-deceiving, impatient and weak.

"And that's just on a good day.

"As the Book of Common Prayer puts it, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts... And there is no health in us."

As Education Secretary, Mr Gove gave every school in England a copy of the King James Bible.

Michael Gove - The Facts

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