Cameron's amoral Christians

I had not intended to comment on David Cameron’s speech of two weeks ago (here) when he ‘did’ God, and this will almost certainly be one of the tardiest blogs on the subject. But for all that was encouraging in the speech, there was one particular phrase near the end of the speech that has niggled me ever since:

‘There are Christians who don’t live by a moral code.’

Now I don’t profess to be any kind of theologian; I lay claim to no deep knowledge of Anglicanism, nor the Bible. But I fail to see how anybody can lead an amoral life yet still claim to be a Christian.

The story in Exodus describing how God gave the Law to Moses means that the Law is sacrosanct. As such, the Law is not just a useful moral compass but to keep it is a religious obligation. It seems to me that this is a pretty basic plank of what it means to be a Christian (or to be a Jew or a Muslim for that matter).

Of course, it is possible to hold high a set of ideals such as the Law, but fall short of actually living in accordance with them – the Law books of the Bible contain 659 commandments, so it is likely most of us will break one or more of them from time to time! Perhaps it is this to which Cameron alluded in his speech?

But to fall short of living up to your own moral code is something completely different to living life without a moral code.

I am always wary of discussing faith, and particularly the Law, in fora such as this. Waiting for the inevitable wit of somebody singling out a line of the Law they object to, usually, and with a tiresome lack of imagination, taken from Leviticus. I would merely ask such critics one simple question.

In Jesus’ summary of the law, He cites the second commandment as being: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’.

Irrespective of individuals’ faith (or lack thereof), can there be a better starting point for any national debate of morality, of law and order, as those five short words?