From Closure To Brightness?

Fr Tim Finigan writes:

The gay magazine Attitude has recently published an interview with David Cameron in which he has tried to convince the gays that he has converted from being a diehard supporter of Section 28 to being a right-on "it's normal and harmless" guy. For what it's worth, they don't trust him: the magazine invites readers to make up their own minds about "whether his pro gay conversion is simply to win votes." [Section 28, remember, was a piece of legislation under which not a single prosecution was ever brought.]

The text of the interview is not available online and there is no way I am going to scandalise my devout and hard-working Hindu neighbours by buying a copy in their shop, so I am relying on quotations. Ruth Gledhill has helpfully focussed on his remarks on Christianity.

Cameron effectively confirms that if a Conservative Government is elected there will be no change in the current drive to prevent "faith schools" from teaching Christian doctrine. In response to the loaded question 'Do you think that the right of gay children to have a safe education trumps the right of faith schools to teach that homosexuality is a sin?' Cameron replies:

Basically yes - that's the short answer to that, without getting into a long religious exegesis. I mean, I think, yes. I think..... [long pause]

Well at least we were spared Dave's attempts at a long religious exegesis. We do get a short one, though. Quoting the wisdom of his PPS ("someone of deep religious faith"), he says:

That if our Lord Jesus was around today he would very much be backing a strong agenda on equality and equal rights, and not judging people on their sexuality.

That surely has to rank as one of the more adventurous attempts at a "What Would Jesus Do?" exercise: but there is more. Cameron has some unusual advice for Dioceses drawing up the umpteenth recension of their Pastoral Plan "From Closure to Brightness" (or whatever):

I don’t want to get into a huge row with the Archbishop here, but the Church has to do some of the things that the Conservative Party has been through. Sorting this issue out and recognising that full equality is a bottom-line, full essential.

Well I suppose that suggesting to the elderly swingers in the local "We are the Future" Fairtrade Coffee Morning that the solution to the problems of the Church is to follow the Conservative Party would certainly give them something to ponder while enjoying the organic oatmeal and marmalade flapjacks. It might even be a reassuring prospect, all things considered, to wear a blue rosette with pride after all.

Sadly, Dave has jumped on the bandwagon just a little too late. Apparently the Spaniards have already left us behind on radical Spartist moral liberalism.