H/T: EB

Thanks to Our Man In Scotland, we hear of a developing flap in Britain over religion and the public square.  Normally the purview of ILYBYGTH runs only to the US borders, but this case seems so relevant we felt obliged to comment.

Yesterday a collection of fifty high-brow British intellectuals signed a public letter.  They objected to Prime Minister David Cameron’s repeated assertion that Britain is a “Christian country.”  A few days back, Cameron wrote in Church Times, an Anglican newspaper,

I believe we should be more confident about our status as a Christian country, more ambitious about expanding the role of faith-based organisations, and, frankly, more evangelical about a faith that compels us to get out there and make a difference to people’s lives.

In Britain, such comments led to much public gnashing of teeth.  Some pundits assumed Cameron was hoping to shore up his rightward flank against the cultural traditionalism of the UK Independence Party.  Other public figures rushed to defend Cameron’s bold assertion of public faith.

To be frank, this British kerfuffle has us scratching our heads.  In the US of A, nearly all public figures vying for national office make loud and proud attestations of their personal faith.  Even President Obama, no conservative, repeatedly publicizes his Christian practice.  As OMIS pointed out,

if you want to be in public office in America, you have to say [that this is a Christian country], but over here it’s considered a “row.”

Even more puzzling, a quick google search netted similar statements from Cameron going back at least as far as December 2011.  In a speech back then, Cameron seemed to say the same sorts of thing that are causing such consternation today.  “We are a Christian country,” Cameron told an audience at Oxford on 16 December 2011,

and we should not be afraid to say so. . . . the Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today.

So how is his recent statement any different?  Why did people complain now, and not then?