In the 1960s the death of God was predicted with confidence and it was believed that religion would soon follow Him to the grave. Church of England bishops were among the first to say the last rites for the Deity.

What the late liberal bishops did not believe, and what the secularists never knew, was that in a Christian country a religious death is generally succeeded by resurrection.

But even the most devout would not have prophesied what we see today, with religion on the front page of almost every newspaper and heading broadcast news bulletins.

Until recently, bishops of the Church of England in particular perceived their role as one of managing a decline. Their job was to help their dwindling flock to come to terms with their impending status as a minority in a country that was overwhelmingly secular.

Then came the 2001 Census and the incontrovertible statistic that 72 per cent of people in Britain considered themselves to be Christian. We could almost hear them asking: “Who are all these people and, more importantly, where are they?” Nevertheless, church leaders began to speak with a new confidence.

Victories chalked up since then include defeating the move to impose a non-religious pupil quota on faith schools, scuppering the proposed religious hatred legislation and, most recently, getting British Airways to back down over its ban on the Christian cross being displayed as jewellery. But there are dangers ahead; power being the most perilous of these. It was power that Jesus resisted when he turned from Satan in the wilderness.

The right-wing blogosphere in the US contains a taste of what awaits a society fuelled by untramelled religious self-righteousness.

With rampant homophobia almost the new anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia following close behind, there are understandable fears among some of Britain’s minorities.

However, persecuted by secularist fundamentalists such as Richard Dawkins, and terrorised by extremist manifestations of Islam such as 9/11, the churches have indeed become stronger in Britain.

The trouble for religion is that the same phenomenon applies to those its own leaders choose to persecute. It is significant that the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, the new hero of the right-wing anti-secularism brigade, has demurred from challenging the Sexual Orientation Regulations.

As Christmas approaches, bishops would do well to focus on the traditional Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity. The greatest of these, said St Paul, is charity, or love.

It is also worth remembering that Jesus commanded us to love our neighbours. And that means loving them, whether they are gay, Muslim or even Richard Dawkins.

Let’s face it, if the churches had been better at preaching this all along, British Airways would have known that banning crosses, while permitting headscarves and turbans, ran counter to the message of the Cross it flies proudly on the tailfin of every aircraft.

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