I happened to provide one of the questions that was picked up by the Chair of the gathering, the Bishop of London. It read, "Is doing God important to our 'shared global values'?" Well, you should have seen Gordon squirm. Having previously been very keen to answer all the questions posed, this one he promptly gave to Kevin Rudd.

The reason for that is that Kevin is not ashamed of his Christian faith. More than that, he has set out the way in which he believes Christianity and politics should interact. In an important essay in an Australian journal, Prime Minister Rudd draws on the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to say that faith should not be restricted to the private realm. Rather, it has a duty to speak up for those who are voiceless and powerless in precisely the way that Bonhoeffer did. It is to hold the state to account. He writes:

The Gospel is an exhortation to social action. Does this mean that the fundamental ethical principles provide us with an automatic mathematical formula for determining every item of social, economic, environmental, national security and international relations policy before government? Of course not. What it means is that these matters should be debated by Christians within an informed Christian ethical framework. It also means that we should repudiate the proposition that such policy debates are somehow simply "the practical matters of the state" which should be left to "practical" politicians rather than to "impractical" pastors, preachers and theologians. This approach is very much in Bonhoeffer"s tradition.

A Christian perspective on contemporary policy debates may not prevail. It must nonetheless be argued. And once heard, it must be weighed, together with other arguments from different philosophical traditions, in a fully contestable secular polity. A Christian perspective … should not be rejected contemptuously by secular politicians as if these views are an unwelcome intrusion into the political sphere. If the churches are barred from participating in the great debates about the values that ultimately underpin our society, our economy and our polity, then we have reached a very strange place indeed.

Amen to that – I would say, and so, it would seem, says Gordon Brown. For following on from Kevin Rudd's comments, Gordon Brown went on to offer us his own. In particular, he mentioned the essay from Rudd indicating that Gordon was of the same general outlook in regard to the interaction of faith and politics. He clearly assumed that no-one would know which essay he was referring to for he then went on to contradict himself by suggesting that religion and politics should not in fact mix: "Let the Bishop act as Bishop" he told us, with the clear implication that politics should be left to the experts, in other words those "practical politicians" that Rudd mentions.

All of which explains why Gordon initially refused the "God" question. Taken at face value, it would seem that he is of the Ruddian persuasion – Christian faith should inform, though not dictate political policy and the values that underpin it – it's just he doesn't want to say that too loudly. The upshot of this is that Gordon's faith is there, but it surfaces in a somewhat incoherent and haphazard manner. Hence, it would seem that like his predecessor, Gordon does God, but just doesn't really like to admit it.