My personal spiritual view is perhaps not too different from yours but I would not expect anyone else to accept my faith.

Can anyone point me at an instance of Ruth Kelly asking anyone to accept her faith? Or an instance of her faith affecting the judgements she makes as a government minister?

As for "mortification of the flesh", anyone who gives up something for Lent, you'd better rule them out of any position of responsibility. That's "mortification of the flesh" as practised by Opus Dei, so they might think that it's OK to torture children, according to Richard. Yeah, right. Richard, where do you get this bullshit from? Ditto JohnInKansas, telling us that Christian sect members are all wife-beaters.

As for the reason Ruth Kelly's in the news at the moment, has anyone looked into the story at all? Turns out the "sex offender" and the girl he was convicted of "abusing" were genuinely in love, as shown by the fact that they were subsequently married for 19 years with 3 kids. Risk of this guy re-offending? Anyone else think absolutely zero?

This whole thing is classic media witch-hunt bollocks. I've no argument with people saying they don't like Ruth Kelly - I know there's few politicians I like. But you're going to need more than some smear on religious beliefs. And you're going to need more than this case to say she's not doing a good job, cos this looks like she's done a perfect job. The only place she's failed is spin management, cos the media have jumped on a story-selling opportunity.

Graham.