Christian Tradition

In this country of England, centuries of Christian tradition have so permeated our life that we forget how our moral sense has been conditioned by a dilute, but genuine, Christianity. Our attitude toward women and children, toward the weak and helpless, or toward animals, for instance is not nearly so "innate" as we think. It was a shock to many men of our armed forces who were stationed abroad during the last war to discover how poor and blind was the moral sense in these directions in countries which had no Christian tradition. No doubt many put this down to the fact that the inhabitants of these countries had the misfortune not to be English! It would be truer to say that they had had the misfortune not to have had their moral sense stimulated and developed by Christian training, upbringing, and propaganda.
-- J.B. Phillips, Your God Is Too Small, 1961.