The King James Bible has many admirers including the late Christopher Hitchens. He praised its "common stock of references and allusions rivalled only by Shakespeare". He used as an example a British officer at Dunkirk, faced with annihilation or surrender, who cabled home three words: "But if not, "

The officer knew this would be recognised as a quote from the Book of Daniel, in which Jewish heretics looked for divine deliverance from a tyrant king: "But if not, be it known unto thee, o king, that we will not serve thy gods , "

So it does not seem very remarkable that the Prime Minister should refer in a speech commemorating 400 years of the King James Bible that we are a Judeo-Christian country.

His statement, accompanied by plenty of clauses and a general air of self-doubt, was nevertheless off the scale for militant atheists. Cameron's recognition of Christian values, in the midst of the nativity season, was dismissed as "bizarre" and "inaccurate" by the British Humanist Society.

The problem for anti-Christians is that they are forever fighting fires (let alone the final one). It is not just the lively evangelism of the new empires, such as China, or the gospel-based resilience of the African nations, it is the cultural history of Britain which has to be stamped out. Of course humanists can argue that values of compassion and tolerance and service are not peculiar to Christians, but the environment in which they prosper is particular. From St Paul's Cathedral to the distinctive church towers of Norfolk, silhouetted against the red and gold evening sky, Christianity is part of our landscape and an expression of our historical identity.

Anyone can be good but Christianity does actively demand it, in a set of commandments.

The institution of marriage in a Christian country also has special significance. I happen to prize it more highly than polygamy, call me narrow- minded. David Cameron argues from social pragmatism that marriage empirically delivers better results.

Children from stable, married families are statistically more likely to be academically successful and happy. So why not encourage it through taxes?

Critics are scornful that tax breaks can influence human behaviour, although we acknowledge the effect in every other human sphere. Taxes on cigarettes helped the decline of smoking; stamp duty cools the housing market.

I believe there is a set of references and values which can loosely be described as Christian and British. You only have to watch Richard II at the Donmar. Even apart from John of Gaunt's speech, it is a study in patriotism. Noblemen would rather face death than exile from this language and this soil. It may be that expressions of Christian duty come better from the Queen than the Prime Minister, but they have a resonance for our nation. If the King James Bible was good enough for Christopher Hitchens, it is good enough for me.