Speaking in an interview with the BBC broadcast on Thursday evening, Badenoch recalled how the 2008 case of Austrian sex offender Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned and raped his daughter Elisabeth over 24 years, shattered her belief in God.
British Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has said that she doubted God after realising her “stupid prayers” were being answered while a rape victim’s desperate prayers went unheard.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC broadcast on Thursday evening, Badenoch recalled how the 2008 case of Austrian sex offender Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned and raped his daughter Elisabeth over 24 years, shattered her belief in God.
“I couldn’t stop reading this story. And I read her account, how she prayed every day to be rescued,” she said.
“And I thought, I was praying for all sorts of stupid things and I was getting my prayers answered.
“I was praying to have good grades, my hair should grow longer, and I would pray for the bus to come on time so I wouldn’t miss something.
“It’s like, why were those prayers answered and not this woman’s prayers? And it just, it was like someone blowing out a candle.”
Badenoch, whose maternal grandfather was a Methodist minister, said she was “never that religious” while growing up but had “believed there was a God” and “would have defined myself as a Christian apologist”.
Although she no longer believes in God, Badenoch said she still considers herself a “cultural Christian”.
“I want to protect certain things because I think the world that we have in the UK is very much built on many Christian values,” she explained.
On her role as Conservative leader, she said things were going “well”, adding: “We’re the only party on the centre-right, and we’re the only ones who still believe in values like living within our means, personal responsibility, making sure that the government is not getting involved in everything so it can focus on the things it needs to look at, like securing our borders.”
She also defended her previous claim that her time working at McDonald’s made her working class.
“I had to work to live. That, for me, is what being working class is. It’s the lifestyle that you have. You have to work, to survive,” she said.
Reacting to figures that show a quarter of 16 to 24-year-olds report having a mental disorder, she said: “I think they think they have a mental disorder, I don’t think they all have a mental disorder.”
She added: “I’m not a medical expert so it is not my expertise on exactly what we need to do to get them into work, but we should be trying to get them into work.”
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