He doesn't believe in God and doesn't go to church but TV presenter Richard Madeley has a message for the Church of England: either believe all of the Bible or don't believe it all.
Writing in The Express, he waded into the recent debate over God's gender, saying that it was an example of 'post-modern editing' to believe God is a woman when the Bible consistently refers to God in male terms.
He suggested that cherry-picking truths from the Bible would only fuel the further decline of the Church of England.
'Christianity has to offer a set of eternal, non-negotiable truths, a check-list of certainties. That's how religions survive,' he said.
'The moment you start parsing them, they begin to wither. And the C of E has been obsessively gnawing away at its own entrails since the 1960s; an institutional example of self-harming.'
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Referencing a recent survey that found the vast majority of British Christians continue to see God as male, he continued: 'Well they would, wouldn't they? The Bible refers to God as "He" throughout both the Old and New Testaments.
'Jesus Himself referred to "my father", and on the eve of his death taught his disciples the Lord's Prayer which begins with the words: "Our Father, who art in Heaven..."'
Some corners of the Church of England have suggested that it embrace more female language when speaking about God.
Bishop of Gloucester, Rachel Treweek, claimed some people could feel 'alienated' if they came to church and only heard God being referred to as a man.
'I don't want young girls or boys to hear us constantly referring to God as He,' she said.
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Madeley rubbished the suggestion, arguing that if the Bible has been wrong about God's gender, then the Church would have to question where it has been wrong about other teachings too.
He said: 'So Jesus was wrong about God's gender. So are the scriptures. But if the Bible is wrong about that, what else might it be wrong about? The virgin birth? The miracles? Christ's resurrection? Everything? You either believe in something or you don't.'
'When it comes to faith, you can't pick and choose, buffeted and blown by the winds of ceaselessly-changing social convention and emerging science.
'I don't happen to believe in God, or that Jesus was the Son if God, or that He was born of immaculate conception.
'But if I was a Christian surely I'd have to? Isn't that the deal? Otherwise... well, what's the point?'
But his scathing put down didn't end there as he went on to attack the Archbishop of Canterbury over his recent criticisms of Amazon and the Government's handling of the economy.
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Archbishop Justin Welby came under fire for criticising Amazon over zero-hour contracts only for it to later emerge that parts of the Church of England are hiring on the same basis and that the Church is an investor in the online shopping giant.
Madeley wrote: 'Meanwhile the Archbishop of Cant - sorry, Canterbury - Justin Welby, parrots Labour's checklist of economic policies to the TUC, piously berating Amazon and the zero-hours gig economy.
'Oops! Turns out the C of E invests massively in Amazon and routinely hires staff on, er, zero-hours contracts. Did I say "piously"? Make that "hypocritically".
'Hmm. Hypocrites don't get a good press in the Bible. Maybe that's something else that needs a bit of post-modern editing, too.'
