 Benn asserted that the teachings of Jesus Christ had a " radical political importance " on his life , and made a distinction between the historical Jesus as " a carpenter of Nazareth " who advocated social justice and egalitarianism and " the way in which he 's presented by some religious authorities ; by popes , archbishops and bishops who present Jesus as justification for their power " , believing this to be a gross misunderstanding of the role of Jesus . He believed that it was a " great mistake " to assume that the teachings of Christianity are outdated in modern Britain , and Higgins wrote in The Benn Inheritance that Benn was " a socialist whose political commitment owes much more to the teaching of Jesus than the writing of Marx " . Later in his life , Benn emphasised issues regarding morality and righteousness , as well as various ethical principles of Nonconformism . " I 've never thought we can understand the world we lived in unless we understood the history of the church " , Benn said to the Catholic Herald . " All political freedoms were won , first of all , through religious freedom . Some of the arguments about the control of the media today , which are very big arguments , are the arguments that would have been fought in the religious wars . You have the satellites coming in now — well , it is the multinational church all over again . That 's why Mrs Thatcher pulled Britain out of UNESCO : she was not prepared , any more than Ronald Reagan was , to be part of an organisation that talked about a New World Information Order , people speaking to each other without the help of Murdoch or Maxwell . " According to Peter Wilby in the New Statesman , Benn " decided to do without the paraphernalia and doctrine of organised religion but not without the teachings of Jesus " . Although Benn became more agnostic as he became older , Benn was intrigued by the interconnections between Christianity , radicalism and socialism . Wilby also wrote in The Guardian that although former Chancellor Stafford Cripps described Benn as " as keen a Christian as I am myself " , Benn wrote in 2005 that he was " a Christian agnostic " who believed " in Jesus the prophet , not Christ the king " , specifically rejecting the label of " humanist " . 
