By Jon Craig, Chief Political Correspondent
Church of England bishops have been attacked by Conservative MPs after publishing a letter claiming people feel detached from politics and calling for a "fresh moral vision of the kind of country we want to be".
In a 52-page letter, the bishops said "worrying and unfamiliar trends" were appearing in national life and there was a "growing appetite to exploit grievances, find scapegoats and create barriers between people and nations".
David Cameron said he welcomed the Church entering the political debate, but said the Government was helping people by creating jobs, cutting taxes and developing the economy.
The Prime Minister said: "I would say to the bishops, I hope they would welcome that because work does bring dignity, does bring self-reliance, it does enable people to provide for their families, it creates a stronger society as well as a stronger economy.
"And a welfare system that pays people to stay idle when they could work - that is not the sign of a strong economy or a strong or good society."
But Conservative backbenchers were much more critical. Thatcherite Conor Burns told Sky News the letter was "naive" in not taking into account the recession and the risk posed by countries like Iran.
He said: "It takes no account of the fact that we are still operating in a political climate where the Government and anybody who becomes the Government will have an enormous budget deficit.
"The amount of money the Government is bringing in versus the amount of money it is spending every year is still very large. The wish list that the bishops seem to have in the document couldn't be funded, even if everyone wanted it to be."
Outspoken MP Nadine Dorries said there was a "very definite left-wing leaning" to the intervention and the Church should stick to issues where people are "really seeking the church's voice", such as abortion.
"The Church is always silent when people are seeking its voice and yet seems to be very keen to dive in on political issues when actually no-one is asking it to," she said.
Launching the document, the Bishop of Norwich said it was intended to counter arguments that people should not bother to engage with politics and vote.
The Rt Rev Graham James said: "We're conscious that there are a number of voices around, probably the most famous of which is Russell Brand, telling people that they shouldn't bother with voting and shouldn't bother to exercise their hard-won democratic freedoms.
"I'm conscious just going around some of our youth groups and speaking to youth leaders that that has had a more profound effect than I had anticipated.
"And while one may think that the bishops of the Church of England don't quite have the sex appeal of Russell Brand, we think that we should counter it."
The bishops said the letter was "not a shopping list of policies we would like to see" but a "call for the new direction that we believe our political life ought to take".
The letter raises issues including the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent, Britain's relationship with the European Union and the concept of the Living Wage.
The letter also states: "There is a deep contradiction in the attitudes of a society which celebrates equality in principle yet treats some people especially the poor and vulnerable, as unwanted, unvalued and unnoticed.
"It is particularly counter-productive to denigrate those who are in need because this undermines the wider social instinct to support one another in the community.
"For instance, when those who rely on social security payments are all described in terms that imply they are undeserving, dependent and ought to be self-sufficient, it deters others from offering the informal, neighbourly support which could ease some of the burden of the welfare state."
Calling for a stronger political vision, it states: "The different parties have failed to offer attractive visions of the kind of society and culture they wish to see, or distinctive goals they might pursue.
"Instead, we are subjected to sterile arguments about who might manage the existing system best."
The bishops back the concept of the Big Society, promoted by Mr Cameron in the 2010 general election campaign, stating that its ideals "should not be consigned to the political dustbin".
The letter also criticises language used in debates over immigration, but says: "We also challenge the assumption that to question immigration at all must always be racist".
It says: "The way we talk about migration, with ethnically identifiable communities being treated as 'the problem' has, deliberately or inadvertently, created an ugly undercurrent of racism in every debate about immigration."
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