Last week I reported that Gorbachev is a Christian, on the authority of The Telegraph. Perhaps I should learn not to trust newspapers. For today I learn, thanks to another newspaper, a Christian one this time, (thanks also to Claude Mariottini for telling me about this in a comment) that Gorbachev is now insisting that he is not a Christian. He is quoted as saying:

To sum up and avoid any misunderstandings, let me say that I have been and remain an atheist.

Is this inconsistent with his words reported by the Telegraph?:

St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus, the other Christ … His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life.

Perhaps not. St Francis, and for that matter Jesus as presented in the Gospels, with their teaching on poverty and love, can easily be an inspiration for an atheistic communist, if they are allowed to be – and if the atheist ignores their teaching about God. It seems that this is an example of a journalist reading rather too much between the lines of Gorbachev’s remarks.