Responding to a report launched by the Christian think tank ‘Theos’ this week, which argues for the retention of Bishops in a reformed chamber, the British Humanist Association (BHA) has urged their removal as part of House of Lords reform.
BHA Chief Executive Hanne Stinson commented, ‘However it is presented, the unacceptable fact is that the UK is the only Western democracy to give religious representatives the automatic right to sit in the legislature. Modern Britain is a society with a great diversity of religious and non-religious beliefs and continuing to privilege one denomination in this way is preposterous.’
The BHA believes the arguments against privileging religious representatives in a democratic parliament to be irrefutable and that the arguments in their favour are insubstantial:
– The claim that Bishops are uniquely qualified to provide ethical and spiritual insights is factually incorrect and offensive. People from many walks of life and from many religions and none are at least equally qualified if not more so – for example, moral philosophers and experts in medical ethics.
– Religious ‘leaders’ cannot speak for the whole population – their views are often controversial and rejected by people with equally deeply held religious or ethical convictions.
– Bishops may not necessarily even represent the views of Anglicans. A pertinent example is the recent vote on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, where polls show that 81% of protestants ‘think that a person who is suffering unbearably from a terminal illness should be allowed by law to receive medical help to die, if that is what they want’ (NOP, 2004) but the bishops opposed the Bill.
– The Anglican Church claims only 1,650,000 members in the UK and its Sunday services are attended by only about 1.9% of the adult population. Only 12% of the adult population are members of any church. Many polls have provided evidence of high levels of unbelief in the UK .
– The presence of Church representatives in the legislature has ceased to be an accurate reflection of UK society and, indeed, increasing numbers of people are opposed to political privileges for religion (‘Religious groups and leaders’ are the domestic group that people are most likely to believe has too much influence on government (MORI, 2006))
– The House of Commons Public Administration Committee unanimously rejected seats as of right for bishops and so did the great majority (71%) of respondents to the Lord Chancellor’s 2002 consultation document (56% – no bishops; 15% – only as individual appointments through the standard procedure).
NOTES
An Ipsos MORI poll in October 2006 showed that more people think that the government pays too much attention to ‘religious groups and leaders’ than to any other domestic group.