In a week which has seen great debate about the place of religion in society, fuelled by the state visit of the Pope and his comments on ‘aggressive secularism’, the BHA has welcomed a renewal of the debate on allowing religious organisations to run public services. Conservative Party Chairman Baroness Warsi and Nadine Dorries (Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire) have both endorsed the contribution of faith-based organizations to the ‘Big Society.’
Government Minister Baroness Warsi, speaking on the BBC2 programme Newsnight last night, stated that the previous government was ‘suspicious’ of faith and failed to recognize faith as a motivator for social action. She also claimed that there was evidence that religious people volunteered more (incorrectly – data from the Citzienship Survey indicates there is no real difference between religious levels of volunteering and non-religious levels).
In reply, BHA Vice President Evan Harris explained that secularism guaranteed the freedom for all people to believe and practice their beliefs provided that this does not interfere with the rights and freedoms of others. He drew on the BHA’s work in its 2007 report Quality and Equality to argue that there was nothing wrong with supporting faith groups to run public services provided that they did not discrimination against service users and employees and did not attempt to use their position as service delivers to proselytize.
In addition, he argued that the government should be thanking all people and organisations who volunteer and contribute to society, whatever their motivations and stated that two thirds of organisations in the voluntary sector were not faith-based.
Lord Warner, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, also entered the debate on the BBC Radio 4 programme PM, ‘Faith-based organisations do have a role to play in their communities. (But) the issue comes down to … whether they’re going to take public money in support of their activities. There’s good documentary evidence that the churches are seeking a privileged position in employment law for their own employees when they are providing public services.’
Pepper Harow, BHA Campaigns Officer explained, ‘Suggesting that religious organisations should be subject to the same standards of equality and non-discrimination when running public services is not an attack on religious freedoms. We have been highlighting the problems with the law as it stands for many years now. The simple fact is that religious organisations running services are permitted by law to discriminate on the grounds of belief in both service provision and employment. The government refuses to recognise the seriousness of this.
‘We are not accusing such organisations of breaking the law or failing to recognise the good work that those organisations and people do. What we are saying is that legal loopholes allowing discrimination must be closed to protect the rights of service users and employees.’
Notes
Read more about the BHA’s work on public services.
More details and statistics on volunteering and religion or belief are available here.
For comment or information, contact Pepper Harow, Campaigns Officer, on 0207 462 4992.
The British Humanist Association was founded in 1896 and is the national charity promoting Humanism, campaigning for a secular state and an open society and representing and supporting non-religious people.