British Government warns that it intends to religionise Britain

Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi has insisted that the coalition Government not only “does God” but that faith groups should have a greater role in public services under the auspices of David Cameron’s Big Society.

Baroness Warsi

Speaking this week to a meeting of Church of England bishops in Oxford, Baroness Warsi said that whereas the coalition intended to be “on the side of” faith, the Labour government had seen religion as “essentially a rather quaint relic of our pre-industrial history”.

“They were also too suspicious of faith’s potential for contributing to society – behind every faith-based charity, they sensed the whiff of conversion and exclusivity,” she said. “And because of these prejudices they didn’t create policies to unleash the positive power of faith in our society.” That environment had encouraged the “rise of a new kind of intellectual, who dines out on free flowing media and sustains a vocabulary of secularist intolerance”.

“The fact is that our world is more religious than ever,” she said. “Faith is here to stay. It is part of the fabric of human experience. And in Britain faith is very much alive and kicking.”

Lady Warsi, the first Muslim woman to serve in the Cabinet, said faith groups would play a key role in the Big Society and would have more opportunity to perform public services and found their own schools. As such, a government was needed that “understands faith, which is comfortable with faith, and which when necessary, is prepared to speak out about issues of faith”. “When you think about it, it’s incredible that many people of faith give up their evenings to work as street pastors making sure that young men are less at risk of knife crime and young women less likely to run into trouble after a night out,” she told the meeting of bishops.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “Where does Baroness Warsi get the idea that Labour was anti-faith based welfare? Labour was deeply involved in promoting faith-based welfare (FBW), and it is horrifying that this Government wants even more of it. It has been a disaster in the USA. Religious groups have taken control of much of social services: as a result service provision has been discriminatory and excluding. Even though Obama knows this, he is too afraid of the powerful religious lobby to be able to tackle it. Similarly in Germany there are over 2 million FBW workers. Thanks to religious exemptions to employment regulations, they can even be sacked for marrying a divorcee, they are denied collective bargaining, the right to strike, the minimum wage, or employment tribunals.

Now such injustices are heading our way with the speed of an express train.”

Also see

An inside look at faith-based social services in Germany

How far can German churches discriminate against 2.5 million employees?

In Germany the churches themselves determine the labour regulations of their employees.