Newsline 10 April 2015

Newsline 10 April 2015

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News, Blogs & Opinion

As Cameron says UK “still a Christian country”, 62% tell YouGov they are “not religious”

News | Wed, 8th Apr 2015

Polling conducted in the run-up to Easter has found that almost two-thirds of Britons describe themselves as "not religious."

In his Easter message, Prime Minister David Cameron claimed the UK was "still a Christian country," but YouGov found overwhelming lack of religion in the UK in its latest poll on religion and belief.

62% said they were not religious, compared to just 36% who said they were, while 68% said that religion was "not important" to their own life. Despite over a third of Britons claiming they were religious, only 29% said that religion was "important" to them.

As found in other polling and research, younger Britons were more likely to say that they were not religious compared with over 60s. 68% of 18 to 24 year olds said they were not a practising member of a religion, compared with 59% of the over 60s. Likewise, only 31% of 18 to 24s said they were practising members of a faith group, eight points lower than the 39% of over 60s who said the same.

72% of 18 to 24 year olds said religion was "not important" to their life.

Since 2013, when identical questions were asked, the total number of people saying religion was not important to them rose by two points, whilst the corresponding figure of people saying religion was important dropped from 31% in 2013 to only 29% today.

Clive Field, writing on the British Religion In Numbers blog, commented that when comparing this polling from identical questions asked in 2013, "it is noticeable that, for all the indicators, the movement is in the direction of the least religious position."

35% said they believed in God, with 20% saying they believed in a "spiritual higher power." 34% of the general public said they believed in neither.

As with the figures of those who identify with a religion, belief in God has declined since 2013, from 38% believing in God two years ago, to just 35% now. Belief in a "spiritual power" has fallen by one point, and the number saying they believed in neither had gone up by 4%.

Belief in God showed another sharp difference between younger and older demographic groups. Under-24s are far more likely to believe in neither a god, nor a "higher spiritual power." 47% of 18 to 24s do not believe in either, compared with 27% of over 60s. The NSS has previously welcomed similar polling as bolstering the case for a secular UK, as young people are far less likely to be religious than older generations.

The YouGov figures showed that Easter was devoid of religious meaning for most Britons, with only 13% saying that religion was the "most important part of Easter." Among under-24s this figure was just 8%.

Church attendance over Easter has declined as well, with 83% saying they were not intending to attend church over the Easter weekend. This is four points higher than when that same question was asked in 2013. Belief in the key tenet of Easter — the resurrection of Jesus — has also fallen, with 50% saying Christ did "not come back to life after crucifixion." Under 24s, again, were far more likely to not believe than over 60s. 63% of 18 to 24 year olds said the resurrection did not happen.

Despite this, David Cameron in his Easter message said that "we should feel proud to say, 'this is a Christian country.'" The Prime Minister repeated that whilst the UK "welcomes and accepts all faiths and none", Britain was "still a Christian country."

The Prime Minister praised Christians for living out their religious beliefs in faith schools, and took credit for investing "tens of millions to repair churches" and for the passage of the Local Government (Religious Etc. Observances) Act, which enables councils to hold prayers in their official meetings.

NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans commented: "For a long time polling and research has shown that the UK is not a practising Christian country. Politicians sound hopelessly out-of-touch when they claim otherwise.

"Britain's rapidly changing religious makeup demonstrates how inappropriate and foolhardy is it to increasingly look to religious groups to provide public services, including publicly funded education, around a third of which is now under church control."

The Pew Research Centre recently published research which forecasted that by 2050 just 45% of the UK population will be Christian. However, by other measures, including the YouGov poll, the percentage of Christians in the UK has already fallen far below 45%.

The full YouGov poll, with analysis, can be found at the British Religion In Numbers blog.

Secularists call on Prime Minister to fix date for Easter to help schools and businesses

News | Tue, 7th Apr 2015

The National Secular Society has written to David Cameron, urging the Prime Minister to fix a set date for Easter and relax restrictions on Easter Sunday opening times for large stores.

The law currently requires large shops, such as supermarkets, to close on Easter Sunday, and the lack of a fixed date is difficult for businesses and for the planning of school terms.

The date of Easter currently varies by over a month and the proposal to fix the date has been backed by the Local Government Association and the Family and Childcare Trust.

The Independent reported a fixed weekend for Easter "could save cash-strapped parents hundreds of pounds in childcare costs, help businesses plan holiday rotas, and let the travel industry prepare better for surges in family holidays."

In the letter to the Prime Minister, NSS executive director Keith Porteous Wood pointed out that the Easter Act 1928 allowed for a fixed date to be set, but that no action had ever been taken since the legislation was given Royal Assent. Mr Porteous Wood also made clear that the Catholic Church had approved a fixed date in 1963.

"We noted that the Conservative member for East Yorkshire was the latest Parliamentarian to ask about bringing into force a fixed date for the Easter under the Easter Act 1928, in PQ 227857 answered on 24 March. The Catholic Church similarly paved the way for a fixed Easter at the Second Vatican Council in 1963. In both cases this was subject to consensus being reached. We invite you to encourage renewed attempts to reach such a consensus.

"You will be aware of the precedent set by a Conservative Government in 1971 with the Banking and Financial Dealings Act, under which the similarly itinerant Whitsun was replaced by the (fixed) late spring bank holiday."

Sir Greg Knight, who raised the matter with ministers in Parliament shortly before it was dissolved, said that "it does seem a bit odd that, 87 years after Parliament agreed that Easter should be on a fixed date, we're still waiting for the churches to make up their minds. This has been on the statute book for a long time."

Business minister Jo Swinson said there was "no indication" that churches would agree to a fixed Easter weekend.

The NSS wrote: "We support the rights of those who wish to observe Easter, but it is unreasonable and disrespectful to the remainder of the population for the operation of the law to prevent them from shopping then in such outlets. It is also an unwarranted restriction on business. If you remain as PM after the Election, we ask that you take steps to allow shops to open on Easter Sunday as they do on any other Sunday of the year."

The appeal to establish a fixed date for Easter came as new polling by YouGov found that only 13% said religion was the most important thing about Easter, and as many as 83% said they were not planning to attend Church over the Easter break. The poll also found that 62% of people described themselves as "not religious", compared with 36% who said they were. 68% said religion was "not important" to their own life.

Let’s stop confusing education with religious inculcation

Opinion | Fri, 3rd Apr 2015

The blurring of the distinction between education and religious inculcation in British schools is preventing young people from receiving good quality objective education about religion and belief, argues Stephen Evans.

The Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled that the religious freedom of a private Catholic school in Montreal was infringed by the state not allowing it to teach Catholicism subjectively.

Under Quebec's secular education system, religion and belief is taught through the province's ethics and religious culture program, which requires schools to teach about religions and beliefs from a secular, culturally and morally neutral perspective.

Schools can apply for an exemption that allows an alternative course to be taught as long as teachers steer clear of injecting their own personal religious beliefs.

Following the court ruling, the Jesuit-run school can now reapply to Quebec's education ministry for an exemption to teach the ERC course from a uniquely Catholic perspective.

It's notable how advocates for allowing schools to be used as organs of indoctrination always focus on schools' or parents' right to religious freedom. The independent interests and freedoms of the child hardly get a look in.

When the ethics and religious course was first introduced in Quebec, some parents headed straight to court insisting that their right to raise their children as Catholics was being denied.

In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that teaching students about world religions did not interfere with their ability of parents to transmit their faith to their children.

Yet here in the UK we still allow some faith schools to provide religious education from their own exclusive viewpoint. Despite being a compulsory subject, there is no national curriculum for RE, and even where a broader, 'locally agreed', syllabus is taught, the line between education and inculcation isn't always clear.

Earlier this week, a new campaign was launched to persuade more graduates to become religious education teachers. RE has long been a contested area of the curriculum. But whatever your views on the merits, or otherwise, of the subject, surely we can all agree that if religion is being taught in schools, it should be taught by properly trained teachers who know what they're doing, and understand that there's a big difference between education and inculcation.

Recently, the National Secular Society was approached by a parent who felt she had no option other than to withdraw her 6 year old son from RE after he was left terrified by a lesson focussing on the story of the crucifixion.

The lesson in question was taken by a vicar, who was teaching children the 'Easter message', and explaining how Jesus was betrayed, humiliated and then nailed to the cross until he died.

The vicar showed the infants a basket of Easter eggs he'd brought along and proceeded to open them to reveal the nails he'd put inside. He wanted to pass them around for the children to feel. The teacher stepped in at this point, but why was a vicar allowed to teach RE in the first place?

Last year, the National Secular Society's Evangelism in schools report highlighted the growing industry of school evangelism – external visitors going into schools and taking the 'good news' to young people.

With children no longer going to church, the churches know they have go to the children, and many schools appear to be naïvely or unquestioningly facilitating this.

This week I spoke to a secondary school student in Derby who got in touch after attending a PHSE lesson at his school on sexual and substance abuse. The lesson was led by two Christian visitors who had themselves experienced abuse and had considered suicide. Throughout the whole session they gave graphic accounts of their experience, all the while cross-referencing biblical accounts and their own conversion and "saving" by God, and reassuring the students that if this was happening to them, "God loves them".

At the end of the session, leaflets were handed out to all the students promoting a gospel music concert to "raise awareness of the soon return of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ".

The same group led the school's daily collective worship and proceeded to recreate a mock crucifixion nailing a soft toy bunny rabbit to a wooden cross in front of a stunned audience of 14 year olds.

I've also spoken to parents whose children's 'religious education' has consisted of trips to churches to sit through Christian services. In one case, the school refused to offer an alternative activity or even supervise children if parents wanted to withdraw their child from attending Anglican worship.

School trips to churches, as with other places of worship, can of course be educational, but requiring children to take part in religious rituals crosses the line. But that line is crossed routinely by schools that confuse education with religious inculcation. And it's not only in faith schools where this is happening.

When visiting family friends for dinner recently, our jaws collectively dropped when their 5 years old daughter, who goes to the local community school, put her hands together in prayer and started thanking God for the food before us. Despite having their daughter baptised to keep their school options open, our friends had no intention of raising their child as a Christian – and the school had no right taking it upon themselves to do so.

Despite the political establishment reacting with shock horror when it discovered governors had been busy imposing a narrow Islamic ethos on schools in Birmingham, successive governments have done nothing but encourage religion and education to become ever more closely entwined. And they're still at it.

The blurring of the distinction between education and religious inculcation in Britain is largely the legacy of the Church's historical role and influence in education. The Church was setting up schools long before the state concerned itself with the education of the masses.

But eventually the state did step up to the plate, and the Education Act of 1944, the 'Butler Act', provided free secondary education for all pupils and created the 'dual system' that brought religious schools into the state-maintained sector.

As a direct consequence of the 1944 settlement, public money now provides the funding for Church of England Schools, Roman Catholic schools, Hindu schools, Muslim schools, Jewish schools, Greek Orthodox schools, Sikh schools and Seventh Day Adventist schools. In future perhaps we'll see Scientology schools, or Atheist schools perhaps?

If we were to start again from scratch, few would argue that dividing up children by the religious preferences of their parents, and educating (or inculcating) them in along such lines would be a good idea.

But the 'dual system' compromise of 1944 has tied religion and education together in ways that are difficult to untie. Meanwhile, Church and state have combined to convince parents that they have some sort of 'right' to expect the state to fund their children's religious upbringing when no such 'right' actually exists.

However difficult it may be, unpicking the knot that ties religious and education together is necessary work – and moving away from the concept of faith-based schools remains a key objective for secularists.

To do so we must challenge the commonly held view that that students attending state schools are fair game for religious proselytizers.

Faith schools are the ultimate conflation of education and religious inculcation, but the legal obligation on all schools to provide religious education, and a daily act of (broadly Christian) worship also provides a foot in the door to individuals and organisations with evangelistic intentions.

The law requiring schools to hold acts of worship enjoys little support and is widely regarded as an unjustifiable anachronism. Sooner or later, a Government will do the right thing and abolish it.

But religious education is trickier. Whilst (at least in most schools) the subject has evolved from religious instruction, the evolution is far from complete.

Some would argue that religious education should be the responsibility of parents and be kept out of schools all together. That's a perfectly valid point of view, but I would argue that a degree of religion and belief literacy is no bad thing if children are to become skilled intercultural navigators in this incredibly diverse country of ours.

It does young people no harm to be armed with tools to counter extremist narratives. But that doesn't just mean teaching 'religious literacy', it means opening their minds to philosophy, secular ethics and the whole history of human ideas. Allowing RE to ring-fence religious ideas for privileged treatment in schools gives pupils the misleading impression that the 'big questions' always need to be considered through a religious prism. They don't.

So if we are going to teach about religions and beliefs in schools, it's going to need to be part of a broader, carefully crafted national curriculum subject – and taught by properly qualified teachers.

What we don't need is the outmoded 'religious education' model, with its 'locally agreed' syllabus, put together by religious representatives with vested interests and delivered by teachers who don't know what they're trying to achieve – or worse – evangelists who know exactly what they're trying to achieve.

A great number of RE teachers get this, and are doing a remarkable job under difficult circumstances. The 'RE Community' speaks in unison when it says we need "good quality RE". But in truth, there is still a fair amount of disagreement on what "good RE" actually means.

The Church of England, for example, talks a lot about the importance of religious education. In order to improve 'religious literacy', the Archbishop of York says "good religious education" in our schools is "a must". But according the Archbishop, "good RE" includes making sure children take part in acts of worship at the beginning of each school day "to ensure they understand the Christian values of forgiveness, generosity and the importance of serving others".

Any school that promotes these values as uniquely "Christian" is giving their pupils a skewed and very poor understanding of ethics. That's not "good RE".

The Church boasts a lot about how it runs "Christian schools for everyone", but why are we allowing public money intended for state education to be used in the service of instilling a Christian worldview in young people?

We often hear that religious education isn't taken seriously at school – that it's neglected, undervalued and unappreciated. This situation is unlikely to improve until the subject is given the radical overhaul it needs to prevent it from being used as a vehicle for religious inculcation.

Educate Together describes religious monopoly over Irish schools as “shocking”

News | Thu, 9th Apr 2015

Educate Together, the independent NGO that runs non-faith schools in Ireland, has warned of the "shocking" control of religious groups over Irish education.

The new Admissions to School Bill 2015, which clarifies the process of enrolling children in schools, has been criticised by Educate Together for failing to address "the issue of religious discrimination in access to schools."

While the group welcomed much of the Bill as a "step forward" and recognised the "practical difficulties" in designing fair enrolment policies, their CEO Paul Rowe said that the reforms failed to tackle the domination of religious schools in the Irish education system.

"The fact that an increasing number of Irish parents consider that it is necessary to get their children baptised in the Catholic faith in order to access publicly funded schools, rather than out of personal religious conviction, is a shocking alarm note for a modern democratic state.

"There are still large areas of the country where parents have no alternative but to send their children to denominational schools, and the proposed legislation does nothing to address this.

"Genuine choice of school type that is compatible with the constitutional and human rights of all families can only be achieved if equality-based schools such as those provided under the Educate Together model are available all over Ireland."

The Irish Department of Education and Skills said that they could not take away the right of religious schools to "protect their own ethos" because the Bill had to be drafted "in the context of the Constitution."

Like the National Secular Society in the UK, Educate Together argues that state-funded schools should not be allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion. It says it is "not aware of any situation in which such discrimination is necessary in order to maintain the ethos of a school" and adds that "children of all religious, cultural and social backgrounds should be able to access all state-funded education."

Pointing out that 97% of the Irish primary school system is controlled by denominational schools, Educate Together is calling on the Government of Ireland to "provide an alternative to the overwhelming monopoly of denominational schools."

Educate Together currently operates 74 primary schools in Ireland. An Educate Together primary school was also opened in September 2014 in Bristol. Their schools "guarantee equality of access and esteem to children irrespective of their social, cultural or religious background".

NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans commented: "Offering school places to young people on the basis of their parents' religious beliefs or activities is an indefensible way of deciding who can or can't access local schools. But as long as faith schools are encouraged, there will be demands to privilege children from certain backgrounds in their admissions – leaving others disadvantaged whilst at the same time contributing to social segregation.

"Meanwhile, parents unwilling or unable to play the system, and feign interest in religion in order to get their children into the local top performing faith school are increasingly finding their options restricted.

"The solution is for all publicly funded schools to be secular – welcoming to children of all religion and belief backgrounds, but not in the business of promoting a particular belief position. If the purpose of publicly funded schools is to provide children with a broad and balanced education, there's no good reason for allowing schools to operate a 'religious ethos', or allowing them to discriminate in order to preserve that 'ethos'."

Around one-third of all state-maintained schools in England and Wales have a religious character. Of a total of 2,722 state funded schools in Scotland, 377 are 'denominational' – the vast majority of these are Roman Catholic.

Secularism in 2050: huge changes in population make a secular UK even more urgent

Opinion | Fri, 10th Apr 2015

As huge demographic changes and the rapid increase in the Muslim population reshape religion in the UK, Benjamin Jones makes the case that secularism is the best guarantee of future freedoms for believers and atheists alike.

By 2050, 1-in-9 Britons will be Muslim, and if it isn't already, as much research and polling suggests, Christianity will be a minority religion.

Pew's recently published and extensive research on population projections found that eight countries including Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands will no longer have a majority of Christians by 2050. In the Europe of 2050, over 1-in-10 citizens will be Muslim, in a European Union with free movement of people.

While "unaffiliated" will be the single largest group in several western countries, low birth rates globally mean that the non-religious will decline as a share of world population. Muslims have the highest birth rate of 3.1 children per woman, followed by Christians at 2.7 children.

Worldwide demographic change is afoot, and the UK is deeply affected by these drastic population trends. This has significant implications for secularism in the UK, as the balance of religion changes, and also for those who have been historically antagonistic to the secular cause.

We cannot pretend that all religions are equally capable of secularisation or existing in a free and secular state. Islam presents challenges to secularism that are not present from other faiths in the modern world, regardless of their historic hostility.

An irrefutably large majority of British voters believe Islam is incompatible with British values: 55% think "there is a fundamental clash between Islam and the values of British society." This "fundamental clash" is extremely concerning.

Our long-term hopes essentially rest on the shoulders of those within Islam who are trying to reform it, and working to defuse this clash of values. If they are unsuccessful, the UK will become embroiled in an internal clash of civilizations.

David Robertson, an ardent anti-secularist and soon to be moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, wrote about the unfolding transformation of the UK's religious makeup recently and warned that Islam is the "elephant in the room." I found myself, unsettlingly, agreeing with much of his premise – and was somewhat relieved when he came to some completely wrong conclusions.

Robertson said: "Christianity is the bedrock and foundation of our secular society. Islam is different. Islam has no doctrine of separation of the spiritual from the political. Islam is, and has always been, a political movement." This from the next head of a church which called for Biblical principles in the Scottish government. Nonetheless, on the issue of Islam, Robertson seems to find secularism a very attractive system. I agree with him that Islam is different, as he puts it, but am fascinated to see him praising "our secular society" when he also advocates for Christian privileges.

In a future British state where they are in a dwindling minority, secularism will become essential for Christians; particularly when the growing, perhaps ascendant religion is one with such a worrying doctrine and history on the rights of non-believers.

Robertson was correct about the central question: we should be talking about the challenges presented by a rapidly growing Muslim population. We only need to look at France to see the problems being faced. This concern is not 'racist' – Pew makes quite clear that "modest net gains" from people converting into Islam are to be expected in the next three decades. The rise is not just about birth rates, but conversion too.

Listen to the spokesmen for 'moderate' Islam who deny the applicability of sharia law to the UK, because it is not an Islamic country. It seems inevitable that one day in decades to come, if trends continue, that this qualification will no longer apply. A demonstrative example is the overwrought figure of Mo Ansar, who was left unable to denounce a hypothetical Islamic state stoning someone to death. If Britain, with 83% not planning to attend church at Easter, counts as Christian, what Muslim plurality is needed before the UK of the future is deemed Islamic?

The epochal changes on the horizon make the case for traditional secular issues more urgent; the abolition of the antiquated 'right' of bishops to a seat in the Upper House is a good example. If these Anglican privileges are not removed in favour of a level playing field, a powerful argument is available to Muslim advocates, as 'representatives' of the fastest growing faith, that appointing their clerics to the Lords is a simple matter of equality. In 2050, how could a Christian argue that a minute, minority religion (as the Church of England will be in the mid-21st century) should have votes and influence in the legislature, which other faiths do not enjoy?

This is exactly what happened with faith schools. Once Christians and Jews had them, it became indefensible not to allow other religions to teach children in their faith traditions with taxpayer funding.

I can easily imagine Anglican leaders of the future embracing parity in religious representation in the Lords, in the interest of maintaining their own privileged position – though doubtless they would publicly say it was for purposes of 'equality.'

The great danger at this point would be to respond with a 'multi-faith' approach, preserving special treatment for Christians (in education, in the House of Lords) but ameliorating other religions by giving them equivalent 'rights'. This is what happened with faith schools. We do not want a situation where twenty six bishops are joined by a proportionate number of imams or rabbis appointed to the legislature simply for holding a religious position. Such a policy is obviously anti-secular and would leave out the future single largest block of Britons: the non-religious.

The old, improvised accommodations — on faith schools, on clerics in the House of Lords — simply won't hold-up in 2050. These quirks of the post-Christian United Kingdom must be resolved, because they set a dangerous precedent. It is injurious enough when these privileges are wielded by a relatively benign faith; they will be far less tolerable if handed out to other, less benevolent religious groups as well.

Secularism for 2050 isn't ephemeral or optional, it is essential for the future. We must set these principles in stone now.

Secularists must grapple with the implications of these population changes, but so too must our traditional critics.

There are some reasons for secularists to be optimistic. Two-thirds of Muslim parents don't want their children to attend state-funded faith schools, and there is no guarantee that the children of practising Muslims will themselves be Muslim. In principle it is wrong to even refer to 'Muslim' or 'Christian' children. That said, there is convincing evidence that Muslims are more successful in perpetuating religion across generations than other faiths.

Our only long-term hope is for the successful formation of a reformed Islam, at ease in a secular UK. If this project fails, then the population projections are a legitimate, real concern.

Ex-congressman tells atheist politicians to 'stay in the closet'

News | Wed, 8th Apr 2015

Former US congressman Barney Frank has advised US atheist politicians to 'stay in the closet' and not to use the word "atheist."

Frank, who served in the US House of Representatives as a congressman for Massachusetts, said that the word "atheist" had a "harshness to it." The congressman, himself a non-believer, was also the first openly gay member of the House of Representatives.

He argued that religion is not always a "motive for good behaviour" and said that internationally "religion is sadly more often a course for people to shoot each-other than to help each-other." He warned of religious "splits" between different faiths causing conflict which he said was extensive and "very sad."

Nonetheless, he added that in America, religion had a history as being seen as a "source for good behaviour" and that religion "is important to people."

"From the politician's standpoint, the question is why pick a fight that doesn't have to be waged?"

The former congressman said that he had always fought for secular principles whilst in public office, and noted that he had struggled "very hard to prevent rules and laws that put non-believers at a disadvantage."

There has only ever been one openly non-theistic congressman in American history, former California representative Pete Stark who left the legislature in 2012.

In the US, atheists have faced an uphill struggle. In 2012 Gallup found that 43% of Americans would not vote for a presidential candidate who did not believe in God.

Polling in 2014 found that American distrusted atheists more than any other group, including Muslims. However, between 2007 and 2014, the percentage of Americans who said a candidate's lack of religious belief didn't matter rose modestly from 32% to 41%. The Washington Post reported that "pot smokers or philanderers were viewed more favourably than atheists."

In the UK the reverse is true, and polling has shown that politicians are viewed more favourably if they are open in admitting that they don't believe in a god.

Frank's comments mirror those of Conservative MP James Arbuthnot, who 'came out' as an atheist during a recent House of Commons debate on the Local Government (Religious etc. Observances) Bill (now Act), which enables local authorities to hold prayers as part of their official business. Arbuthnot, who opposed the bill, described the pressure to feign religious belief as being like the pressure people felt to stay silent about being gay.

Arbuthnot pointed to the very high percentage of non-religious voters in the UK and warned that Parliament was "out of touch with the majority of the people we represent, because only a tiny proportion of our constituents go to church."

Mr Arbuthnot said he only felt able to announce his lack of belief with the "knowledge that I will not be standing at the next election" and that he was "perfectly comfortable" with not being religious. He said there was a particular pressure on Conservative politicians to hide their atheism.

NSS Speaks Out

NSS executive director Keith Porteous Wood spoke on LBC, BBC Radio 5 Live and local BBC stations, discussing a range of issues including demographic projections on the future of religion in the UK and fixing the date of Easter.

This week, the NSS was mentioned in the Independent on Sunday, the Telegraph, the Mirror and the Basingstoke Gazette.