Not a member? Becoming a member of the National Secular Society is a declaration of your belief in fairness, freedom and human rights. Commit to your principles by adding your voice to the call for a secular society. Join us today.
You can download this week's Newsline in full here (PDF)
News, Blogs & Opinion
An important lesson that politicians can learn from the American electionOpinion | Wed, 7th Nov 2012 "The Religious Right is dead" announced the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday morning after the defeat of the Republican Party in the US election. The headline was over a blog by the paper's rather wacky blogs editor Damian Thompson, but Mr Thompson seems to be first to have acknowledged that for all the hype about the power and influence of America's religious conservatives, in the end they failed dismally to swing the election. And this should give a message to all politicians in the West who imagine that there is some kind of all-powerful "faith constituency" that can be delivered at the polling booths by the arrogant and demanding "faith leaders". The German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the latest to fall into this trap, trying to court religion by telling churches that she doesn't support strict separation of religion from the state. Mitt Romney's experience should tell her that there is little value in pursuing that line – it alienates as many as it impresses. The US election shows once and for all that there are at least as many liberal, good-hearted people in the world as there are hate-filled, small-minded religious bigots. And so the Catholic Church — which has become much more overtly political over the past few years — has failed dismally to push its adherents behind Mitt Romney. The angry, spiteful rhetoric that informs the Catholic bishops' campaigns against abortion, contraception and gay rights repels the people it is supposed to influence. The Church hierarchy will eventually have to come to terms with that, and if they want the Church to have influence in the world, they will have to cool it and urgently re-examine their unpopular, outmoded ideas. As Dominic Holden wrote in Salon: "The Catholic laity's 77 million members — who represent the largest religious denomination in the U.S. — largely support civil marriage for gay partners. A Public Religion Research Institute poll conducted last year found that 71 percent of American Catholics support marriage rights for same-sex couples when they are assured that it's marriage "like you get at City Hall." Nonetheless, in all four states, where polls show voters supporting gay marriage by narrow margins, the Catholic hierarchy is helping lead the opposition to marriage equality." It seems these 77 million people are not Catholics when they get to the polling station – they are US citizens. And that was proved by the fact that in the four states that had gay marriage as an issue on the voting paper, all four voted to support reform. If this election has told politicians one thing, it should be that they should listen to the voters and not to the religious lobbyists who are trying to write their doctrines into law. Because when the curtain is pulled back — as it has been at this election — you will not find the awesome, vengeful religious voting bloc that was promised, but just a collection of wizened old men with a media megaphone that makes them seem much bigger than they really are. | |
Mr Cameron, the Big Society and the fundamentalistsOpinion | Mon, 5th Nov 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron last week attempted to revive the idea of the Big Society – in which charities and religious organisations run public services – at a reception at 10 Downing Street for the Council of Christians and Jews. Mr Cameron said: "There is hope for the future, particularly if people can follow the example of charities like your own. This government is trying to put charities, charitable groups, and charitable giving on a whole different footing. Right across the board you can see that we are saying you're not the third sector – we believe charities have a huge role in delivering great public services. "It's what I call the Big Society – the idea that there's a huge space between government and the individual that can be filled by organisations, faith-based organisations perhaps in particular, that can deliver great public services, that can do great things in terms of tackling some of the problems of our time." Perhaps the Prime Minister doesn't read Private Eye, but in this week's issue he could have seen the report below, which illustrates just how undesirable it would be to hand out public money to religious groups without strong controls in place:
| |
Catholic adoption agency loses fight over gay adoptionNews | Sat, 3rd Nov 2012 The National Secular Society has welcomed a decision not to allow a catholic adoption agency to continue to exclude considering same-sex parents if it wishes to retain its charitable status. On Friday, Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) lost its latest in a long a long line of appeals to permit it to exclude same-sex parents, in a battle that set the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church against UK law. The case has been fought by the Charity Commission every step of the way, which has argued that that the charity's stance is "divisive, capricious and arbitrary" and "demeaning" to the dignity of homosexual couples whose parenting abilities are "beyond question". Commenting on the dismissal, Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society said: "Leeds, to its shame, has been the last remaining diocese to hold out and spend hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to defy equality law and impose Catholic dogma in its adoption agency – regardless of what is in the best interests of the children. Appeal judge the Hon. Mr justice Sales pointed out that six local authorities told the Tribunal that they did not support the Charity's contention that if the Charity closed its adoption service then children would be left un-adopted. Other research also indicated that same sex couples could themselves provide a good source of adopters of 'hard to place' children. The judge concluded that the Charity could not show that it had good grounds of sufficient strength to provide objective justification for the proposed discrimination. Mr Porteous Wood added: "We should not forget that the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, has admitted that his Church has accepted many gay people as adoptive parents – but only provided they are single, and not if they are in, or form legally recognised, loving same-sex relationships. Yet non-catholic adoption agencies usually consider couples in relationships to be better placed to provide a more stable background, and therefore normally this in the best interests of the child. However, such is the extent of Catholic dogma in this particular charity, it takes priority over the best interests of the children in their care, and seemingly over the solvency of their charity and its ability to function. "We do however recognise that many professionals in Catholic adoption agencies are content to follow the law and many have done so, even if this has meant disassociating themselves or their charities from the Church." The ruling was handed down by the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery) dismissing the appeal by the Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) against the Charity Commission for England and Wales. | |
Win tickets to see On Religion and to question AC Grayling about the playNews | Thu, 8th Nov 2012 The new production of AC Grayling and Mick Gordon's stimulating play "On Religion" is being staged at the Tower Theatre in London from 20 to 24 November (with an extra matinee on 24 November). We have two tickets to give away for the 7.45pm performance on Saturday 24 November after which NSS Honorary Associate AC Grayling will be taking questions from the audience about the play and the issues it raises. Informed by conversations with leading philosophers, theologians and scientists including Professor Richard Dawkins, Rev Dr Giles Fraser, Professor John Gray, Baroness Julia Neuberger, Archbishop Rowan Williams and Tariq Ramadan, this play explores faith and religion through a human, moving and theatrically cinematic story. To be in with a chance of winning the tickets, just answer to this question In which book did AC Grayling question the morality of the allied air offensive against German and Japanese cities in World War II? Send your entry to admin@secularism.org.uk and the winner will be drawn from a hat. Find out more about On Religion by Mick Gordon & A C Grayling | |
The Church of England should act now if it wants to save its hospital chaplaincy serviceOpinion | Tue, 6th Nov 2012 The following message appeared recently on the social networking site Gransnet:
There was no indication at which hospital this occurred or whether the man involved was actually anything to do with the hospital or whether he was just someone who had walked in off the street and was falsely using a hospital chaplain's badge. Either way, his activities point up the need for hospitals to keep a more careful eye on what chaplains are doing in their name. But it is becoming clear, as the financial noose tightens on the NHS, that chaplains are, at last, taking their share of the pain. The BBC reports that the Diocese of Lichfield is appealing for volunteers to replace a chaplain's post. The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital Telford used to have two chaplains, now, due to retirement, they have only one. The hospital cannot afford to fill the vacant post, the Diocese claims that it doesn't have the resources to fund it and hence the search for volunteers. The Venerable Paul Thomas said:
Only when push comes to shove will the Church of England admit that the chaplaincy service could be run without putting such a financial burden on the struggling NHS. Volunteer chaplains are already commonplace throughout the hospital service and their contributions could be much expanded – eradicating the need for public funds to be used to finance clergypeople. In the light of the worsening economic climate, the CofE should think seriously about completely reinventing the chaplaincy provision in hospitals so that it becomes a voluntary, charity funded service, rather like the WRVS which does such a magnificent job without proving a strain on badly needed health service funding. This is the Big Society in action and the Church should follow the WRVS lead. This is becoming an urgent problem for the Church and if it wants its chaplaincy services to survive the horrendous job cuts that are rampant throughout the NHS, it should start planning now. It might also stop renegade people, such as the 'healer' mentioned on Gransnet, using hospitals as platforms for their highly dubious promises. | |
We must defend freedom of speech, says United Nations expertNews | Thu, 8th Nov 2012 In a statement issued by the United Nations, its special rapporteur on freedom of expression, Frank La Rue, said that it is essential to create an environment conducive to critical discussions of religious and racial issues and to promote understanding and tolerance by deconstructing negative stereotypes. In his report[1] to the United Nations General Assembly Mr La Rue highlighted the phenomenon of hate speech and discussed State responses to this challenge. "The struggle against intolerance is both an urgent and permanent task. Regrettably, incitement to hatred continues to be found in all regions of the world. The question is when and how States can legitimately limit freedom of expression." The Special Rapporteur noted that the right to freedom of expression should only be restricted in extreme cases, such as incitement to genocide and incitement to hatred, stating that "any restriction to freedom of expression must be provided by a law that is clear and accessible to everyone. It must also be proven as necessary and legitimate to protect the rights or reputation of others, national security or public order, public health or morals; and it must be proven as the least restrictive and proportionate means to achieve the purported aim." Mr La Rue described the efforts of many governments to combat hate speech as misguided, and referred to the adoption of ambiguous legislation with disproportionate sanctions that are frequently used to silence criticism and political expression. "Anti-blasphemy laws, for example, which are inherently vague and leave the entire concept open to abuse, are often used as a means of quashing the right to freedom of expression," Mr La Rue said, calling upon States to repeal anti-blasphemy laws and to initiate legislative and other reforms that protect the rights of individuals in accordance with international human rights standards. The Special Rapporteur also highlighted alternative means of tackling the root causes and various facets of hate, including broad-based societal programmes to combat inequality and structural discrimination. "States must invest more in the promotion of human rights education and must continuously promote open public debate as the best antidote to combat discriminatory patterns," Mr La Rue said. "Laws to combat hate speech must be carefully construed and applied by the judiciary so as to avoid excessively curtailing legitimate types of expression. At the same time, while laws are certainly necessary and an important component in addressing hate speech, they should be complemented by a broadest of policy measures to bring about genuine changes in mindsets, perception and discourse," Mr La Rue added. [1] United Nations General Assembly: Note by the Secretary-General transmitting the interim report of the Special Rapporteur on promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; A/67/357 (pdf) (link is unreliable; see here and click on the link "A/67/357" near the bottom) See also: Russia plans new law that will crack down hard on critics of religion | |
Desperate Egyptian Christians discover the value of secularismNews | Wed, 7th Nov 2012 Egypt's newly-elected Coptic Christian pope said on Monday that he was alarmed at the overtly religious nature of the country's proposed new constitution. It is an indication that he intends to campaign with secular groups against the emphasis on Islam in the newly-formulated charter. Pope Tawadros II expressed concern about the rise of militant Islamism in Egypt and the resulting violent attacks on churches as well as lethal assaults on worshippers. A rising number of court cases are being filed against Christians accusing them of blasphemy and disrespecting Islam. But the new Pope is hopeful that things can improve. "This is changing bit by bit, and it will take time. It needs encouraging, and so long as society is fair, and democracy is built fairly, you will see participation [from the Copts]." Egypt's Islamist President, also head of the Muslim Brotherhood, has said the constitution must be based on Islamic Shariah law, although it was not clear what that would entail. But together with the violence being directed against them, Coptic leaders are fearful that they will be subject to even greater persecution if the constitution in its present form is enacted. "The constitution is for us all to live together, a common life, we need each other. This is the constitution that will bring us together," said Pope Tawadros. "Any additions or hints that make the constitution religious will not be acceptable, not only to Copts but to many sectors in society." A young Coptic man is in prison facing charges of contempt of religion because he shared an anti-Islamic video on Facebook, while an Islamist broadcaster who faces similar charges for tearing up the Bible in public is not being held. Meanwhile the authorities have been slow to react to the disappearance of a 14-year-old Christian girl said to have converted to Islam and married a Muslim in breach of laws setting a minimum age for both actions. Salafists have warned the government against handing her back to her family, saying that under Islamic law her actions are permissible. Such incidents leave Christians embittered, and deepen the faultlines in society. Egypt's Coptic Christians have long complained of discrimination by the state and the country's Muslim majority. Clashes with Muslims have occasionally broken out, sparked by church construction, land disputes or Muslim-Christian love affairs. See also: | |
Britons becoming more tolerantNews | Thu, 8th Nov 2012 A Yougov poll of 1,637 people shows that in several respects, Britain has become more tolerant and less prejudiced during the past four decades. Compared with the 1970s, 81% now feel that there is less discrimination against homosexuals than there used to be, 79% less against black people, 78% less against women, and 64% less against Asians. Of other groups, only ageism bucks the trend, with 33% saying that discrimination against the elderly has got worse over the years (albeit 6% fewer than those thinking it has decreased). On the religion front, anti-Semitism is perceived to have abated, with 58% claiming there is less discrimination against Jews than in the 1970s, 7% more, and 25% about the same. However, Muslims, who had a relatively low public profile and were significantly less numerous four decades ago, have not been so fortunate, with 48% of all adults contending that they experience more discrimination, 33% less, and 11% a similar amount as before. Three-tenths also feel that discrimination against Christians has grown, and this is especially so among men (35%) and Conservative voters (41%). Equivalent proportions believe that discrimination against Christians has lessened (32%) or remained static (29%). The survey also looked at the issue of racism in football. |
NSS Speaks Out
NSS President Terry Sanderson was quoted by the BBC in its analysis of what the new Archbishop of Canterbury's priorities should be.
Amazon shopping? You can benefit the NSS
Are you buying gifts from Amazon this Christmas? You can benefit the NSS by clicking the box on the bottom right of this newsletter or the box at the bottom right of any page of the NSS website. Each time you shop with Amazon by clicking on our link we receive a commission which contributes to our funds and costs you nothing. So if you're shopping with Amazon this year, please remember to visit their site via our link and you'll be giving the NSS a seasonal gift, at no cost to yourself.
Quotes of the Week
"Catholics are setting an example for elections to come. They're refusing to let the hierarchy speak for them, and even reining them in."
(Dominic Holden, Salon)
"As an electoral force, the Catholic Church is dead as a door nail."
(Ryan W. McKaken, Lew Rockwell)
Essays of the Week
Why we should be grateful to Scientology
(Matthew Crow, Independent)
Why didn't religion matter more in the US election?
(Amy Sullivan, The New Republic)
No exceptions: One Law for All
(Rahila Gupta, Open Democracy)
Upcoming Events
Theatre: On Religion, by AC Grayling and Mick Gordon
Tue, 20th Nov 2012
NSS AGM
Sat, 24th Nov 2012
Secularist of the Year 2013
Sat, 23rd Mar 2013
