Services funded by public money should be open to all, without alienating anyone.
The recent drive to contract out public services to faith groups risks undermining equal access.
Help us keep public services free from discrimination and evangelism.
The government is increasingly pushing for more publicly-funded services to be provided by religious organisations.
Many faith-based groups have carried out social service without imposing their beliefs. But religious groups taking over public service provision raises concerns regarding proselytising and discrimination.
65% of people have no confidence in church groups running crucial social provisions such as healthcare with only 2% of people expressing a lot of confidence.
Any organisations involved in delivering public services should be bound by equality law and restrictions on proselytisation.
Those advocating for faith organisations to take over more public services risk undermining these restrictions, which exist to protect both the public and third sector.
"We have concerns that some religious groups that seek to take over public services, particularly at local level, could pursue policies and practices that result in increased discrimination against marginalised groups, particularly in service provision and the employment of staff. Non-religious people and those not seen to confirm to the dominant ethos of a religious body, such as being in an unmarried relationship or divorced and being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, could find themselves subject to discrimination."
Unitarian Church (Submission to the Parliamentary Public Administration Select Committee about the Big Society agenda)
There are also concerns about faith-based mental health and pastoral care in public institutions, including chaplaincy programmes in the NHS and the armed forces. Where such services are funded by the state, they should not be organised around religion or belief.
Religious commentators are often keen to document the contribution of religious organisations to the third sector and social activism. But they fail to demonstrate why it should be the state's role to build this capacity or why local authorities shouldn't have legitimate concerns about religious groups running services.
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1. Write to your MP
Ask your MP to protect secular public services.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join the National Secular Society
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
Government criticises “hate speech” of Christian charity it funded
Posted: Tue, 28 Feb 2023 12:03
The government will "urgently investigate" a recipient of its grant for faith groups after the charity's chair said Islam is "demonic".
The National Secular Society found the chair of Zion Projects, which the government gave £43,220 last year, was filmed making anti-Islam comments in an online meeting in 2020.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) called the comments "abhorrent" and "hate speech".
Zion Projects, a Christian charity based in Eastleigh, Hampshire, is one of 16 religious organisations given a total of £1.3 million in public money as part of the government's 'Faith New Deal' fund. The NSS has criticised this fund as it excludes non-religious community groups.
Government 'strongly condemns' video which calls Islam "spiritual wickedness"
In a now-removed video on Vimeo (pictured), Zion Projects chair and trustee Danny Stupple responded to a question about Islamic 'calls to prayer' being broadcast during lockdown by saying "a very strong force of spiritual wickedness known as Islam is engaging in warfare against the Lord with its open air prayers".
He said that Islamic prayers are "one example" of "the enemy" trying to use the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that the Islamic system of belief "is truly demonic".
He advised that anyone who hears the calls to prayers should "deny it power in Jesus' name", which is "more than able to deal with the spiritual forces of wickedness in those prayers".
The NSS wrote to Baroness Scott of Bybrook, parliamentary under-secretary of state at DLUHC, to express concerns about Zion Projects and other recipients of the Faith New Deal grant.
A spokesperson for DLUHC told the NSS: "These comments are abhorrent and we strongly condemn them. We take hate speech against any group or individual extremely seriously."
It added: "We are urgently investigating this issue and the Department's relationship with the Zion Project, including funding."
The NSS has also written to the Charity Commission for England and Wales and Hampshire County Council, which last year awarded Zion Projects nearly £20,000 to "help to provide a range of projects including a community café".
The findings follow a recent report by Muslim advocacy group Mercy Mission UK which questioned the absence of Muslim organisations among recipients of Faith New Deal grants.
The government's Faith New Deal pilot scheme was launched in 2021 for faith-based organisations that provide community services to "tackle issues affecting the most vulnerable". Groups with no religious ethos were ineligible for funding.
The NSS has criticised the scheme as "discriminatory". Several of the groups funded by the Faith New Deal require workers and volunteers to be Christians.
NSS: Faith New Deal "discriminatory and divisive shambles"
NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "This incident must prompt the government to rethink its ill-advised Faith New Deal scheme.
"The scheme is a discriminatory and divisive shambles.
"When community funds are ringfenced exclusively for faith groups, problems like these are inevitable. Religions are pitted against each other, and the door is left open for fundamentalist groups with extremist views to access taxpayers' money.
"The government should take this incident as a signal to immediately cease its project of privileging religion in public funding."
Media coverage:
Government reviews Christian charity's funding over chair's 'hate speech' - Third Sector
Chair of government-funded charity says Islam is “demonic”
Posted: Wed, 22 Feb 2023 10:20
The government recently gave thousands of pounds to a Christian group whose chair said Islam is "demonic" and "spiritual wickedness", the National Secular Society has found.
Zion Projects, a Christian charity based in Eastleigh, Hampshire, is one of 16 religious organisations given a total of £1.3 million in public money as part of the government's 'Faith New Deal' fund. Zion Projects was awarded £43,220 last year for a project entitled "As One Hampshire".
A 2020 video (pictured) on Vimeo shows Danny Stupple, the chair and a trustee of Zion Projects, making anti-Islam comments during a Covid-19 lockdown meeting of the "Eastleigh Prophetic Hub".
In the video, which opens with the Zion Projects logo, Stupple responds to a question about Islamic 'calls to prayer' being broadcast during lockdown by saying "a very strong force of spiritual wickedness known as Islam is engaging in warfare against the Lord with its open air prayers".
He said that Islamic prayers are "one example" of "the enemy" trying to use the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that the Islamic system of belief "is truly demonic".
He advised that anyone who hears the calls to prayers should "deny it power in Jesus' name", which is "more than able to deal with the spiritual forces of wickedness in those prayers". He called such a scenario a "warfare context".
The findings follow a recent report by Muslim advocacy group Mercy Mission UK which questioned the absence of Muslim organisations among recipients of 'faith new deal' grants. All but three of the recipients are Christian; two are interfaith organisations, and one is Jewish.
A freedom of information request to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLHC) found 351 organisations applied for Faith New Deal funding, including at least 21 Muslim groups.
The NSS has written to Baroness Scott of Bybrook, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at DHLC, to express its concerns and ask what checks were made on the recipients of Faith New Deal funding.
Stupple: Dominic Cummings 'anointed' to achieve Brexit
In the same video, Stupple also suggests God is using the pandemic to "make the point of the value of life" because he anticipates "the same amount of babies being saved as the number of people who die" as a result of women being unable to get abortions during lockdown.
He also claims that Brexit is "important to the Lord" and that Dominic Cummings has an "anointing" to accomplish it.
He says biblical creationists don't "make the mistake of thinking like the world thinks with its evolutionary offer", which "leads us into a wrong conclusion about the origin of things such as virus."
Stupple ran as an independent candidate in the Eastleigh 2013 by-election. He opposed same-sex marriage as part of his campaign, saying "real marriage is between a man and a woman" in a campaign video.
Zion Projects was also awarded £19,750 by Hampshire County Council last year to "help to provide a range of projects including a community café".
The 'faith new deal' fund
The government's "Faith New Deal pilot scheme" was launched in 2021 for faith-based organisations that provide community services to "tackle issues affecting the most vulnerable". Groups with no religious ethos were ineligible for funding.
The NSS has criticised the scheme as "discriminatory" and has raised concerns about the ethics of giving public money to faith groups which may have an agenda to proselytise. Several of the groups funded by the faith new deal require workers and volunteers to be Christians.
In addition, four groups with Christian connections received a total of nearly £1 million from the DLHC's UK Community Ownership Fund, according to updates from the DLHC published this month. They included Barking's Lifeline Church and Sawyers Church, both of which are affiliated with the Evangelical Alliance which opposes same-sex relationships.
The "As One" campaign
Zion Projects' "As One Hampshire" project appears to be a local branch of the national "As One" campaign by Uturn UK, a Community Interest Company which promotes "street associations" to engender "civic responsibility and volunteering". Church leaders are used to promote the street associations locally.
Stupple appears on a video about As One published on Vimeo in February.
Although the As One website does not have many references to religion, Uturn says in its articles of association that its objects are "to promote Christian faith and Christian values". Additionally, every resource on its Schools section was created by created by the Diocese of Worcester and the Diocese of Birmingham and includes Christian prayers.
In 2011 the Charity Commission for England and Wales refused to register Uturn as a charity because of doubts over "street associations" being exclusively charitable. The commission was concerned that they could provide services to individuals which confer a private benefit, because Uturn exercises little or no control over what a street association does or how it is run. Uturn appealed the decision at the First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) in 2012 but was dismissed.
NSS: Faith new deal 'pits religions against each other'
NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "It is completely inappropriate for the government to fund an organisation whose chair makes such divisive and hostile comments.
"This case reveals why the government should never have launched a fund exclusively for faith groups to deliver public services in the first place. Not only does such a fund raise serious concerns about equality and proselytising – it also ends up pitting religious groups against each other, which is toxic to social cohesion and pluralism.
"The government should cease its 'faith new deal' project and instead award funds to community groups based on the quality of their provision and their commitment to the values of equality and human rights – not which gods, if any, they believe in."
