By ANDREW COPSON
Added: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 23:00:00 UTC

Reposted from:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/andrew_copson/2007/06/got_to_have_faith.html

Thanks to Fraser Hartley for alerting us.

Labour's deputy leadership candidates answer questions from Labour Humanists on the role of religion in our society.

Humanists in the last 10 years have watched with alarm the expansion of the pro-religion agenda of the government and so you can see why some Labour supporters of a more secular hue might be concerned about the next 10 years. We do not know yet how the next prime minister will respond to the difficult issues of religion and society which the future is bringing, but Labour Humanists have quizzed the candidates to be his deputy on the key issues, and published the answers they received on their website.

The questions range from the place of Bishops in a reformed House of Lords (Jon Cruddas, Hilary Benn, Peter Hain, and Harriet Harman all favour an all-elected chamber with no Bishops as of right, but Johnson only sees scope for reducing their numbers, and Hazel Blears wants to keep them and introduce more religious representatives into the chamber), to the views of candidates on assisted dying for the terminally ill (Harman in favour, the others not so sure or not answering), to the hugely important questions about religion and state-funded schools.

In the face of public opposition, this government has promoted the creation of more state-funded "faith" schools than any other, and Alan Johnson, as the current secretary of state, has the dubious honour of being the minister on whose watch the largest single tranche of new state-funded religious schools has been introduced (with 100 new Anglican academies given the green light in recent weeks). In his response to Labour Humanists he is unrepentant, but he is not as effusively in favour of faith schools as Blears. Other candidates are more circumspect, but Hain and Harman are again the most obviously supportive of the Labour Humanist view, defending the right of teachers not to be discriminated against, the need to have an education system which does not lead to division, and a curriculum that is not skewed by religious ideology (for example, in science lessons).

But the debate about religion and education is not just about state-funded "faith" schools. Why, for example, should non-religious parents have to have their children participate in daily worship in schools (still compulsory and widely observed in primary schools especially)? Such parents often find themselves caught in a dilemma - should they withdraw their children from these activities, as is their legal right, and risk having their child marked out as different and peculiar from such an early age, or do they allow participation in worship which stands in total contrast to the values and beliefs they foster in the home?

Such parents will get no comfort from Benn. Asked if he would support schools being released from this requirement, his answer is blunt: "No." This was also the answer given by Blears, but unlike Blears, Benn gives the question more than a one-word answer and goes on to say, "We live in a Christian state ... " Now, this may well be true in a "the-queen is-the-head-of-the-Church-of-England" sense, but it is a dubious assertion with implications which will dismay many secular people in Labour and outside. Contrast this response with Hain's (the only candidate explicitly to oppose the existing law in his answer): "I don't believe it is for the state to compel all schools to carry out acts of worship," and we begin to see how the views of candidates on this issue may have wider implications for their attitude towards fundamental questions of religion and the state.

From their responses to the survey at least, it is pretty clear which candidates are least supportive of the Labour Humanists' issues (Blears and Benn) and it seems to be Harman who is most in sympathy with them - in a statement of her views in general, she makes it clear that she favours "individuals' and groups' rights to their own beliefs ... but we should not allow religious beliefs to condemn others through instruments of the state - through schools, through vital local services, or through parliament." Hain too comes out well, and he points out his own track record of promoting integrated education in Northern Ireland and standing up against religious lobbying for the right to discriminate against gays and lesbians (Benn, Harman, and Johnson all did this too). Although Johnson comes close to the Labour Humanists (and does acknowledge the difficulties for humanist parents whose local state-funded school is a religious one) his defence of state funding for religious schools will probably put off more committed secularists.

Perhaps disappointingly for the future, whoever wins, is that not all of the candidates (with the exception perhaps of Hain and Harman) seem to have understood the context of many of the questions. Blears confuses removing Bishops from the House of Lords with disestablishing the Church of England (which she says she is against) and makes no acknowledgment at all of how the non-religious are affected by the expansion of religious schools; Benn welcomes the fact that the government has "made sure faith schools have to accept at least a minimum proportion of pupils from another faith", which is not actually the case.

All of them say that public services should not be delivered by groups that are allowed to discriminate on the grounds of religion or belief (though Benn makes an exception "where this is part of our long standing culture, for example in faith schools"). Yet the government, of which they have all (except Cruddas) held ministerial posts, is making a big push to involve religious organisations in the provision of public services and has enacted equality laws which allow such organisations to discriminate in their employment policies and more generally. Of course, non-religious Labour members will have many bases on which they cast their votes in the coming days, but big issues of the future such as this one will doubtless influence their decision, and the responses published on all the questions put by Labour Humanists will give them much to think on.

Andrew Copson is responsible for education and public affairs at the British Humanist Association (BHA). He coordinates the association's campaigns against faith schools, and for an open society without religious privilege or discrimination.

TAGGED: POLITICS, RELIGION