Militant secularisation threat to religion, says Warsi

From The BBC

14 February 2012

Britain is under threat from a rising tide of "militant secularisation", a cabinet minister has warned. Religion is being "sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere", Conservative co-chairwoman Baroness Warsi wrote in an article for the Daily Telegraph. The Muslim peer said Europe needed to become "more confident and more comfortable in its Christianity". She will also highlight the issue in a speech at the Vatican on Wednesday. "I will be arguing that to create a more just society, people need to feel stronger in their religious identities and more confident in their creeds," she wrote in the Telegraph. "In practice this means individuals not diluting their faiths and nations not denying their religious heritages." Baroness Warsi, who is Britain's first female Muslim cabinet minister, went on to write: "You cannot and should not extract these Christian foundations from the evolution of our nations any more than you can or should erase the spires from our landscapes."

She wrote that examples of a "militant secularisation" taking hold of society could be seen in a number of things - "when signs of religion cannot be displayed or worn in government buildings; when states won't fund faith schools; and where religion is sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere". She also compared the intolerance of religion with totalitarian regimes, which she said were "denying people the right to a religious identity because they were frightened of the concept of multiple identities". Her comments come days after the High Court ruled that a Devon town council had acted unlawfully by allowing prayers to be said at meetings. And, as BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott reports, the Church of England could soon lose its traditional role as the provider of the chief chaplain to the Prison Service. The Ministry of Justice has confirmed it is "considering arrangements" for appointing a new Chaplain-General - but the job might not go to an Anglican. Our correspondent says the move may be seen by some Anglicans as the latest sign of the reduced influence of the "established" Church of England in public affairs.

On Baroness Warsi's article and speech, BBC political correspondent Louise Stewart said it was not the first time a senior Conservative had called for a revival of traditional Christian values. "Last December, Prime Minister David Cameron said the UK was a Christian country and 'should not be afraid to say so'," she said. The British Humanist Association (BHA) described Baroness Warsi's comments as "outdated, unwarranted and divisive". "In an increasingly non-religious and, at the same time, diverse society, we need policies that will emphasise what we have in common as citizens rather than what divides us," said BHA chief executive Andrew Copson. Baroness Warsi's two-day delegation of seven British ministers to the Holy See will include an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, who visited the UK in 2010. This visit marks the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of full diplomatic ties between Britain and the Vatican.

Meanwhile, new research suggests Britons who declare themselves Christian display low levels of belief and practice. Almost three quarters of the 1,136 people polled by Ipsos Mori agreed that religion should not influence public policy, and 92% agreed the law should apply to everyone equally, regardless of their personal beliefs. It also found that 61% of Christians agreed homosexuals should have the same legal rights in all aspects of their lives as heterosexuals. And a further 62% were in favour of a woman's right to have an abortion within the legal time limit. The survey was conducted for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (UK), which describes itself as promoting "scientific education, rationalism and humanism"

[Of course the phrase ‘militant secularism’ is code for “no one is listening to us anymore” or “we’re losing power again” rather than what it’s meant to mean. As far as I can tell religion has been falling back into the private sphere and away from the public sphere for over 50 years. It appears that most people see any religious influence on local or national government policy to be, at best, questionable and at worst intrusive and dangerous. My gut feeling is that, in Europe at least, the time of great religious observance has passed into history. Baroness Warsi is harking back to a time and a place that no longer exists in this country. He calls for a time when religion was loud and proud will, I expect, largely fall on deaf ears and religion will continue its long decline until it only exists within the minds of a slowly reducing minority of people. It is about time, I suggest, that we should like it die with dignity rather than bemoan the fact that it’s terminally ill.]