Fabian New Year Conference 2010 Saturday 16th January, 2pm-3.30pm The Labour Party missed an historic opportunity to abolish faith schools when it came to power in 1997, according to Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, at a breakout session on faith and secularism. “I approve of the secularisation of faith schools. One of the things the Labour Party could have done between 1997 and 2000, was abolish faith schools. (Homophobic) prejudice is far worse in faith schools,” argued Mr Summerskill.
Symon Hill, associate director of the religious think-tank Ekklesia agreed that faith schools posed a “serious problem”.
“Ekklesia is campaigning for an amendment to the Equality Bill to end the exemption for faith schools. We need to encounter people from different faiths starting in the same classroom. Dividing them up will not help communities to understand each other,” he told delegates.
The panel discussed how the progressive left could engage with a multi-faith society and whether or not a secular left risked alienating important allies in the fight for social justice.
Symon Hill, a Quaker Christian, said the church was no longer dominant in society but that “post-Christendom” was something to be welcomed. “Christians should be embracing our position on the margins,” he argued.
Meanwhile, Terry Sanderson, the president of the National Secular Society, thought the majority of British people were moving towards a secularist position, citing evidence from the recent British social attitudes survey which showed that 51% of people described themselves as atheists or agnostics.
Maleiha Malik, a Reader in Law at King’s College London and an expert in discrimination law, said the separation of religion and politics need not mean the elimination of religion altogether.
“There is a tendency to assume religion is at the margins but I don’t think the facts bear that out…Some of the exemptions awarded to religious organisations have followed very strong lobbying,” she said.
However, there were issues around which secularist left and religious people could unite, including social justice, although there was a risk that religious groups could use these alliances to re-enter the political sphere
Transport minister Sadiq Khan said faith had been a big motivating factor for Tony Blair despite what Alistair Campbell had famously said about not doing God.
There were many positive examples of faith groups engaging with the political process - such as the Make Poverty History campaign - and politicians ignored faith leaders at their peril.
However he went on to say: “I think if you asked David Cameron who he wants to impress most, the Archbishop of Canterbury or Rupert Murdoch, it would be the latter.”
The debate was chaired by Catherine Fieschi, director of the British Council think-tank Counterpoint, which co-sponsored the discussion with the Fabian Society. |
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