The government and religion

According to the reports in the Guardian this week, a new report by Colin Bloom, the government’s “Faith Engagement Adviser” will make recommendations urging action on issues ranging from unregulated faith schools to forced marriage and religious nationalism”. The report will be released in the next few weeks by Michael Gove’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

According to the newspaper “Ministers should be more aggressive in tackling oppression, violence and radicalisation in religious settings, according to what is set to be the most sweeping review of the relationship between faith and the state in recent times.”

There might also be proposals about unregistered and part time schools and out of school teaching contexts such as Islamic Madrasa schools or Christian Sunday schools and Bible study groups.

Apparently, some of the proposals are designed to bolster religion as a core element of British society, including more resources for religious education to be taught in schools, and more money to hire chaplains in prisons, schools and universities.

It has also been suggested that the report will recognise the positive impact on society of religions and religious worship.

As former head of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, Bloom, the author of the report is sympathetic to, and knowledgeable about religion in general and about Christianity in particular He clearly demonstrated in the past a desire to improve faith literacy within the civil service and government.

As Affinity, we would welcome any initiatives to improve faith literacy. Our experience in recent interaction with the government over Covid rules and the proposed conversion therapy ban is that many people in positions of power and influence are substantially uninformed about the beliefs and practices of the majority of churches. We would love to engage more with ministers and civil service to improve their understanding and give greater nuance to the crafting of laws and regulations.

We are also very eager to demonstrate and discuss how Christians and churches are a societal good. Churches are the major provider of youth services across the UK and involved in many good works helping those in need. Christians if they are working out their faith should be model citizens respecting and praying for those in authority and working with integrity and diligence. In fact, our Christian heritage as a nation underpins our legal and ethical assumptions.

We all accept that the government has a duty to protect children from violence, abuse or harm in any settings, including Sunday schools and will want to work with national and local government to ensure safeguards are in place.

However, we are cautious that the definitions of harm may be stretched and any religious instruction might be deemed by a secular uninformed regulators, as damaging, which we would reject.

There is also the danger that churches might get bogged down with unnecessary administration in addition to the existing vital safeguarding policies.

We look forward to the report and pray for wisdom for our leaders as they implement and recommendations.