Is it religious people or people with no religious attachment who are most discriminated against in our society? A recent House of Lords debate provided an opportunity for humanist and atheist members to voice their grievances, their sense that in society at the present time it is the religious groups who are finding a voice, organising, and therefore getting preferential treatment, while those of no religion are left out.
They find themselves at a disadvantage in the admissions policies of some schools, faced with great difficulty when seeking to arrange a non-religious funeral or are unable to have their weddings in buildings of great distinction because they are churches and can only host religious ceremonies.
They also find that when it comes to measures in which they have a particular interest, such as the bill to provide for sssisted dying for the terminallyill, the religious groups get themselves organised into a campaign that ends in their wishes not standing a chance against the ranks of religious believers, their representatives and leaders.
Quite apart from the merits or otherwise of their different grievances, I found the debate very thought-provoking. I spend much of my time hearing Christian groups voicing their sense that we live in an increasingly secular society in which it is harder and harder to gain a hearing for the Christian view. Is there not some more constructive approach to the place of belief and non-belief in our society than to play a game of ‘I’m more edged out than you are’?
There are going to be issues where we have to disagree and struggle for what both sides of the argument see as the common good. Assisted dying is a case in point. I cannot see how Christians can be content with a society going along with that, because it is too grave a matter.
But there are many areas where people of goodwill, whether believers or not, can and should work together, and many issues where they differ (such as faith schools or the religious content of broadcasting) where they should engage with each other constructively to see if there are agreed ways forward that take account of the fact that society consists of a great variety of belief and unbelief.
For we all share this society, believers and non-believers alike, and we should reserve struggling against one another for those issues only where our conscience demands it.
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