Attorney General's Office

Churches' Media Conference, Faith In The Public Space - The New Enlightenment

The Rt Hon the Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC
Attorney General

Churches' Media Conference
8 June 2009

Faith in the Public Space - The New Enlightenment

Introduction

Thank you for inviting me to speak.

It is an honour to address you - and to speak immediately after our former Prime Minister.

Perhaps I should begin by saying how grateful I am that anyone is sitting in the audience today.

It was an act of faith on my part to come, given what some people tell me about our God-less media.

Apparently:

none of those working in the media believes, or is remotely interested in religion;

journalism is a faith-free zone, and

faith is anachronistic, irrelevant to modern life.

Perhaps you are all figments of my extravagantly vivid imagination.

According to media myth, like God, you do not exist.

Perhaps I should say "probably do not exist" like the bus adverts¹.
The godless move in mysterious ways!

But there you are, and here I am, and I am delighted to be tackling with you the very pertinent question you have raised: is Faith becoming marginalised and pushed out of the Public Space in this country?

At the end of the day I can only give an opinion based on my own life as a woman of faith.

I could answer as a lawyer.

I could demonstrate how the multiplicity of religion and belief in this country is better protected now than ever in the past.

That's the effect of our Human Rights Act², our equalities legislation³, anti-religious hatred laws and our repeal of outmoded limitations on religious freedoms⁴.

Yes, we do have freedom to believe what you choose - and not to be discriminated against, bad-mouthed or badly treated because of it.

And yes, we do all have freedom to manifest our beliefs, subject only to necessary and proportionate limitations, based on the rights and freedoms of others.

But I am not here to give a legal lecture.

And Faith flourishes when respect for it is freely given, not just when public authorities will defend it.
So I just want to give three simple reasons why Faith is ever more central in public policy.

Reasons which matter to me both as a woman of Faith and as a Member of Government.

My message is for the 70 per cent plus of our population who say they believe in something⁵ - and to everyone of good will.

And by 70% plus, I am just referring to this country.

The Faith story may look like decline viewed from some parts of Europe, but it absolutely doesn't if we take a global view.

The proportion of people across the globe attached to the big four faiths, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and the Hindu faith, increased over the last century.

In the fastest developing countries of the world, faith is going up.

I Globalisation and the need for inter-faith understanding

The first reason why Faith is so crucial to all our futures has just been referred to by Tony.
Globalisation, in a word.

Tony isn't on a religious recruitment drive.
The message is for all people of faith and for those of no faith at all.

It chimes with what Gordon Brown said on the eve of the G20 summit earlier in the year⁶.

Globalisation shrinks the world.
It makes people who were strangers into neighbours.

How those new neighbours get on will depend on the understanding and respect they can show each other.

If that overlooks faith, it isn't understanding - and it won't be respect.

It won't work.

That is the big point Tony's Faith Foundation has been making ever since it was launched a year ago.

Globalisation is the first simple reason why Faith matters in the Public Space.

And it's the reason why we need to do more to encourage mutual respect.

Religion isn't dying out and actually it is going to make or break our modern world.

The pollsters have worrying messages⁷ about the perceptions and anxieties we are getting as cultures and faiths rub up against each other.

There is fear. There is misunderstanding.
Fertile ground for hostility and conflict.
Religion will play a part, either as a force for good, or a force for ill.

If we want faiths to be a force for good we must all learn to live with faiths and to celebrate them in their diversity - and, crucially, in their many areas of convergence.

Each community of belief proud of its own values and heritage, but open and respectful towards those who differ.

A bias towards positive regard.

This is the New Enlightenment.
As Tony says, the peace and security of our planet depends on it.

Barack Obama said it last Thursday in that wonderful speech he gave in Cairo: we have to end the cycle of suspicion and discord⁸.

He hasn't put on rose-tinted spectacles.
This is urgent and practical and real.

Idealism is the new realism.

Yes we can.

Yes we must.

Extremism

I believe that there is a real job of work for all of us in the faith communities to cultivate that respectful and positive regard between faith communities.

The media can help a lot with this task.
Every religion has extremists.
Even if it's not hate speech and hate actions there's the idea that if you don't share my exact beliefs you must be cast out as an inferior human being.

I have always thought that idea diminishes God.
It seems to turn Him into the God of a group not the God of all - as if His action can be limited to just one group.

I am reminded of the fire some Christian churches light up outside the church building for the ceremony of light at the start of the Great and Holy Easter Vigil.
The fire seems to symbolise the power of God.
It is too great to be confined in a building.
It does not fail to warm anyone who draws close to it.

Tony spoke of the negative face that people of faith sometimes show to the world - and I regret that too.

What I regret even more is that those people are often the ones who know the least about the faiths they criticise.

That makes them risk being false priests and false prophets.
And that's a pity because the great truths of the great religions are a lot easier to understand than people seem to think.
And they are not about exclusion and hate, far from it.

I'm thinking first about my own religion where Jesus was asked by someone in my profession - the law - what is the greatest commandment of the law.

'Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as you love yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.' ⁹

The two commandments Jesus gives were not new. He deliberately quoted the central tenets of another religion, namely Judaism.

You can find the first commandment in the Book of Deuteronomy¹⁰. And the second in the Book of Leviticus¹¹
The commandment to love your neighbour is the commandment of the Torah.

Furthermore, much the same spirituality of compassion can be found in the words of the Buddha and in the Sikh and Hindu faiths.

It's also in the Holy Quran, which states: "if anyone saves a person it will be as if he has saved the whole of humanity".

The Holy Quran also states, "We have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another."

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that there is no difference between the faiths.

I don't "do" assimilation.

I practice a religion that teaches that it is the true faith.

But the interesting question I get asked is "Which religion is that?" and I am tempted to reply "All of them".

That would certainly illustrate how much I feel my faith has in common, not only with other Christian denominations but also with the other major faith communities.

My parents taught me that you should always look at what you have in common with others, not at what separates you.

Look at biology. Over 98% of your DNA doesn't separate you, for example.

I am a child of a mixed marriage - my mother was a devout Dominican Catholic who said the Angelus four times every day of her life and my father was an ardent Antiguan Methodist who read the Bible every day of his life.

They met and married in Dominica in 1947. Their full nuptial mass needed a special dispensation from Rome, believe it or not.

Our family lived next door to the synagogue and actually I was one of the very few non-Orthodox members of the Jewish youth club.

I was also the Shabbat Goy¹².

Some of my brothers became members of the Church of England.

Most of my friends are people of Faith, but different ones.
Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Moslem, Brethren, Anglican, Baptist, Methodists.

Radically different?

That's not what I find.

Look at their fruits. By their fruits shall you know them¹³.

Look at what the churches, mosques, synagogues and temples do for the sick elderly and the socially excluded.

Humanitarian work - the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, World Jewish Relief, Aid to the Church in Need, Hindu Aid.
They're all versions of the same Good Samaritan story¹⁴, aren't they?

Is it too naive to hope that the media could tell that story -and that we can celebrate it together as a sign of common bonds and teaching?

This isn't an area where it is appropriate for the Government to intervene.

It isn't for Ministers or Governments to tell us what we believe and what not to believe¹⁵.

But the Government does have a clear interest and responsibility to help build a cohesive society.

One whose members value and respect each other and are not at each other's throats.

That's why we are providing financial support to help faith leaders shed the disinfectant of light on the myths and misconceptions that religious extremists promote.

It's good to hear that the first group of more than 40 faith leaders - including Christians and Sikhs as well as Muslims - has completed a Continuous Professional Development programme, learning new skills to communicate effectively with the people they serve.

We now have a new Faith community development qualification which can be taken up by colleges across the country.

The Government is also responding to faith leaders calls for help to make inter-faith activity genuine "side by side" shared activities - people gathering around a common purpose and a concrete outcome.

The Face to Face and Side by Side partnership framework is supported by a three-year programme of investment worth over seven and a half million pounds
Support is being targeted through a new local Faiths in Action fund to support local activities and initiatives, and Regional Faith Forums to support and build their capacity in relation to local interfaith activity.

Have you heard of the Operation Eden project in Merseyside?
Over a thousand volunteers are working on over 50 projects in Merseyside.
Projects to improve local neighborhoods and bring together those who care about the welfare of their environment.

Work that shows more eloquently than words can how people of different faiths can work together - for the same community, and for the same motives.

II Faith and works

This leads me to the focus on my second reason why faith has a continuing and salutary role in public life.

The reason is the impetus and the sustenance faith gives to public service for so many.

I am proud to have been brought up to believe that through God all things are possible.

My parents said that God had given each and every person a talent and that it was our individual duty to find out what that talent is, to hone it and then use it for the benefit of other people.
That was our purpose.
You couldn't waste the talent that God gave you.

This idea of service - to God, your neighbour and to your community - was very much part of my upbringing.
It is my life.
Faith isn't an optional extra or something you put on like a hat on Sundays and take off for the rest of the week. It goes through you like writing in a stick of rock. It is reflected in what you are and what you do.

Faith is the reason many are out there volunteering and making a difference.
Tackling local problems whether they are drugs, crime, violence or pollution.
Working to build a better tomorrow.
Showing steadfast commitment when others might despair.

You don't need to believe in God to do this, but my goodness it does seem to help!

It's a life-time commitment to the desire to show God's selfless love to the world.

In this context "the world" means just that.

There is no east or west. No exclusion.

God is everyone's Father and so I recognise you as my sister or my brother.

I feel that I have a head start in that department because I am the tenth of twelve brothers and sisters, so I do have some idea what extended families are about!

I've seen so many examples where it's people of faith who are there for the most marginalised and most disadvantaged in our society.
Examples where Faith made the difference and somehow kept its workers' eyes from tears and their feet from stumbling¹⁶.

The faith-based alliance to reduce re-offending. Prison chaplains. Support for communities in other parts of the world, for people we are never likely to meet.

The desire to do good can't be reduced to a series of projects to be measured in terms of concrete outcomes.

The fact is that faith-based values of altruism, respect, care for the vulnerable and marginalised, solidarity and responsibility towards others, are being lived out through practical acts of social concern all over our country.

They make a huge difference to the quality and meaning of life for innumerable people.

Of course these are the very acts of good citizenship that governments need to foster and encourage.

If you read the speeches that my colleagues in the Communities Department make and examine their policies you will find that harnessing the energy and practical contribution that faith communities bring to our society is a big priority.

Consultative bodies such as the Faith Communities Consultative Council also help.

The Government encourages joint leadership on issues of common concern.
We challenge all government departments to understand and expand the opportunities for faith inspired organisations as service providers.

The Government knows that faith is a basic fact of life for most people.

We know that a public space which turns its back on faith is a public space which turns its back on the public.

We discourage and alienate if we fail to acknowledge and respect the reason why folk are engaging.
Religion isn't the icing on the cake - it is the cake itself.

If you tell the faithful there is no room for faith, they will tell you there is no room for them.

And we would all be the poorer.

The Government also appreciates that faith communities are about a lot more than helping to deliver public services.

They are uniquely well placed to deliver those pearls of great price, community cohesion and social capital.

I know that there is a concern that religious groups have not always got their fair share of public money.

Specifically that some local authorities have shown reluctance to work with faith groups or commission services from them.
No place in the public space at local level, so to speak.

I believe that is changing and that the guidance and training measures the Government is now working on will help a lot.

I know that Churches Together in England is working with other Faiths to help local council staff understand faith better.
The Government Offices have also been working in this field.

Closer to home, I was struck by Tower Hamlets' recently published 'Religion/Belief Equality Scheme' which declares a clear aim - I quote -

"To recognise the role of the faith communities in contributing to the wellbeing of people in borough and support them to fulfil this role".
Amen to that.

A key Government development is the "charter of excellence" which is a way of assuring people that working with faith groups doesn't mean signing up to their beliefs.

The principle is that bodies paid public money to provide services provide those services to everyone, regardless of their background.

This should help give local authorities everywhere the confidence to work with faith groups, overcoming any fear and reluctance they might once have had.
Please, this development isn't about trying to stop people being open about their faith if people ask what motivates them.

It is about making sure that services funded by public money don't have any strings attached. That's not wrong.

III Faith and ideas

The third and last reason I want to give why we need to hear more not less from the Faiths is because we still have much to learn.

The current global and domestic crises prove it.

What did Gordon Brown say: "The unsupervised globalization of our financial markets did not only cross national boundaries; it crossed moral boundaries too."¹⁷

I also think I know exactly what he means when he speaks of his Presbyterian conscience in the context of the expenses scandal.
Politics, like banking depends on something it cannot create - honour.

That's a law that needs to be written in our hearts, not just in the rule book.

Jeremiah¹⁸ said it and so does the Holy Quran. I quote "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth".

The values we want to see - trust, integrity, stewardship, sustainability, responsibility to a common good don't belong exclusively to religion but my goodness the great religions have much wisdom and teaching to offer.

Isn't there a way to bring these together?
People of faith want that for the glory of God.
We also want it for the common good.

I think of the Shared Act of Reflection developed by faith communities for the millennium.

So many inspiring values and ideals shared by all the main faith groups:

Our society is one which likes to say that its values are increasingly not drawn from religion.

But if you look below the surface, you can see a different story.

Francesca Klug talks of Human Rights as "Values for a Godless Age19" but where do the central concepts of individual human dignity and equality come from?

Why should we give everyone a say and a right to respect?

What makes the individual human being worth so much?

Humane liberalism, human rights, democracy, owe much to the Judaeo-Christian high doctrine of human dignity.

Their heart and soul, actually.

A recent report for the Church of England General Synod warned against Human Rights as, I quote, a "tool of secular liberalism"20, pointing out that the church should "never allow itself to be domesticated by the administration of the day".

Who is domesticating whom, I wonder.

The truth is that people of faith, specifically people of the Christian faith have had a massive influence in shaping our society.

I would go further and say that they have supplied these so-called godless creeds with the basic notions of individual dignity and equality which give them their essential appeal.

There is more to be done.

Concluding remarks

So there are my three arguments for Faith in the Public Space.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not advocating a takeover by any or all the Faiths.

The relationship with Government should be consultative and collaborative.

And it should be adult and challenging, recognising that we have diverse roots and many faiths and beliefs in our society.

Faith groups need to understand where the Government is coming from when it tries to end unacceptable behaviour.
I mean forced marriage, female genital mutilation, violence against women, or hatred of particular groups in our society.

And some parts of officialdom need a bit more common sense before they dance around imagined religious sensitivities.

For heaven's sake, haven't they proper jobs to do?

This kind of rigid separation of religion and society isn't part of this country's tradition.

It is not at all obvious to me why anyone thinks such limitations are called for or appropriate.
As I said earlier, an important part of the problem seems to be a lack of understanding about the meaning and purpose of these religious customs and gestures.

I am glad that work is underway to tackle that and I hope that the media will play its full part in this fantastically important endeavour.

Because, when you look at it, the true objective of all religion and faith is very simple and always the same.

It is to answer a very deep thirst in the human person, namely the thirst for holiness.

To be good, yes, but more important than that to kneel before God and humbly acknowledge the great mystery that there is something bigger and more important in our lives.

That the good Lord is the Father of all and that he wants us to be closer to him.
And as far as I am concerned that's the New Enlightenment yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Thank you for listening to me. I wish you a great Conference.

Attorney General's Office
20 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0NF

¹See e.g. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/21/religion-advertising
² See Human Rights Act sections 6 and 7, and Schedule 1, Article 9 and Article 2 of Protocol 1.
³ See e.g. Part 2 of the Equality Act 2006; Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006
⁴ See Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008,s79
⁵ Data from the 2001 Census see e.g. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/religion/
⁶ Speech in St Paul's Cathedral on 31 March 2008 - http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page18858
⁷ See e.g. http://www.gallup.com/poll/118273/Canada-Show-Interfaith-Cohesion-Europe.aspx
⁸ http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gkyWk2MK7xeDw2b1jPhFS6KsvPegD98K2EOG0
⁹ Matt 22:37-40
¹⁰ Deut 6:5
¹¹ Leviticus 19:18
¹² Gentile employed to undertake certain tasks on the Sabbath, see e.g. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=518&letter=S
¹³ Matt 7:1
¹⁴ Luke 10:25-37
¹⁵ C.f. Kokkinakis v Greece and Manoussakis v Greece, which appear to establish the principle that the State should not pass a value judgement on beliefs.
¹⁶ c.f. Psalm 116
¹⁷ See footnote 5
¹⁸ C.f. Jeremiah 31:33
¹⁹ Penguin Books, London 2000 ISBN 0-14-026678-X
²⁰ see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/4279103/Church-raises-fears-over-Human-Rights-Act.html