BHA gives evidence to parliamentary committee on the ‘Big Society’
‘I think that important values of civic participation predate the various Christian institutions in Europe, they’re shared around the world, they’re more likely to be human values, because we’re social animals who cooperate and participate in a shared society, and I think that’s a firmer foundation to build upon.’Andrew Copson, BHA Chief Executive
Andrew Copson, the Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association, provided evidence before a House of Commons Select Committee in a hearing titled ‘Smaller Government: Bigger Society?’, examining the role of religion and belief in the Government’s ‘Big Society’ agenda.
Mr Copson appeared before the influential Public Administration Select Committee with a panel of witnesses consisting of the Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, Bishop Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester and convenor of the Bishops in the House of Lords, and Charles Wookey, the Assistant General Secretary at the Secretariat of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. The main areas the Committee wished to discuss were ‘Whether the Big Society has roots in religious traditions’, and the ‘The criticism of the Big Society by some prominent figures from faith communities’.
Mr Copson used this opportunity to dispel the notion that religious believers have a monopoly on active involvement in the community and volunteering, clearly stating from the outset, ‘In the UK there is no difference between non-religious [and religious] people’s charitable, civic or voluntary engagement. None at all.’ Referring to successive government citizenship surveys and other respected research, Mr Copson said there was no evidence ‘that being non-religious or being religious puts you at any disadvantage, or being religious puts you at any advantage, in terms of your participation and the value of your individual contribution to society in the UK’.
When asked by Committee Chair Bernard Jenkin MP whether the volunteering culture of the non-religious was in part a legacy of the UK’s Judeo-Christian culture, Mr Copson responded ‘I think that important values of civic participation predate the various Christian institutions in Europe, they’re shared around the world, they’re more likely to be human values, because we’re social animals who cooperate and participate in a shared society, and I think that’s a firmer foundation to build upon.’
Moving on from the question of whether ‘faith’ is necessary for a healthy civil society, Mr Copson used the opportunity to raise the BHA’s concerns over the practical implementation of the Big Society agenda as it is currently being presented. He said that the BHA was concerned about the focus on religious groups which could disrupt the work of secular organisations. He said, ‘The transfer of the contract for trafficked women services from the secular charity Eaves Housing to the Salvation Army... we see as a very negative development because it restricts employment and services in various different ways.’
Mr Copson made the wider point about the strong and possibly negative impact of government policy on people and communities. He said, ‘We’ve thought it a risk, not just for this government but with the previous government as well, for it to focus on people as if they are first and foremost members of groups rather than individuals, and I think that the risks of a communitarian approach are that you can build in divisions for the future. You can also reinforce existing internal hierarchies of inequalities rather than treating individual people as equal members of a wider society.’
He continued, ‘I think in most cases it is better for people to work side by side in shared enterprises, bringing their backgrounds to it because they cannot distance themselves from the, rather than making a fetish of the difference somehow.’
Speaking on public services, Mr Copson said that we are seeing an acceleration or an increase in the contracting out of services to religious organisations which ‘Can legally discriminate in employment against people with different or with non-religious beliefs... they’re not bound by the same non-discrimination provisions in the Equality Act that bind secular providers when it comes to the provision of services... and there’s no protection for people who might feel they are coming under unreasonable pressure of a proselytising sort.’
Making final remarks, the Chief Rabbi aired his concerns that equality and human rights law were somehow eroding religious liberty and he referred to the pilgrims on the Mayflower who had to leave England to go somewhere where they had more religious freedom. Mr Copson forcefully countered this, stating, ‘Equality and human rights was not the flag under which the pilgrims on the Mayflower had been oppressed in England. It was a religious intolerance which we risk re-importing into public services if we split them up now.’
NOTES
Watch the Select Committee hearing.
Read the BHA’s 2010 briefing: ‘Religion, belief and volunteering’.
Naomi Phillips, Head of Public Affairs, British Humanist Association. Email: naomi@humanism.org.uk Telephone: 0044 207 079 3585 Mobile: 0044 7540 257101
British Humanist Association (BHA)
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