Services funded by public money should be open to all, without alienating anyone.
The recent drive to contract out public services to faith groups risks undermining equal access.
Help us keep public services free from discrimination and evangelism.
The government is increasingly pushing for more publicly-funded services to be provided by religious organisations.
Many faith-based groups have carried out social service without imposing their beliefs. But religious groups taking over public service provision raises concerns regarding proselytising and discrimination.
65% of people have no confidence in church groups running crucial social provisions such as healthcare with only 2% of people expressing a lot of confidence.
Any organisations involved in delivering public services should be bound by equality law and restrictions on proselytisation.
Those advocating for faith organisations to take over more public services risk undermining these restrictions, which exist to protect both the public and third sector.
"We have concerns that some religious groups that seek to take over public services, particularly at local level, could pursue policies and practices that result in increased discrimination against marginalised groups, particularly in service provision and the employment of staff. Non-religious people and those not seen to confirm to the dominant ethos of a religious body, such as being in an unmarried relationship or divorced and being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, could find themselves subject to discrimination."
Unitarian Church (Submission to the Parliamentary Public Administration Select Committee about the Big Society agenda)
There are also concerns about faith-based mental health and pastoral care in public institutions, including chaplaincy programmes in the NHS and the armed forces. Where such services are funded by the state, they should not be organised around religion or belief.
Religious commentators are often keen to document the contribution of religious organisations to the third sector and social activism. But they fail to demonstrate why it should be the state's role to build this capacity or why local authorities shouldn't have legitimate concerns about religious groups running services.
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Ask your MP to protect secular public services.
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Latest updates
NSS urges council to provide secular garden of remembrance
Posted: Thu, 22 Mar 2018 17:21
The National Secular Society has urged City of Edinburgh Council to ensure secular cremation arrangements are provided as standard after it emerged that its policies disadvantage non-Christians.
The NSS wrote to the council after discovering that the ashes of babies who have shared cremations are interred in the garden of remembrance at Mortonhall crematorium, which has a large cross.
When most bodies are cremated at Mortonhall relatives have the option of taking away the ashes or having them interred in the garden of remembrance. But in the case of shared cremations for very young babies, the ashes cannot be retrieved on an individual basis and are all interred at the garden of remembrance.
No alternative arrangements are available for bereaved parents who opt for a shared cremation but do not wish for their baby's ashes to be interred in a space with Christian symbols. Parents who object must arrange a private funeral instead.
"Councils have a duty to ensure their provisions do not discriminate against people on the grounds of religion or belief," the NSS said in its letter to the council.
"But by having a prominent Christian symbol present in a council-run crematorium, non-Christians are being treated unfavourably. While the decision to place a cross in the garden of remembrance may have been well-intended, and a Christian cross may provide comfort to Christians, it is unlikely to do so for non-Christians.
"Indeed, the cross can cause offence and further the distress of grieving relatives."
The NSS also referred to the council's Mortonhall crematorium policy, where the council says it will provide "a professional and dignified cremation service supported by competent, caring staff, to meet all religious, secular, ethnic and cultural needs." It adds that it will "approach the cremation of a baby with sensitivity, and will take account of and respect the wishes and needs of parents and families at this very difficult time".
The NSS wrote: "These are commendable policies, but Edinburgh Council is failing to enforce them with regard to those who wish for their remains or those of their relatives to be interred in a non-Christian space. This can be resolved by ensuring a secular garden of remembrance is provided as standard for the interment of ashes."
The NSS gave the example of Bath and North East Somerset Council's Haycombe crematorium, which removed a prominent window with a Christian cross etched on it and replaced it with plain glass and a removable cross in front of the window.
An NSS spokesperson said councils should "assume religious neutrality in shared burial spaces and allow people to add symbols on an individual basis if they wish".
In 2016 the NSS called on the government to ensure all state-owned crematoria are religiously neutral, allowing religious symbols to be added when requested.
Mortonhall crematorium made the national press in 2013, when more than 250 families discovered their children's remains had been disposed of without their knowledge. Staff at the crematorium buried baby ashes in secret and parents were told there were no ashes left when young babies were cremated.
Photo for illustrative purposes only.
Court rules C of E had right to block married gay man from NHS role
Posted: Thu, 22 Mar 2018 15:50
The National Secular Society has called for the end of religious influence in NHS appointments after a court ruled that a bishop had the right to block a gay man's appointment.
The Court of Appeal ruled today that Canon Jeremy Pemberton was not discriminated against when a decision from the acting bishop of Southwell and Nottingham prevented him taking an NHS job in 2014.
Richard Inwood withdrew Pemberton's permission to officiate as an Anglican cleric, meaning he could not take up a position as a bereavement manager at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust in Nottinghamshire. Pemberton was in a same-sex marriage, which Inwood said was against the church's teachings.
The appeal judge cited the Church of England's exemption under schedule 9 of the Equality Act. The exemption allows it to discriminate on the basis of sexuality if it contravenes its teaching.
Lord Justice Underhill said: "If you belong to an institution with known and lawful rules, it implies no violation of dignity and it is not cause for reasonable offence that those rules should be applied to you, however wrong you may believe them to be. Not all opposition of interests is hostile or offensive."
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans said the decision highlighted "the need for change on several fronts".
"It beggars belief that religious groups should have the legal authority to prevent staff working in positions in the publicly-funded NHS at all. And it's particularly appalling that the established Church of England can do so to people because they're married to someone of the same sex.
"This case shows the need to end religious chaplaincy in the NHS and to reconsider the Church of England's exemption from equality laws. NHS staff should be appointed to serve us all, rather than because they fulfil a religious role."
The NSS campaigns for the end of religious hospital chaplaincy, which costs the NHS over £23m per year.
After the case Pemberton said: "The Church of England has established through this process that it can continue to discriminate legally against some LGBT people in relation to their employment, even where that employment is not within the boundaries of the church's jurisdiction."
He also lost an appeal against an employment tribunal in 2016. The ruling in that case said he "was aware his marriage would be seen in conflict with the teachings of the church" and "would never have been in this position had he not defied the doctrine of the church".
"In getting married to his partner, he was flying in the face of the clear restating of doctrine in relation to same-sex marriage," it added.
After the latest ruling a spokesperson said the Southwell and Nottingham diocese was "pleased that the court has upheld the decision made with regards to the employment tribunal".
Pemberton has also worked as a hospital chaplain in Lincolnshire.
