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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Latest updates
Romania considers introducing church tax
Posted: Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:33
Media, politicians and, of course, the Orthodox Church, have been frantically debating proposed changes to the public funding of religious institutions in Romania, in recent weeks.
New legislation, inspired by the German "church tax" model, would allow all citizens to direct a part of their income tax to the churches or other organisations of their choosing. This would replace the current system in which religious groups are funded at the discretion of parliament, with most funding going to the Romanian Orthodox Church.
The reform, proposed by Remus Cernea MP (Green Party), would save 70 million Euro per year. Moreover it would allow citizens who do not support the church or who are non-religious to redirect their taxes to secular or humanist non-governmental organisations.
Cezar Maroti, president of the Romanian Humanis Association (RHA) said: "We feel that the majority of Romanian citizens would approve the proposed reform. But there have been some very negative, very undemocratic replies from many politicians."
He cites Radu Mazare, the mayor of Constanta (the city where Remus Cernea was recently elected deputy in the Romanian Parliament) who threatened Cernea that he "will break his legs" unless a public apology is offered to the Orthodox Church. Also, George Becali, former MEP, known for his strong support to Christian Orthodox issues, called Cernea "a satanist", "imbecile", "devil", "animal" and said that he should be "exiled to prison" or to the "mad house" over the proposed legislation.
The Romanian Orthodox Church itself said the optional church tax model was "unrealistic and inadequate". Similar systems have been introduced in several European countries included Norway and Germany.
Remus Cernea clearly believes that his proposal has been misunderstood. "I actually support a funding model of different religious groups. Romania doesn't really have a law on religious funding at the moment. Funding is granted arbitrarily, at the discretion of politicians. I propose a system of financing religious groups that gives the choice to individual citizens, and will even help religion or belief groups benefit from predictable, stable and quite substantial funding. This system will strengthen their autonomy."
On 25 May, the Romanian Humanist Association conference, held in conjunction with the European Humanist Federation and International Humanist and Ethical Union, will take place in Bucharest.
"We advocate secularism," said Maroti. "This is simply the idea that the church and state should be separate. This is also in the best interest of the churches and all the believers. The church should be independent and should not be controlled by politicians. Receiving money from the politicians is making the church vulnerable to political influence, which is not good for anyone. Also, the current system is unfair, unjust and it discriminates against the growing number of Romanians who are non-religious or humanist in their outlook. It's going to be a lively debate!".
Churches furious at plans to introduce Sunday parking charges
Posted: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:47
Church leaders in Carmarthenshire have reacted angrily to local authority plans to scrap free Sunday parking.
Carmarthenshire council says it is facing cuts to its funding and needs to raise money to balance its books and keep front line services running. The Council estimates it can raise £56,000 to put towards keeping services running by introducing the charge.
Canon Michael Lloyd Rees, Vicar of Betws and Ammanford, said: "There needs to be a bit of respect given to the community who use the facilities. Why should people be penalised for going to church?"
Reverend Leigh Richardson, Vicar of St. Peter's Church in Carmarthen, described the proposed charges as a "tax on community church." "Going to church is a freedom people in this country have enjoyed for centuries. Being charged to go to church is a tax on religion and it happens nowhere else in the world," he fumed.
The church will be meeting with Carmarthenshire Council officials to discuss the plans on March 26.
When faced with similar opposition from local Churches in 2011, councillors in Woking,Surrey, opted to allow worshippers to park free while charging everyone else. The National Secular Society has argued that such arrangements could be unlawful under the Equality Act.
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society, said: "Few people welcome parking charges, but if they are deemed necessary to fund front line services, they should be applied fairly, and without special exemptions for religious communities, as we've seen elsewhere in the country.
"The principle of equal treatment is very important, and arrangements that privilege Christians above other users of public car parks should not go unchallenged. Worshippers in church are no more deserving of special treatment that other citizens – so there is no legitimate reason why other taxpayers should subsidise churchgoing in this way."
