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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1. Write to your MP
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3. Join the National Secular Society
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
Tower Hamlets council approves £2 million funding to faith groups
Posted: Fri, 23 Nov 2012 09:38
The mayor of one of Britain's poorest boroughs is providing £2 million of funding to religious groups to help refurbish places of worship.
The mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman (right), has approved funding to offer assistance to faith communities to repair, adapt and improve buildings in which faith-based activities occur.
The option of offering grants exclusively to religious groups was preferred over an alternative option to make the fund available to all community buildings.
An equalities analysis justified the scheme under the Council's aim to promote good relations between different faith groups and non-faith groups. The council says the delivery of the scheme will be discussed with the Interfaith Forum to ensure that it brings benefits to the wider and non-religious community. One East End political blogger has predicted that the bulk of the money will go to small mosques and community centres that occupy former shops across the borough.
Due to drastic cuts across the entire public sector, Tower Hamlets needs to find £75m of savings by 2014. The funding for the Community Faith Buildings Support Scheme has been identified by the Mayor "from reserves".
Tower Hamlets is one of London's most impoverished areas and has been identified as the worst area in the UK for child poverty. The area has a dire shortage of affordable housing with over 22,000 on the waiting list and considerable over-crowding issues. Tower Hamlets recently announced significant cuts to it's community and advice services.
Earlier this month the mayor approved the sale of a Henry Moore sculpture in an attempt to claw back money lost in budget cuts. Mayor Lutfur Rahman said: "It is with considerable regret that I make this decision but I have a duty to ensure residents do not suffer the brunt of the horrendous cuts being imposed on us." The artwork was originally sold to the council by Henry Moore at a below-market price in the 1960s with the understanding that it would be placed in east London.
Mr Rahman is no stranger to controversy. He is reported to have close links to the extremist Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE). Following his election as Mayor in 2010, The Telegraph journalist Andrew Gilligan quoted a senior Labour Party figure saying that Rahman's personal control of the Tower Hamlets billion pound budget makes Tower Hamlets an "Islamic republic."
One local resident angered by the Faith Buildings Support Scheme told the NSS: "I totally object to this. This money should be spent on schools and other essential services that benefit the whole community. This feels more like a redistribution of public money, ahead of an election, to a particular section of society, aimed at currying favour and securing votes."
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society, said: "Government cuts are hitting the people of Tower Hamlets especially hard. In such an impoverished area that faces so many challenges, one has to wonder if Mr Rahman has got his priorities straight. If money is going spare it should be made available to all local community groups equally, but the local authority certainly should not be prioritising the funding of religious activities and practices in this way."
Italian Catholic Church to pay property tax from next year
Posted: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:53
Italy's Catholic Church will be forced to pay taxes starting in 2013 after the EU pressured the country's government to pass a controversial law stripping the Church of its historic property tax exemption.
The Catholic Church in Italy is excluded from paying taxes on its land if at least a part of a Church property is used non-commercially – for instance, a chapel in a bed-and-breakfast. "The regulatory framework will be definite by January 1, 2013 – the start of the fiscal year – and will fully respect the [European] Community law," Italian premier Mario Monti's government said in a statement on Tuesday.
The move could net Italy revenues of 500 million to 2 billion euros annually across the country, municipal government associations said. The extra income from previously exempt properties in Rome alone – including hotels, restaurants and sports centres – could reach 25.5 million euros a year, La Repubblica daily newspaper reported.
On Monday, the Council of State, Italy's highest ranking court for administrative litigation, ruled against the new law. Authorities stepped in, arguing that everyone in Italy should pay property tax, including the Church.
The measure came after the country's leadership decided in February to alter Italy's property tax code, ending the Church's longstanding privileges due to the severe debt crisis.
Last December, after new austerity measures were adopted in the country, 130,000 Italians signed an online petition urging the government to strip the Church of its tax exemption.
"It was time that they paid, too, with all the exemptions they've had throughout the years," Marco Catalano, a 35-year-old shopkeeper in Rome, told the New York Times in February, adding that he goes to church twice a month. "They own the most beautiful buildings in downtown Rome, on Italian soil, and rent them out at market prices. They don't give them for free or at low prices for charity."
Two years ago, the EU began to investigate whether the tax privileges of some Church properties in Italy could be considered illegal state aid.
