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Top judge claims courts no longer Christian

Published: October 31st, 2013
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One of Britain’s leading judges has claimed that British courts are secular in character rather than Christian.

Sir James Munby, the President of the Family Division, this week declared that ‘judges sit as secular judges serving a multicultural community of many faiths sworn to do justice to all manner of people.’

Differing views

In his keynote address during the first annual conference of the Law Society’s family law section he said: ‘We live in a society, which on many of the medical, social and religious topics that the courts recently have to grapple with, no longer speaks with one voice.

‘These are topics on which men and women of different faiths or no faith at all hold starkly different views,' he said.

'All of these views are entitled to the greatest respect, but it is not for a judge to choose between them.’

‘Secular’ judges

Stressing what he believes to be the secular nature of the judge’s job he added: ‘We live in this country in a democratic and pluralist society in a secular state, not a theocracy.'

He added: 'Happily for us, the days are past when the business of judges was the enforcement of morals or religious beliefs,' and that judges had long ago stopped claiming to be the ‘guardians of public morality’. 

‘A secular judge must be wary of straying across the well-recognised divide between church and state,’ he said, adding that it was not for a judge to weigh one religion against another or pass judgment on religious beliefs or on the tenets, doctrines or rules of any particular section of society.’

He also remarked: 'All are entitled to respect, so long as they are "legally and socially acceptable" and not "immoral or socially obnoxious" or "pernicious".'
 
Moral compass

Christian Legal Centre chief executive Andrea Williams commented:

‘It is never a question of whether to bring a wider value system to bear on questions of justice, only which system to use. The secular system which Sir James suggests poses as ‘neutral’ but like any other value system it favours certain characteristics over others. 
 
‘In our context, "secular" has become shorthand for "atheist", a value framework that ultimately only offers us a "survival of the fittest" ethic and the primacy of power and might. 
 
‘Who after all, does Sir James think will define the "immoral or socially obnoxious" that he claims are unentitled to respect? Presumably he assumes it will be him and his colleagues. 
 
‘In contrast, the Christian faith provides a robust basis for dignity, community, morality and mercy.’
 
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