The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, granted Premier radio an exclusive interview in August. The interview, which was broadcast on the morning of Sunday, 9th August, was conducted by journalist Victoria Laurence, who questioned the Prime Minister on a wide range of issues. However, it was their discussion about Christianity and the role that it plays in today’s society that attracted the attention of a number of commentators, including the Daily Telegraph, the Church of England Newspaper and the British Humanist Association.
In the interview, Mr Brown said: ‘...the role of religion and faith, in what people sometimes call the “public square” is incredibly important...’. He also stated that: ‘...if you look at the values that underpin what most of us try to do, these are derived from our religious faiths...’. These are intriguing statements when considered against the backdrop of the current administration’s policies and laws. Christian Concern for our Nation has highlighted a number of legislative changes over the past few years, all of which actively undermine and oppose Christian values.
Most recently, the media has been full of reports Debbie Purdy’s case in the House of Lords, resulting in the Director of Public Prosecutions having to publish his policy regarding those who assist in a suicide. This decision has been hailed as a ‘victory’ by those groups who assert that it is an individual’s right to end his or her life, at the time of his or her choosing.
There are also stories of committed public servants who have been disciplined and sometimes sacked as a result of their Christian beliefs. A housing worker at Wandsworth Borough Council was sacked after being accused of crossing boundaries, by bringing his Christian beliefs into the work place. An experienced community paediatrician, who asked to be able to abstain from votes on whether to place children in same-sex households, has also come into conflict with her employers. A teacher was suspended because he complained that a teacher training day was used to promote unbiblical homosexual lifestyles. These are all examples of incidents where Christians have effectively been forced to choose between their Christian beliefs and their employment. Mr Brown was insistent that unlike France and the United States, Britain is not a secular state. However, when considering the detail of some of the cases mentioned above, the ongoing debates around freedom of speech and the restrictiveness of Directives from the European Union on sexual orientation, that stance becomes questionable.
The Prime Minister was pressed on the issue of whether it would be better if Christianity were privatised — confined to homes and churches — and he stated clearly that he thought privatisation of one’s faith was impossible, because it underpins who a person is and what they do. He suggested that perhaps what was needed, was for people to make their views ‘current’. He did not specify what he meant by that, but the president of the National Secular Society (NSS), Terry Sanderson, later expressed his opinion in an article in the Church of England Newspaper. Mr Sanderson’s view of what the Prime Minister meant was that in order to make views and values current, individuals could disregard the Christian teachings on homosexuality, abortion and euthanasia. The Christian Institute is an unlikely ally for the NSS, but they also believe that a lot of the policies that the current Labour Government has introduced have actively silenced the Christian voice in Britain, effectively sidelining it.
The issue of the marginalisation of Christianity is particularly troubling when considered against the backdrop of the Government’s apparent favouring of the Muslim community. Mr Brown was questioned specifically on this point and his response focused on the issues that can arise in a multicultural society, whilst minority communities are being integrated into the wider community. He believes that after an initial settling-in period, the focus should then move to the integration of society as a whole, without any one community being more advantaged than another.
During the interview, Mr Brown appeared to adopt a pluralist approach to Christianity, stating that all faiths have a variation of the ‘golden rule’ — in his words ‘do to others as you would be done by’. However, given the current position, in which Christians are being suspended or fired from their jobs for expressing their Christian values, and the growing intolerance towards practising Christians, it does raise the question whether Britain is a secular state in all but name.
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