“Discrimination and Inequality, Nostalgia and Competitiveness:

Challenges for the Church in an Age of Equality and Human Rights”

Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and IpswichDiocesan Study Days

On“God and the World: Religion and Society”

at the St. Nicholas Centre, Ipswich27th and 28th September 2013

Professor Paul Weller

© Not for direct quotation or reproduction without permission of the presenter

Project Website

http://www.derby.ac.uk/religion-and-society

Book out end start November(pre-publication offer available)

Review of a decade’s research evidence

Professor Paul Weller (Religious Studies, University of Derby – review of evidence base and project leadership)

Dr. Kingsley Purdam (Social Science, University of Manchester – lead on the survey)

Dr. Nazila Ghanea (Human Rights Law, University of Oxford – lead on the legal aspects)

Dr. Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor (Sociology of Religion, University of Derby – lead on the project fieldwork)

Lisa Taylor-Clarke (Project Studentship, University of Derby)

Lesley Sawley (Project Administrator, University of Derby)

Multi-Disciplinary Project Team

The Project’s Three Years/Phases

Running Throughout:

- survey of legal cases over past decade- survey of all other evidence over past decade - doctoral research on “Religious Freedom and Sexual Orientation:

Compatibility, Contestation and Convergence. The Case of Church-Related Adoption Agencies

Year 1:

Questionnaire Survey (postal and on-line)- of religious organizations- including still extant previous survey respondents- sample frame composed of various religions- sample frame of local, regional & national levels

The Project’s Three Years/Phases

Year 2:

Fieldwork and Focus Groups in 5 Locations

- Blackburn, Cardiff, Leicester, Newham as before- plus Norwich (new location)- interviews with religious individuals and groups- interviews in public/private/voluntary sectors- focus groups (new) with the “non-religious”- conducted by project post-doctoral researcher- “anthropological” style

The Project’s Three Years/Phases

Year 3:

“Knowledge Exchange” and Dissemination

- summary report for all participants- briefing report for opinion-formers/policy makers- 5 “knowledge exchange” workshops

public, private, community & voluntary,religious groups, legal practitioners

- annotated bibliography on project themes- drafting of book (contract with Bloomsbury)

Religious Discrimination in England and Wales Research Project (1999-2001)

1. To assess the evidence of religious discrimination in England and Wales, both actual and perceived

2. To describe the patterns shown by this evidence, including:

• its overall scale

• the main victims

• the main perpetrators

• the main ways in which the discrimination manifests

3. To indicate the extent to which religious discrimination overlaps with racial discrimination.

4. To identify the broad range of policy options available for dealing with religious discrimination.

New Research Questions: Comparative Outcomes with 1999-2001

In the light of religious, social and legal developments since 1999-2001, the new project will also ask:

How far might patterns in the reported experience of unfair treatment on the basis of religion in terms of

- type of unfair treatment - frequency and seriousness - groups primarily affected - sectors of social life

have changed since the 1999-2001 project?

New research questions: key legal questions

Some of the key legal questions include:

- to what extent might the narrowness of religious exemptions in discrimination law contributed to any reported experience of unfair treatment towards the religious groups and their practices?

- to what extent might the breadth of these exemptions contributed to any reported experience of unfair treatment on the grounds of gender or sexuality within religious communities?

- how much awareness is there of the relevant legislation for

protection against religious discrimination?

- how much use has been made of these measures?

Some key headline findings

introduction of law has not been a panacea

substantial reporting of unfair treatment on the basis of religion or belief continues across key areas of people’s lives

but decline compared with ten years ago across many (eg. employment, education & criminal justice) but not all (eg. media and immigration) areas

more occasional than frequent; in attitudes than policies or practices

similar patterns (groups affected, eg. Muslims; contexts, eg. private sector)

some differences (Pagan “coming out”, citing Human Rights law)

new issues (Christian concerns; and law, policy and the “non-religious”)

Inter-religious and religious-secular relations

Fieldwork participants report an improvement in inter-religious relations over the past decade.

Survey responses show a reduction in unfair treatment from other religious groups too (23% reporting in 2011 compared with 29% in 2001)

However, in the survey religious organisations were more likely to identify other religious groups (23%) as an (albeit declining) source of unfair treatment as to identify specifically “non-religious” groups (21%)

New reported forms of unfair treatment

Particularly by Christians- especially in relation to working on Sundays- increase in sense of marginalisation- tendency to compare with perceived better treatment of minorities

But “non-religious” people feel - Christianity is privileged in structurally embedded ways - creates unfair treatment especially in education and governance

Emergent Christian concerns and comparisons

“The are differences in approach, for instance the wearing of the cross at work and so on and arguments over whether it’s because it’s a religious symbol or whether it’s because we shouldn’t be wearing jewellery in this particular job because of health and safety hazards or whatever. The contrast sometimes between the approach when perhaps it’s been a hijab or niqab question versus the question of the cross and some people have said, “oh! we bend over backwards to accommodate the dress standards for Islam and Sikhs and so on but we make the Christians … we don’t give allowances for them the way we do [ for others]” and the whole argument there can get quite heated at times which is a shame because it should be a level playing field for all.”

[Middle Aged woman, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints]

Of Competitive Positioning, Religious and Civil Loss

Discussing the Eweida (British Airways) case, interviewees presented diverse narratives about this and used the case to share their own experiences and concerns:

“People also tend to wonder whether these legal issues around discrimination would be allowed if the issue at stake was around a Muslim symbol rather than a Christian one. People within this parish can very easily feel paranoid, fearful and disempowered.”[White male Parish priest]

“It’s almost like losing the empire all over again, it’s just that it’s the empire of your own country” [a Christian in Norwich, on unfair treatment in the media]

Invisibility and the “non-religious”

“……there is a lot of invisible discrimination going on….It’s very easy to say well that’s religious discrimination you know because the codes, practices, there are different things which people do which are easily recognised. Whereas it’s much more difficult for people to see discrimination against non-religious people. I don’t think it’s nearly as bad but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen in kind of subtle ways.”

“Well being non religious you are essentially invisible there’s no costume, you don’t wear a cross, you walk into a shop, bar, whatever, non-one knows your non-religious, you don’t identify yourself as that so it actually most of the time it’s hard to discriminate against you being non religious, you don’t go round with a sign saying non-religious.”

[White woman, Non-religious]

The “non-religious” and broader issues

Broader/National/International Issues

Monarchy as Religious/Head of Church/Bishops in House of Lords

Legal frameworks that make special allowances for religious groups

Sunday working hours

Campaigns led by religious groups such as anti-abortion campaigns and opposition to euthanasia

Media portrayals – “lots of mischaracterisations, a typical one would be that you can’t be good without religion”; “Militant atheism”

Marking public space: for who and on what terms?

The “default” position

“…the assumption is that it will be there unless you ask to have it removed. It should be an empty public space where you can request a cross or you can request any other symbolism but it should be an empty space and that happens in the sort of quiet rooms, chapels in hospitals and all that sort of stuff. […] if you go up to the crematorium in XXX city there is a massive cross on the left as you’re driving in don’t matter if you’re not a Christian or have no religion. So there’s all this stuff, on one level it’s trivial, but you know on another level it’s just irritating you know if you let it be.”

[Middle Aged white man, non-religious]

Inclusive rather than competitive or “empty” symbolism in the public sphere

“For example, I'll give you a brilliant example in Leicester, if you just go up into town you will see Sikh symbols for the Vaisakhi festival that is coming up later this week.. And during Eid and Ramadan they have Islamic symbols up and the idea of celebrating different people’s faiths, you know for Divali, we have Divali lights in Belgrave Road which are really famous and I think Leicester has always gone that one step to make each community to feel welcome. […]and it’s not a case of they’ve got their signs and we’ve got ours, it’s a case of okay, we've celebrated ours and we’ll celebrate yours as well because we’re all part of the same community.”

[male Sikh, public sector employee]

Of the Dangers of Religious Sectarianism/Communalism

We are different, we behave differentlyWe are right

We are right and you are wrongYou are a less adequate version of what we are

You are not what you say you areWe are in fact what you say you are

What you are doing is evilYou are so wrong that you forfeit ordinary rights

You are less than humanYou are evil

You are demonic

[Joseph Liechty & Cecelia Clegg, Moving Beyond Sectarianism: Religion, Conflict and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland, Dublin: The Colomba Press, 2001, pp. 102-103 ]

What about the law?

in the fieldwork and focus groups, even where people have a reasonable knowledge of the legal cases concerned, they tend to extrapolate wide conclusions from them.

however, most cases are not dealing with broad themes, but with a specific point of law.

religious people generally aware of law, but often not of how to go about specifically using it

there is evidence in our focus groups that, although the present legal framework is concerned with “religion or belief”, that non-religious people tend to see this law as “not so relevant for us”

19th Century Prefigurations

“The early story of the struggle for religious liberty is one of sects establishing an identity of their own, with their members being freed from the obligation of supporting a faith they did not hold. From the struggle for existence we pass to the struggle for equality . . .”

St. John Robilliard, Religion and The Law: Religious Liberty in Modern

English Law, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1984, ix)

Religious organisations and “exemptions”

survey confirms strongly divided religious organisation opinions on marriage/civil partnership, sexual orientation and religion or belief

exemptions but also potential fluidity (17-23% ‘don’t know’) of views

- as in 2001, little support for no new action need- now also little support for further laws - religion/belief groups have patchy legal awareness - most support still, as in 2001, for educational initiatives

in schools, public education and media

“So there needs to be an awful lot of education and some of the laws which have been passed which are there to protect people, they’ve got to be rightly interpreted and we’ve all got to understand what they mean and understand when we’re over reacting or when we’re helping. It’s a very complex thing really.”

2008 EC Lifelong Learning Gold Prize for Quality in Adult Education2010 BMW Group First Prize for Intercultural Commitment

J.W. McClendon Jnr’s Question

“Is it not worth considering how different might have been the history of Christianity, if after the Constantinian accession, the Christian leaders had met at Nicea, not to anathematise others’ inadequate theological metaphysics, but to develop a strategy by which the church might remain the church in the light of the fateful political shift - to secure Christian social ethics before refining Christian dogma.”

James William McClendon, Jr. (1982), ‘What is a “Baptist” Theology?’, in The American Baptist Quarterly, Volume 1, No. 1, pp. 16-39 (39).

Relational View of Truth

“…..will no longer be identified by its ability to exclude, or absorb others. Rather, what is true will reveal itself mainly by its ability to relate to other expressions of truth and to grow through these relationships – truth defined not by exclusion but by relation.”

Paul Knitter (1984), No Other Name? A Critical Survey of Christian Attitudes Towards the World Religions, SCM Press, London, p. 219.

Over to you!

Within the context of the actuality and/or perceptions of religion or belief inequalities

-in a Church that is established-in the light of the actuality and/or perceptions of the Church’s practice related to the other “protected characteristics” in human rights and equalities policies and law

Identify one main challenge and one main opportunity:

(a) For yourselves as priests and/or other office holders

(b) For the church(es) in which you have leadership responsibilities

(c) For the Diocese of which you are a part