In the lead up to Christmas there has been a lot of discussion about the de-Christianisation of Britain. In the past month a group of cinema chains made the national news for banning an advert that featured the Lord’s Prayer. The companies in question thought the sixty second advert – produced by the Church of England - would offend.
Then a major report – authored by my colleague in the House of Lords, Baroness Butler-Sloss – called for a radical new approach to how we approach religion and declared that Britain is effectively no longer a Christian country and public life in Britain to be systematically de-Christianised. This position has been supported by a number of bodies, including certain Asian organisations.
Whilst I welcome the discussion and debate these events have triggered, I wanted to give my personal views both as a Hindu and as a member of the House of Lords, which came in for particular criticism in the report for being overly representative of the Church of England, to the detriment of others faiths.
We are truly privileged to live in a country in which you can be a follower of any faith and none. There are depressingly few countries where freedom of speech and the right to hold your own beliefs and practice your own religion is as ingrained into the fabric of the nation as it is in Great Britain.
Yet for all the tolerance that we show in this country towards Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Jews and many other religions besides, for some reason we are becoming increasingly intolerant of Christianity, and particularly the Anglican Church.
The rationale behind the calls to ‘de-Christianise’ Britain is that our nation has been ‘transformed’ by the growth of non-Christian religions. Yet this argument fails to overcome two major obstacles; the first is that many of the people practicing these ‘non-Christian’ religions came to Britain precisely because it’s a Christian Country.
The second obstacle is the failure to differentiate between cultural Christianity and biblical Christianity. Whilst the numbers attending Church on a Sunday may have gone down, it is absolutely wrong to claim that Britain is no longer a Christian country. Indeed we should be celebrating the impact that Christianity has had on Britain’s values.
Many of the Ugandan Asians who came to Britain did so because the values that underpin Christianity; the cultural and moral leanings it promotes, are exactly what we hadn’t had in Uganda, and they are the same things that oppressed people across the world continue to fight for today.
The culture of Christianity that underpins our national life is not a hindrance to other religions, it empowers them. As a Hindu, I truly value the moral and ethical values of Christianity that strengthen our nation. I find the intolerance towards Christianity demonstrated in recent events deeply worrying.
Every day in the House of Lords before business begins, we have Christian prayers delivered by one of the Bishops in the House. I’ve always found these prayers to be energising and a stark reminder that we’re here to represent something bigger than ourselves and our respective political parties.
Yet if we were to implement Baroness Butler-Sloss’s recommendations, the prayers would disappear and the Bishops would be replaced by representatives of other faiths. This is, to my mind, an attack on the values and structures that have helped Britain to excel for centuries.
The increasingly diverse nation we live in should be a cause for celebration, people of different cultures, communities and religions living side-by-side and in peace is an inspiring achievement. But we shouldn’t underestimate how important Britain’s Christian heritage has been in making this a reality. And we certainly shouldn’t allow any further erosion of the role of Christianity in our national life.
It is incumbent on those of us who love this country and who have benefited from its tolerance to fight for what has made this nation so brilliant. And it is particularly important that those of us who aren’t Christians join the Church of England and others in fighting off the increasing intolerance they face.
I am proud to be a Hindu, but I am also very proud to live in a Christian country. May I take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Lord Dolar Popat is a Conservative Peer and Whip in the House of Lords.
