Secular Brits Oppose Government Plan to Fund Religious Charities

[JM]

Secular groups in Britain are attacking plans to give government funds to Islamic and other religious groups that provide community services.

CNS News reported that as part of the government's current drive to woo religious groups, the Charity Commission recently announced it had created a separate unit to provide support to faith-based charities.

CNS said that the Faith and Community Cohesion Unit, which reportedly will have almost $3 million to spend annually, will give advice, guidance and training to the trustees of religious charities.

Commission chairwoman Suzi Leather told CNS that this variety of groups reflects the culture of modern Britain, and is essential for building bridges across communities.

Government figures indicate that at least one in seven charities in England and Wales are religious, with at least 25,000 faith-based groups having an income of $15 billion.

CNS said the commission reports that these groups are the fastest growing part of the volunteer sector.

Leather said that work would initially focus on Islamic charities. "Time and time again, Muslim charities have asked us for help in strengthening their governance and tackling the lack of understanding and mistrust about their work within society," CNS reported she said.

During a press conference in November, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the new unit also would keep money from flowing to terrorist groups.

"To ensure that charities are not exploited by extremists, a new unit in the Charity Commission will strengthen governance and accountability of charities," CNS reported he said.

The National Secular Society has criticized the announcement, saying the proposal would just result in charities learning "how to ask for even more public money."

Society president Terry Sanderson also attacked the commission for pushing to register mosques as official charities. "Certainly those mosques that have something to hide won't be rushing to register themselves as charities," CNS reported he said. "There must be a more direct way of discovering what is going on."

CNS said a spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said Thursday the new unit would also work with places of worship, such as churches, which are now required to register if they do charitable work.

She said that the unit was beginning with Muslim charities because Islam was now the second largest faith in Britain.

"The unit has to start somewhere," CNS reported she said. "It can't start all at once."

In November, the British Humanist Association released a report warning about a growing government trend to contract out social services to religious organizations, particularly in the area of education, welfare and unemployment services.

Although the trend is much more evident in America, CNS reported the association said it could lead in Britain to non-religious people and atheists facing discrimination in the course of everyday life.

CNS reported that in Dec. the Department of Communities and Local Government announced a consultation on how the government "can work in partnerships with faith and non-faith based communities."

"Faith groups are a key part of the way we respond to the challenges we face from building strong resilient communities to tackling anti-social behavior," said the minister in charge of the department, Hazel Blears.

CNS reported that on Thursday, a spokesman for the department said he did not expect a backlash from people who do not want religion thrust into public life.

"This is building on the good work that faith groups already do throughout the country," the spokesman said.

[Someday]

As Kurtz and Wilson put it, in their Humanist Manifesto II: "Views that merely reject theism are not equivalent to humanism. They lack commitment to the positive belief in the possibilities of human progress and to the values central to it."
Let's bicker instead of help folks, right? Makes perfect sense to me. I am not British, or I would say more. Things like.....Why is the Government giving ANY tax money (collected with police power) away to anyone? Why not just leave it in folks pockets and let THEM decide where to put it?