Every Humanist organisation has to work within the constraints of the society and the political situation it finds itself in, and the context the British Humanist Association (BHA) works in is somewhat paradoxical, to say the least.

The UK is one of the least religious countries in the world. The 2001 national census, much quoted by the religious, came up with around 15.5 percent non-religious people, but all other polls give far higher figures, usually around 40 percent, rising to 65 percent of young people [i]. A recent poll showed that 36 percent of the populace shares a broadly Humanist outlook on life [ii], and only 1.6 percent attend Church of England services each Sunday [iii] (fewer than 7 percent attend any place of worship).

Humanists in Parliament

On the other hand, we have an established Church, with the Queen as Head of State and Head of the Church of England. The House of Lords has, since 1911, been the subject of a reform movement that has attempted to change it from a hereditary into an appointed and/or elected house. Despite moves to reform the House of Lords, twenty-six seats are still automatically given to bishops (‘The Lords Spiritual’), who arrive there by seniority in the Church of England, making Britain the only western nation that gives the Church seats in its parliament. The BHA has campaigned against this privilege for many years. In 2007, the government proposed reducing the number of Bishops to sixteen, but even this attempt to reform the second chamber has stalled. On the plus side, we have nurtured a group of committed Humanists within both Houses of Parliament, and the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group now boasts some 130 members. We brief these MPs and peers on every relevant piece of legislation that goes through parliament, with some considerable success.

Humanism in Education

Religion is also embedded in the education system, with over 35 percent of publicly funded schools having a “religious character” – the so called “faith schools”, and government policy is to increase this number. The ethos, and to some extent the syllabus, in such schools is religiously drawn. We have long had to contend with publicly funded Church schools but in our increasingly diverse society, this privilege of indoctrinating children is also granted to other religions. The separation of children according to their parents’ beliefs is a divisive and confusing tactic – and hardly a model for social inclusion. The BHA has campaigned on national and local level to reform these schools, and we have many allies, including amongst the religious, many of whom share our concerns not only about the segregation of children, but also the denigration of children’s right to a broad education – the right to learn and evaluate and make up their own minds. Polls have shown that the majority of the population is opposed to faith schools, but for the government, this is part of not only their “choice agenda” but also a much broader “faith agenda” that pervades public life.

But the problems in education go even further. All schools have to provide a school assembly that includes worship of a “broadly Christian” nature. Parents can exclude their children from the stickier parts of religious observance, and this right has recently been extended to children over 16, but younger children have no such right, however firm their beliefs. The BHA thinks this is an outrage.

Another key feature of the work we do in schools is reform of religious education, which is compulsory in all schools. Our stance is firmly in favour of objective and inclusive education about beliefs and values, free from indoctrination, in which children learn about all faiths and none, and we scored a notable success when, after years of campaigning, the new “national framework for religious education” included “secular viewpoints, e.g. Humanism” for the first time. The BHA has, for many years, been active on the national Religious Education Council and the local councils that determine the scope and content of religious education, as well as providing educational resources for the teaching of Humanism in schools, and being involved in teacher training. This year we launched a brand new website of teaching materials: www.humanismforschools.org.uk.

The BHA also scored a good result for the integrity of education when, in 2007, the government produced guidance on the teaching of creationism. Belief in creationism is a relatively new phenomenon in the UK, but has been rapidly growing, partly as a result of a huge investment from the US and Australia, so we were delighted when our lobbying produced guidance for schools stating that creationism and intelligent design must not be taught within the science curriculum.

Battling Religious Discrimination in Employment

In recent years, the UK Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination on grounds of religion or belief by “public authorities”, has proved an immensely useful campaigning tool, particularly when the government introduced new legislation outlawing discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, first in employment and then in the provision of goods and services. The churches and other religions demanded broad exemptions from this legislation and, while they succeeded up to a point, we were able, by means of lobbying of government ministers, officials and parliamentarians, to limit some of the worst excesses. Despite this, there have been examples of gross discrimination against the non-religious by religious organisations, and we scored a notable success by supporting an individual in an employment tribunal. The employer, a Christian charity contracted to provide a public service, introduced a policy of only hiring practising Christians and telling non-Christian staff that they were no longer eligible for promotion. Despite an exemption that allows religious groups to discriminate in some situations, the employee won his case, sending out a clear signal, in what may prove to be a landmark case, that such discrimination is unlawful. The government is about to introduce a new Equality Bill to harmonise and replace all our existing discrimination legislation, so all the battles we fought to ensure that the religion and belief discrimination legislation gave sufficient protection for the non-religious and to limit the exemptions for religious organisations are going to have to be fought all over again! That also provides opportunities, of course, and we are confident that, with all the experience we have gained, we shall do even better this time at limiting the privileges granted to the religious. The government has its “faith agenda”, but we have equality and human rights on our side.

Public Services

The government’s current policy is to contract out the delivery of public services to the private and voluntary sectors wherever possible, and they are particularly keen to contract with religious organisations. The BHA is actively campaigning for public services to remain secular, and recently produced a well-researched report on the implications for employees and service users of contracting with religious organisations. This issue isn’t going to go away, and we expect it to remain at the top of our agenda for years to come.

Repeal of Blasphemy Law

To celebrate a success we have been working for since the BHA’s inception, we can happily report that the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 abolished the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel. In the final stages of our campaign we encouraged BHA members to write to their MPs, and well over 1000 members did just that. The blasphemy laws had not been used for quite a while, but evangelical Christians recently attempted to prosecute the BBC, and perhaps that, as well as our campaign, was what convinced the government that the law had to go.

Humanist Ceremonies

The BHA is probably still best known for its Humanist ceremonies. We coordinate a network of nearly 250 trained and accredited Humanist celebrants who conduct funerals, baby-namings, weddings and other ceremonies. Just to illustrate the complexities of the UK situation, a campaign by the Humanist Society of Scotland won the right to conduct legal Humanist marriages in Scotland, but we have not yet achieved that in the rest of the UK, where only a registrar, the churches, and some other religions, are able to conduct legal marriages. Despite this residue of religious privilege, the BHA is marketing its ceremonies to a wider audience, training more celebrants and aiming to provide a Humanist ceremony to everybody who wants one. The uptake of our ceremonies shows how meaningful and necessary a Humanist alternative is to what has formerly been the preserve of the religious.

The Silver Lining

Humanism in Britain is on the rise, not least because of the government’s ever-increasing focus on religion and the resentment that causes, and the new books on atheism that sit on the bestsellers list. There is a growing debate about the place of religion in public life, and one that is becoming increasingly strident as the churches and other religions make ever more demands in their attempts to protect their privileges. Our stance is often deliberately misinterpreted as being anti-religious, with “aggressive secularists” becoming the standard term of abuse. Whilst we would prefer reasoned dialogue, that does at least have the advantage of getting us noticed, and it has led not only to a doubling of our membership in the last few years, but also to a growing recognition in government circles that they cannot ignore the non-religious. With our stance based firmly on equality, human rights and social cohesion, which just happens to coincide with the government’s stated position (if not always the political reality), that puts us in a strong position, and we intend to take full advantage of it.

Hanne Stinson is Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association.

i Young People in Britain : The Attitudes and Experiences of 12-19 Year Olds, Department for Education and Skills, 2005

ii Ipsos MORI poll of November 2006

iii Church of England figures, 2005 (2007)