An open letter to Baroness Warsi on the Mormon advertising campaign
3 hours ago
By Richard Heller
Rt Hon Baroness Warsi
Minister for Faith and Communities
London
As you must have seen, the Church of the Latter Day Saints have capitalised on the attention given to their sect by the musical The Book Of Mormon (which I recommend to you) by mounting a major advertising campaign in search of converts. This activity benefits from the charitable status accorded to that Church and contributions towards it are eligible for gift aid. In effect, they are being subsidised by non-Mormon taxpayers. I shall be asking you shortly to give your views on this situation on behalf of the government, but I would first like to put some general questions about your ministerial role.
Why do you and the government believe it necessary or desirable to create a ministry specifically to represent people who hold religious views? Why should they be paid special attention in the framing of public policy? How does this fit with the concept of equality of representation, which is at the heart of our modern democracy? The evidence of history and of many contemporary states suggests that religious politics are a scourge: why does the government want to encourage them in our country? Why does the government assume that any religious faith represents a coherent interest group and that all its members have a common view on any political, social or ethical topic?
When you meet a religious delegation, even one composed of the hierarchy of the faith concerned, how do you know that its members represent anyone but themselves? When you do meet such a delegation, almost by definition it excludes the many members of the faith concerned who do not believe that it should take part in politics and who do not wish themselves to be identified by their faith on any political or social question. For that reason, such meetings are almost automatically biased towards the more fundamentalist members of any faith community. But they also encourage those who are even more fundamentalist to accuse them of selling out to the government.
In order to spare me the trouble of submitting a Freedom of Information request, or badgering one of my friends to put down a parliamentary question, I would be grateful if you could publish a list of all the religious organisations you have met since you became minister for faith, and the subjects discussed. Have you met the National Secular Society, the British Humanist Association or other pro-secular groups?
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/comment/talking-politics/open-letter-baroness-warsi-mormon-advertising-campaign-114619313.html#thyaWQz
There will always be an England.
Say what you want about the U.S. and its guns, its tornadoes and its crystal meth, at least we do not yet have a baroness doling out government funds to explicitly promote a religion. We are more nuanced.
= new reply since forum marked as read
