Let Democracy Decide

Last week, the High Court in London witnessed a skirmish, into which our town of Bideford has been drawn, in a much wider battle with great significance for the character of public life in our country. The National Secular Society brought a legal action under the Human Rights Act, on behalf of a former Lib Dem Town Councillor, for judicial review of the Bideford Town Council's democratic decision to say a Christian prayer at the commencement of their meetings. The High Court Judge has reserved his judgment. The National Secular Society argues that, whether or not individual councillors are able to choose not to participate in the prayers, the Christian religion should on principle have no place, even by the democratic decision of the majority, in the meetings of the Council or in civic affairs generally. As the Council's barrister contended, it is not hard to see where that principle would lead. The Coronation Oath, which pledges the monarch's willingness to maintain the laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel, would have to be sanitized of religious reference. Neither the Mayor nor the Council could officially participate in services of remembrance and chaplains could no longer be officially appointed to our armed forces. The traditional association of the State with the Christian faith would be abolished. I certainly do not believe that a Christian or any religious practice should be imposed on anyone who does not wish to participate in it. Britain has a long and hard won tradition of religious tolerance and of freedom of thought and conscience. However, the Christian tradition still plays a fundamental part in our national civic and public life and, despite the secularist campaign, I do not believe that there is a public desire to eliminate it. Of one thing I am certain: if it is ever to be changed, it should be by the democratic majority decision of parliament and the people and not by the ruling of a judge under the Human Rights Act.