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TONY BLAIR: I'm worth no more than anyone
else. I am my brother's keeper, I will not walk by on the other side.
IAIN WATSON: To remind people that Tony
Blair is a Christian is hardly a revelation, but for a man who once said
he doesn't wear his religion on his sleeve, this week it looks like he'll
be positively besuited in his beliefs. Election victories tend to owe
more to mammon than God - but this time round Labour aren't placing all
their faith on the strength of the economy.
On Thursday, when Tony
Blair makes his first ever speech to the Christian Socialist Movement as
Prime Minister, we'll going to hear a lot about values in politics and
there's going to be praise for faith based organisations; those religious
charities and voluntary groups who do so much to help the least well off.
But there are those in Labour's broad church who feel more than a little
uncomfortable about such a high profile link between politics and religion.
LORD ROY HATTERSLEY: This is a basically an agnostic nation.
We're sentimental about religion but people don't take it as seriously
as they did even when I was a boy. And the Prime Minister to evangelise
on behalf of one point of view because that's what it is, might just alienate
people of a different sort. I think that is a very real danger.
MARTIN O'NEIL MP: I think that people make their
political judgements in elections for a variety of reasons and I'm not
sure in the UK if religion or faith-based approaches will be necessarily
that successful.
STEPHEN TIMMS MP: They're wrong. It's absolutely
clear, if you look in the Bible how close politics and faith are and increasingly
I think we're seeing in modern Britain those are very close as well.
WATSON: Tony Blair wont just be
addressing Christians but a multi faith audience this week. His supporters
say he'll look benignly on the opportunities for new partnerships with
religious groups if he's granted a second term
TIMMS: Quite a number of the themes
in our first term have in fact been taken up from the churches before the
election, the common good, the work that came from the Roman Catholic bishops,
the church's report on unemployment and the future of work, both of those
were very influential on this first term of government and I'm sure he'll
want to set out the moral vision that will guide a Labour government in
a second term.
WATSON: The Christian Socialist
movement has prepared a report called Faith in Politics to be published
this week; it will set out the views of people from all religious faiths
on the government's progress. There'll be praise for efforts to eliminate
the debts of poorer nations but the Liberal Democrats say they want to
see a more substantial commitment to ending poverty.
SIMON HUGHES MP: I would think that the church
as a whole and many church members as well as many members in other faiths
would be very critical of a government that hasn't narrowed significantly
the gap between the rich and the poor, hasn't made sure that we have a
society where wealth is more fairly distributed, hasn't honoured our international
commitment to give a decent amount of our income to the third and fourth
world.
WATSON: The real worry in Labour's
ranks isn't so much that the Prime Minister's is indulging in a bit of
religious rhetoric, some senior politicians are far more concerned about
what they see is a growing influence of religious values and religious
groups, over policy making, especially when it comes to welfare services.
But government ministers see faith based organisations as ideal allies
in their crusade against social evils.
The Salvation Army are perhaps
one of the best known of what are now termed faith based organisations
and raise most of their funding themselves. They're the second largest
provider of social services in the UK, after local government. But they
also offer pastoral comfort to the sick. The Faith in Politics report
will highlight difficulties some faith based groups face in getting access
to public money - but the Treasury are indicating that these problems could
be eased in future, in a renewed spirit of partnership.
TIMMS: I think the models for faith
based participation have been well established in recent years. I think
what I hope we can see in the future is those models being taken up on
a bigger scale, more churches, mosques, temples, taking part in welfare
to work projects, in addressing youth homelessness and addressing exclusions
from schools. So I think we've seen the examples well established in recent
years but in the future I'd hope we'd see a bigger scale.
WATSON: The government are looking
to the United States for inspiration, here in Washington DC a federation
of faith based groups committed to tacking poverty met last week under
the banner of Call to Renewal. Their convenor is coming to Britain to address
the same meeting as Tony Blair. He doesn't foist religion on those he
helps, but says faith organisations can teach people an important set
of values
JIM WALLIS: Our little neighbourhood
centre, the Sojourners Neighbourhood Centre, has a freedom school. On the
wall we have pictures of Martin Luther King Junior and Malcolm X and other
we call freedom fighters and the kids learn that they can be freedom fighters
too but only if they take responsibility for their own lives.
WATSON: Jim Wallis sees a role
for government in tackling deprivation but stresses that state intervention
isn't enough.
WALLIS: There are behaviours that
do entrench and perpetuate poverty but then there are structures that make
it impossible to move out of poverty even if you take personal responsibility,
unless you make policy changes in the way the society and the system functions.
The bible says that social change has to be both personal responsibility
and social responsibility. The bible holds rulers accountable and kings
and judges and employers and also talks about people and how they have
to change their lives.
TIMMS: Jim Wallis stands out as
the one well known US Christian who is firmly on the left and so in terms
of people like me who is in the Christian Socialist Movement he's a very
important figure. I think we've got a lot to learn from him. I think
equally he will be very interested to see the progress that's been made
in the UK, in faith-based involvement in dealing with poverty and unemployment
and youth exclusion. I think we've got a lot to learn from each other.
WATSON: It's lunchtime at the Salvation
Army's day centre in Hackney, East London. Local people, mostly pensioners,
regularly drop in for a cheap meal and a chat. The religious views of
the volunteers aren't forced down the throats of the centre's visitors,
something the Christian Socialist Movement would approve of. But even
the admiring biographer of the Salvation Army's founders has a warning.
He's concerned Labour may be tempted to rely too much on the contribution
of religious groups to welfare provision.
LORD HATTERSLEY: The danger becomes the argument,
the only people who are really competent to provide welfare to look after
health, to assist old people, to deal with young people in distress, are
faith-based organisations. Some states in the United States of America
regard them as the only appropriate providers of welfare and I think that's
a hideously inappropriate thing and it's very important not to start along
that road because who knows where it will end.
WATSON: Deep beneath St Botolph's
church, on the edge of the City of London, much needed warmth and a good
meal is provided for homeless people. The Tories say what motivates the
volunteers here and in many similar projects, is their faith and the government
needs to recognise and respect this when it comes to employment law.
DAVID LIDDINGTON MP: I think that if you are a
faith-based organisation you should have the right to employ people who
are of your faith or at least sympathetic to your faith and I think also
that it's quite wrong for central or local government to attach strings
to say that, yes it's all right to do youth work but you mustn't have a
banner saying that you're doing it for the glory of God as well as to,
for the good of your local community.
WATSON: But the Tories may be surprised
to find out just what Labour are contemplating if they get a second term.
Senior voices are saying that religious groups involved in welfare work
should indeed be given the right to ensure that the staff they employ adhere
to the faith.
TIMMS: Sometimes concerns are expressed
that there has been discrimination against faith-based organisations on
the part of some local authorities or some institutions. I think the government
is making it increasingly clear in its guidance that we want to see approaches
that work. I think in employment terms government needs to respect the
basis of those organisations and I don't think there's going to be a problem
here. I mean sometimes it's suspected that there might be.
O'NEILL: Ministers will have to
realise that there are a lot of dedicated professionals, people of considerable
ability, who might find it offensive to be asked what their religion was
first and then considered for employment because I could well imagine that
it wouldn't just be the religion, there would be other things that would
come into it as well and I think that it would be a very dangerous precedent
to set.
WATSON: The government aren't simply
wedded to the idea of supporting faith-based organisations in their welfare
work, they are also looking to them to help shape the attitudes of the
next generation. If re-elected, the government envisage an expansion of
faith-based schools in the state sector. Now although some Labour dissenters
say they haven't fully thought through the consequences, government ministers
are convinced this is a popular policy.
TIMMS: Well I think the conclusion
that David Blunkett has reached in looking at this is that schools with
a faith basis work. That they're popular with parents, that they're effective
in achieving high standards, that they're doing a very good job and we
want to see more of that kind of institution across the country.
O'NEILL: For those people who do
not wish there to be an undue amount of religion in their children's education,
I think they have a right to say, well we don't see why the local school
should become a faith-based institution when we've always seen it as being
the local comprehensive to which the whole community could go. And I think
that we could be in danger of reinforcing social divisions in the name
of alternative forms of provision.
WATSON: Some say that the Prime
Minister is giving sustenance to faith-based groups of one kind or another
because he's more interested in alleviating the symptoms and not the root
causes of poverty. As an adherent of the Christian Socialist Movement,
he should really only be eligible for membership on one count.
LORD HATTERSLEY: The Prime Minister is certainly
qualified as a member of the Christian Socialists as a Christian. He's
not qualified as a socialist, nor would he claim to be. The Prime Minister
wants a better society, a more compassionate society, more efficient society,
a more honest society. But he doesn't want to change the nature of society
and I think that's absolutely essential to Christian socialism.
WATSON: Tony Blair's on a mission
- to ignite enthusiasm amongst the faithful in his bid for a second term.
To do so, he'll be delivering a moral message this week but by bringing
politics and religion together, he won't necessarily be thanked by the
doubters and non-believers who still exist within Labour's ranks.
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