Ideas@TheCentre
Progressive hypocrisy on religion and the state
In Britain, the Church of England has long been teased for being ‘the Conservative Party at prayer.’
But according to a recent report from the left-wing think tank, Demos, the common assumption that religious people hold conservative points of view is mistaken.
The Faithful Citizens report argues that people with a religious faith are more likely to hold left-wing views about issues such as immigration, women’s rights, and the environment.
This is based on two key findings. First, religious people are more actively engaged with civic and social activities. They volunteer more, donate more, and campaign more.
This is uncontroversial and hardly news. The American sociologist, Charles Murray, whose recent book Coming Apart identifies religiosity as one of the foundational virtues of American society, argues that higher degrees of civic engagement by religious people helps build the social capital necessary for the healthy functioning of civil society.
Second, the report found that the majority of religious people in the United Kingdom are more likely to have ‘progressive’ political views and value equality over freedom. Unfortunately, the report does not bother to define either ‘equality’ or ‘freedom.’
This finding is tendentious. Although 55% of believers in the United Kingdom regard themselves as left-of-centre, this is smaller than the 62% of non-believers who consider themselves left-wing.
Furthermore, religious and secular people often hold a mix of views. Some views, such as women’s rights, are progressive. But others, such as prioritising work incentives over income equality, are conservative.
Nevertheless, the report’s author, Jonathan Birdwell, says: ‘Many Britons continue to see faith as a moral refuge from the otherwise nihilistic, dog-eat-dog values of consumerist, capitalist democracies.’
According to Birdwell, it’s time for left-wing progressive to ‘sit up and take notice of the fact that religious citizens in the UK may be their natural allies on more issues than they think.’
In other words, when pursing progressive causes, politicians should consider religious citizens as useful allies. Political parties are competing more intensely for the centre ground. This call to the Left to embrace religious voters amounts to an appeal to politicise religion.
Fine when the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury is a self-described ‘bearded lefty.’ But if his successor leans to the political right, the reservoir of potential support for left-wing causes might run dry.
In which case, usual cries from the Left for the religious to keep well out of politics will be sure to ring out.
Peter Kurti is a Visiting Fellow with the Religion and the Free Society Program at The Centre for Independent Studies.
