The UK should become a secular country to ensure equality, freedom, and fairness for all its citizens. In a secular state, government institutions would be neutral on matters of religion, guaranteeing that no one is privileged or disadvantaged based on their beliefs. This is especially important in today’s diverse Britain, where half the population is non-religious and many faiths are represented.
Disestablishing the Church of England would remove automatic privileges, such as bishops sitting in the House of Lords, and ensure that laws and policies are made on rational, democratic grounds, not religious doctrine. Secularism protects freedom of religion and belief for everyone, including religious minorities and the non-religious, by preventing the state from imposing or favouring any faith.
A secular UK would also end religious discrimination in areas like education—state schools would no longer be required to hold daily Christian worship or select pupils based on faith, reducing segregation and promoting social mobility. By treating all citizens equally, secularism fosters social cohesion and peace, allowing people of all backgrounds to live together fairly and harmoniously.
Secularism is what got us into this mess. The UK is not secular because many of it’s early legal principles are bible based and the country was built by professing Christians. It shaped our culture and our world view and promotes something other than self promotion.
No other culture would advocate removing the religion of it’s ancestors who built the society and neither should we. You don’t have to be a Christian, but people must respect that the UK is Christian and our culture is Christian. Even the British flag is a Christian symbol.
The UK already has freedom of religion for everyone and panders to other religions enough. Social cohesion will only come when we do what other countries do and demand our culture, our social rules and our manners be respected. Dubai is not secular, but respects the rights of all religions to be practiced, it is very diverse, but demands people follow the rules and respect the indiginous culture. We don’t have to be as hard line as Dubai because we’re not muslim, but we will not be secular either because secularism is soft and shallow and offers people nothing of value.
For those arguing the USA is secular. It’s not! That’s been made up by activists. American culture comes from British culture and got it’s constitution from the common laws of England written by a Christian justice from a Christian England.
The UK is not fully secular but also not exclusively Christian; it has an established Church of England, yet it protects freedom of religion for all. Its legal system reflects Christian heritage but is shaped by diverse influences and modern pluralism. Secularism doesn’t erase history; it ensures equal respect for all beliefs, and doesn’t allow religion to override law, which arguably is the current situation. Comparing the UK to Dubai overlooks that Dubai enforces Islamic law with limited religious freedom, while the UK balances tradition with inclusivity. The USA, often called secular, deliberately separates church and state in its Constitution, despite Christian cultural roots. The Treaty of Tripoli (1796) explicitly states the US government is not founded on Christianity. Overall, secularism offers a framework that respects heritage without imposing one religion, promoting fairness and unity in diverse societies. Privileging a single faith risks division, whereas secularism supports coexistence and mutual respect.
This is not true. Firstly, as we have seen with Islam, some faiths command their faithful to not respect other religions. This is why so many Muslims are antisemetic and feel justified in attacking and grooming non-muslim children. I think it is worth realising that if Muslims managed to get a majority in the HoC, they would expect Sharia law to become the law of the land.
Secularism weakens our defences against that. It is easier to argue from a point of Christian values and beliefs that this is and always has been a Christian country than to argue that actually we should not be Islamic because we should be secular. Secularism is not something that can unite communities, for it itself is not a community but instead the state granting permission for parallel communities of different faiths and no faith to exist.
Faith and religion are deeply entwined with culture and community. We live in an increasingly fragmented society thanks to multiculturalism and secularism slowly eroding British culture and British moral values. We need to excise the rot in our communities and start to mend our society, not entrench the rot and allow it to fester.
The UK was built on Christian values and our laws reflect this. The law of the land grounds the majority and guides us all in our moral obligations. I feel this is another attempt at chipping away at UK culture etc. Let’s erase all reference to the majority native. I hadn’t heard of humanism marriage, but having reviewed the links you shared I feel it would be open to abuse. Anyone can have the marriage ceremony of their choice in the UK, but we all need to follow the law. If your personal choice does not meet the legal requirements, then you need to take that extra step.
In the UK, a legally binding Hindu, Sikh, Muslim marriage requires a separate civil ceremony at a registry office. The religious wedding ceremony itself is a cultural and religious event with various rituals, but it is not legally recognised.
If I moved to a foreign country and became a minority, I would not expect the laws of the land to be changed to meet my minority preferences. I would embrace the law and the rituals of the land. The Hindu, Sikh and other communities do this.
This may sound harsh but I feel this is another example of entitled people who have differing opinions trying to force their views on the majority. We have so many freedoms, you can marry who you want how you want to.
We have been a Christian country for over a millennia since the days of Æthelstan, it is our move towards secularism in the UK that has caused current issues so I can’t see how making more of a leap towards it would somehow change that.
If anything, our institutions need to return to tradition and we need to become Christian again. It would also appear that the general electorate would agree considering the renewed uptake of Church attendance recently.
Going secular has weakened us the further this nation has been led astray by those who don’t follow the way of Christianity. I find it repulsive from all the damage that secular liberalism has done to us, harmed our women and children, allowed our men to be stabbed in our own streets. I DETEST those who have pushed for further depravity, it is not what our country was built upon.
We must return to our Christian past, which is not some hellish picture that hard leaning liberals paint it to be. These liberals have no shame, they have no regret over their actions of which has harmed us, they have no accountability.
We must make our foundation be written in stone instead, to prioritise the teachings of which we made from. Our Kings of old that were followers of Christ UNITED our nation, they didn’t tear it apart, and we are at almost equal levels of strife, except this time with a new invader who have been allowed in by those who has taken advantage of liberalism and atheism.
Now, we have had a blessing over Easter, the numerous hundreds to thousands of new Christians who joined and got baptised, because of many reasons, some of which is because they saw only chaos in liberalism and what it has done to these Isles. They have rejected the ways created by those who hate our identity, by those who have sought to harm people for profit.
You mean like this government is privileging Islam. I think not. It is time we returned fully to our roots. Gone is the time for pandering to other faiths in the drive for DEI. Multiculturalism doesn’t work and never could. We should be multiethnic but one culture and of choice It should be where our roots lie.
I can sense a strong support for our Christian heritage. Our population is 46% Christian, 38% No religion, 6% Muslim, 6% didn’t answer in 2021/2 census, 4% other religions. While there maybe a resurgence in Christian beliefs, the Muslim forecast by 2050 is 20%. In my view the current mantra that all religions are equal is blatantly untrue. So there are two potential directions. The first is strengthening Christian values in government. This effectively prioritises one religion. The second is the separation of religion and government as proposed. While that treats religions equally it also makes it subservient to the law. So things such as sharia courts would not be allowed since they are more than merely rituals. It would also free up the country to be truly progressive and ban face coverings joining 16 other countries including Tunisia, Austria, Denmark, France, Belgium, Tajikistan, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Netherlands, China (Xinjiang Region), Morocco, Sri Lanka, and Switzerland.
A feel when a religion denies a holocaust and invades other cultures a feel that is ground no religion can cross over other religions continents and unions to start terrorizing with cars bombs and suicide death with attacks on the free world. A believe the established parties in our democratic independent union, must never be replaced by such religious extremism who demand sharia law and religious parties exist. Never this must be illegal.
With the greatest of respect, I wonder if this is a distraction from the reality of our problems. This seems to be a biased approach to modern legislation, badly written missing its original intention. While intending to assure fairness for all, it has favoured minorities. A re-assessment of the applicability of laws to ensure fairness for all should do the job. Also, the college of policing website indicates an over emphasis of DEI, rather than unbiased treatment under the law.
Agree this is also an issue but for different reasons. When I was drafting legislation for government we had to assess impact in multiple ways involving large number of policy and legal to avoid what is now called unintended consequences. In my view most legislation is deliberate. We just believe our world view of fairness automatically applies to legislators. It hasn’t for a long time.
I don’t want to add anything here that others have said, but I am also keen to emphasize the importance of the UK remaining a Christian nation. Your suggested policy is the perfect example as to why we shouldn’t become a secular nation. It is Christian values of personal liberty that have given you the freedom to raise this as a policy suggestion. Indeed, all of the few liberties you currently employ are possibly protected and clinging on due to our Christian heritage.
There are some rather radical examples of nations becoming fully secular where there have been horrendous miscarriages of the right to liberty. Look at Nazi Germany, where the nation state became the new religion by default because it is part of human nature to worship. Look at Joseph Starlin and the Cultural revolution of Mao Zedong. These monsters have tested the experiment of Cultural secularism and have shown us just how aweful It can become.
Nobody from the GB PAC would ever suggest taking such extreme measures, but if they come to power one day and enact secularisation policies other governments will ride rough shod over the religios values of the nations people. Look at recent arrests of Christian people outside abortion clinics, arrested for praying in silence, look at the arrests of Christian Pastors who speak in the streets. A national policy of secular values, oposes religious freedom. It is our Christian values as a country being built into our legal charters that protect the few freedoms we have left.
I also want to add here that I in no way advocate for blasphemy laws. If a person wants to besmerch Jesus or Muhammed or Guru Gobind Sing, they should be free to start the argument. Sadly we have had so many freedoms taken away from us by people Brittish people who were well meaning and perhaps felt intimidated by debates and arguments that we are basically in a place where the country is a Secular tyranny with no protection in place for the main faith and a more than willing police force to enforce some of the most stupid policies possible.
Our Cultural Christian nation needs to be protected. We as a native people deserve the rights to live as we choose. Compare us with Native Americans, Aborigines and Maori’s. In this modern age, thankfully people are willing to stand up for and to defend their rights to maintain their cultures and values. It is about time we looked at our own native culture and started to defend that with the same acuteness.
The White British culture is no less deserving of protection. Secularising the nation would only intensify it diminishment.
To conclude with some facts. Just from Starlin, Hitler, Mao and Pol Pots there were as many as 118 million people murdered for secularism in the 20th century. During the 20th Century, roughly 25 million Christian murders and deaths were directly attributable to secularism and the contempt of religious views that secularism brings. In fact, to put the argument against secularism into a succinct one liner. Secularism murdered more people in the 20th century than all of the deaths attributed to religious wars ever.That’s all religions. I would actually be in favour of making it illegal to even suggest making the UK a Secular nation and I believe in total freedom of speach. The 20th Century was the zenith of human depravity.
As an atheists i am happy for religious people to talk to their imaginary friend “Gods” some of us grew out of it when we became adults.
I like to visit churches, mosques etc its part of history some of us have moved on
St George was a Roman soldier probably of arab origin, he was crucified by the Romans in Turkey. Apart from being a christian he has little connecion to the UK and is celebrated in many countries particularly in Spain.
The so called cross of St George is of Templar originating in France and being addopted by british knights during the Christian Muslin wars aroumd Jerusalem.
This is part of our history but should not be taken out of context.
Our internet invention our language that helped build the internet platforms, we must protect freedom of speech in our culture i.e the Lucy Connolly’s and the Craig Houston’s, should be our secret services who protect our internet (MI5 MI6 C.I.D) not police who can be corrupted my tabloids or other actors who wish to do harm to our culture and sovereign data. I have experienced this in a phone hacking scandal. We must protect our citizens human rights better. Thank you Barry
