the importance of the national secular society has been brought home to me
today when I attended San detox figs wedding and the joy that was there at
the festival hall was just so overwhelming and I thought back 35 years
ago to appearing in the Old Bailey the gay news on a blasphemy charge it's
incredible that had taken 35 years but the national secular society has
pioneered the end of blasphemy the end of discrimination on religious grounds
against the lesbian and gay community when I defended gay news we had only one
MP Maureen colhoun who was gay and she was outer than destroyed by the Daily
Mail that was the kind of atmosphere in the 1970s where the judges were all on
the side of the church they manipulated the law they manipulated the jury and so
35 years later we have an eruption of joy that mrs. white house well I'm glad
she didn't live to see it is a see chain it's been brought about partly by the
work of the national secular society it shows that there is a key to unlocking
the humanity and the real love that people human beings can have and the
national secular society has been vital in the process of doing away with those
with doctrines that bind our deeds and our desires
I think secularism is important because human beings have to find a way of
living with each other and there are lots and lots of things that we all
disagree about and one of the most divisive issues is religion and religion
to me they're always competing power systems so they all claim to have a kind
of monopoly on truth and what tends to happen is each religion wants to
determine the values that other people live by and that's to me as somebody who
isn't religious is not acceptable I think we have to find a set of values
which are basically secular values they're not derived from some kind of
religious book or some religious authority or somebody who claims to
speak on behalf of a religion we have to agree a set of values which are
basically about equality and human rights and I think secularism actually
protects those of us who don't have a religion but it also protects the people
who have weaker religions from the stronger religions so I think secularism
is actually the only way for peaceful coexistence in the modern world I think
the the national secular society is important because we don't have enough
secular voices speaking up we live in a country which is clearly secular I mean
the census has show that and the social attitudes survey people don't on the
whole most people don't go to church mosque gurdwara or whatever most of us
live lives that are not hugely influenced by religion but we have a
kind a slightly sclerotic stage which still has an established church and
which pays lip service to Christian values so it's incredibly important that
in every debate that we have whether it's about reproductive rights or
gay marriage equal marriage things like that or just about you know how we live
our lives that there have to be a counter voice there which is speaking on
behalf of all of us who don't want our lives to be ruled by religion and that's
what the national secular society stands for what we need to remember the
extraordinary dichotomy that we have in Britain because it on the one hand it is
one of the least religious and curiously also religiously diverse countries in
the world but on the other hand by some very objective measures it's one of the
least secular countries in the Western world and the two examples I will give
the Westminster Parliament is the only one to give seats to bishops in its
legislature and England and Wales are the only countries in the world to
require mainly christian daily education in worship in every school every day so
and I suspect those two are connected in because we've got the bishops in the
House of Lords datos remained and it's so ridiculous when only roughly six
percent of the population are in church on a normal Sunday so that's the context
in its education where the ordinary person in the street suffers most from
the lack of secularism because the third of the schools are religious schools and
that will often mean that people can't get into their local totally taped to a
state-funded school around the corner and they might not be able to get into
it without being required to pretend to go to what to go to church and pretend
to worship but not pretend actually put the money in the collection just to get
this state-funded facility and that's absolutely dreadful but away from
schools I think that we are really in something of a battle on our fundamental
values because there seems to be a growing deference to religion on human
rights particularly on freedom of expression on the admission that women
can be treated in such a bad way just because it's on religious grounds and I
think that's something which we're going to have to work very hard to to stop
because in it eventually that's going to erode our culture well I'm
Catholic clergy were all victims in catholic clergy that
desperately for many years I felt not part of the human race I think in one
fell swoop the Catholic Church created a whole subculture of people
we don't quite belong anywhere and it wasn't really until I met secularism and
the time our collaboration with the National
circulars especially in the poke protest and also
UN delegation has been invaluable a real significant breakthrough
I can honestly say that as a survivor of clergy abuse the only compassion I've
ever really received has been secularists humanist make peace and for
that I'm incredibly grateful so
very precious in recent years we have seen in Britain
the re-emergence and revival of Regis fundamentals of all different views
and this fundamentalism is seeking to claim for itself special unique
privileges privileged access to government privileged exemptions in a
four skillets I don't believe it's right that our
quality laws have exemptions for faith organizations not just places of worship
but exemptions for faith schools faithful and hospitals nursing homes
shops for the homes to have that liberal just privilege of being above the law
that apply to everyone else is fundamentally wrong
the national secular society is playing a vital role in challenging with
privilege to ensure that all people of all beliefs whether religious or not how
people rights and responsibilities under law
now for all of these reasons I've set out to you I think you ought to think
very carefully whether it wouldn't be a good idea to join the national secular
society that fights so hard to promote the fights against these kind of
problems and we really have got a good track record and religious people put
loads of money behind their churches and they're campaigning secular people I'm
afraid don't seem to realize that it does need money to do this so please
join the national secular society and put your support in a tangible way to
the society for a better future for us all thank you