The end of Christian charity?
by David Robertson, Christian Today:
The National Secular Society (NSS) have released a ‘report’ entitled “For the Public Benefit? – the case for removing the advancement of religion as a charitable purpose”. The fact that the NSS want to remove religion from charity ranks alongside news that the Pope is a Catholic and Greta Thunberg wants to protect the environment as a shocking revelation. But do they have a point? Having read the report, the answer is clearly no. It reads more like a political propaganda leaflet with a list of demands based on a series of allegations and smears. And it reflects the rather sad, illogical and intolerant pettiness that the militant secularists have become famous for. The report is also revealing in that it shows the kind of tactics the NSS use in their war against religion.
1. Misinformation and distortion. For example, ‘For the Public Benefit’ relies on the selective use of statistics – there are lies, religious lies and secular statistics. One of the reasons that they offer for removing religion is that “a majority of Britons no longer belong to any religion”. Yet the latest official statistics from the 2011 survey have no religion as 25%. Doubtless it is higher today but not as high as the selective use of opinion polls by the NSS suggest.
These should always be taken with a pinch of salt – not least because it all depends on sample size, methodology and the questions. A poll in The Guardian in 2006 asked ‘Which religion do you yourself belong to?’, with 64% saying ‘Christian’ and 26% saying none. In the same poll 63% claimed they were not religious with just 33% saying they were! I wonder which figure the NSS would use?
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