The Archbishop of Canterbury gave a pleasingly radical Thought for the Day,
as the Queen handed out Maundy money, reminding us that monarchs used
to wash the feet of the poor.
Sternly, he suggested the cabinet, top
financiers and newspaper editors should once a year do similarly humble
service not as volunteers, but compulsorily – "so they are not able to
make any sort of capital out of it", because "power constantly needs to
be reminded what it is for … to look after those who don't have the
resources to look after themselves".
Strong stuff.
As current
policies send poverty soaring, the church can shake a fist at power,
pelf and privilege. Polls show the CofE is no longer the Tory party at
prayer – the Catholic church never was.
The one attack that stung
Margaret Thatcher as she more than doubled the number of poor children
was the CofE's searing 1985 Faith in the City
report. Today the church lit a fuse under the government's education
policy when the Bishop of Oxford blew the whistle on faith schools'
unfair social selectivity.
The British Humanist Association, of which I am president, has campaigned hard with the Accord Coalition
to free up the third of state schools that are religious – with their
covert selection, isolating Muslim, Jewish and Hindu children, and
dividing Catholics from Protestants.
Tony Blair encouraged their
growth: sincerely religious, he also thought secret selection would bind
in the middle classes. As Westminster always does, he saw education
through London eyes, with its acute social fractures, ignoring most
families outside inner cities who were more satisfied with schools.
The
alternative to paying is praying, so parents get on their knees at the
birth of a child – rational behaviour in this system.
In fact, there was
little sign of middle-class flight: the proportion of children in
private schools barely rose in the last decades though many morefamilies
could afford it.
This government is increasing faith education,
with seven out of 10 applications for free schools coming from religious
organisations. The education secretary, Michael Gove, urges faith
schools to become academies. Writing in the Catholic Herald, he
recommends avoiding secular critics' accusations of "selection on the
sly", as "by becoming an academy, a Catholic school can place itself
permanently out of range of any such unsympathetic meddling".
Academies
and half of all faith schools set their own admissions, key to their
league table success.
Humanists and secularists have been
hammering away at this, but the churches denied unequivocal evidence
that faith schools take fewer free school-meal pupils. The Commons
education committee reported faith schools discriminating against poor
and migrant children.
The chief schools adjudicator is leaving before
his contract ends after criticising government plans to weaken the
admissions code. He told parliament a third of his cases related to
faith school admissions. Institute of Education research shows selection
by faith schools leads to greater social segregation – with no
improvement in an area's results.
So it is a great step forward
that the Bishop of Oxford, new chair of the church's education board,
accepts the facts and proposes only 10% of places be reserved for the
faithful: "We may not get the startling results that some church schools
do because of getting some very able children, but we will make a
difference to people's lives."
He echoes a strong strand among
liberal vicars uncomfortable at running schools excluding the most
needy. But will it happen? Remember the almighty row from Catholics and
the Daily Mail at a failed Labour plan to reserve just a quarter of
places for non-churchgoers.
It may be far too late. The bishop admits he
has no power, since governors run and often own faith schools, while
parents in pews expect a place in reward for their prayers. Will the
other 90% of children need to prove no CofE connections? That 10%
selection will still be enough to make these desirable schools, so
parents will still move into their catchments.
David Cameron and
Nick Clegg are good at crocodile tears over social mobility while their
policies increase social segregation. Mobility only comes with more
financial equality: they pursue the opposite.
Everything about the
mobility debate has been upside down. Oxbridge admissions are the
inevitable end result of the nation's growing social rigidity, not the
cause.
All research shows that the best education investment is in under-fives, but Sure Start
is being stripped of the intensive treatments that works. Socially
mixed school intakes are best done by lottery – as pioneered by
Brighton's Tory council.
It works, with fewer disappointed parents. No
one fears being allocated a sink school as every bright child finds
enough others in each school. But that requires councils or a government
with the nerve to impose it. However, if the CofE enters the fray to
press for fair admissions, that brings muscle to the empty social
mobility debate.
Unspoken is the fear that more Christian schools
means more Muslim schools too, with no other children in the mix.
Typical Cameron to increase faith school autonomy while calling for
better cultural integration.
But if the CofE now gives up its special
rights, a future Labour government could stop funding any unintegrated
school: an Ipsos Mori polls shows that 80% think all schools should be
open to all, regardless of faith. This week the door opened a crack: it
will take a lot more vociferous campaigning to make it happen.
Meanwhile,
other campaigns against the forces of faith gather momentum. For the
right to die peacefully at a time of our choosing. For an automatic
opt-in for organ donation. Against the government handing more services
to religious groups: latest is the Poppy Project's vulnerable trafficked
women given to the evangelical Salvation Army. Expect yet another
attempt soon to limit abortions.
Freedom of speech needs vigilant
defence against faiths demanding protection from "offence".
The humanist
census campaign was censored, alerting people that the religion
question on the form was not a cultural question. In a YouGov test
survey when asked "What is your religion?" 61% ticked a box for one
religion or another, but when asked "Are you religious?" only 29% said
yes.
But our poster – "If you're not religious, for God's sake say so!" –
was prohibited from buses and stations for potential "serious offence".
How
people answered the census will determine the influence of religion,
especially in House of Lords reform as each faith demands reserved
seats.
The battle has never been against the right to belief – we're
with Voltaire – but against state privilege and law-making influence for
religions.
So if you're not religious, for God's sake join us!