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Row over what moves community spirit

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MPs should 'recognise all the good work which is done by non-religious people' 'right across the country'.MPs should ‘recognise all the good work which is done by non-religious people’ ‘right across the country’.

University professor Dr Susan Blackmore has called upon a Plymouth’s MP Gary Streeter to apologise after he suggested Christians did more to help the needy than non-believers.

She said that research showed that the proportion of volunteers who were religious and non-religious was almost the same.

The Plymouth Herald reported that in an open letter to Streeter, Blackmore said: “Either way you look at it, while churches may do good in their communities, so do non-religious people.

“Your faith might be the thing which motivates your charitable work, to whatever extent it is that you do support charities or volunteer, but all sorts of people volunteer in their communities – simply because they want to.”

In a debate on Radio 4’s Today programme Streeter, chair of the cross-party Christians in Parliament group said it was “the churches, not the secular groups, not the atheists” leading community work in his constituency and across the country.

Refuting this, Blackmore pointed out that the 2011 Citizenship Survey showed that 39 per cent of non-religious volunteers took part in formal volunteering at least once a year.

“That is precisely the same proportion as those volunteers who are religious – a figure which includes Muslims, Jews, Hindus and other non-Christians.

“When it comes to informal volunteering, the numbers are slightly in favour of non-religious people,” she added.

Regarding Plymouth, she said, “According to the latest Census figures, 32.9 per cent of people in Plymouth report having no religion. Comments which alienate one third of voters aren’t just divisive and untrue, but politically foolish.

And she called upon Streeter to apologise to his constituency “and to recognise all the good work which is done by non-religious people not just in South West Devon, but right across the country.”

She also said that Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent call for the country to be “more evangelical” in matters of faith would only divide the nation.

“It would,” she said, “be deeply divisive, setting one type of belief against another and making out that the non-believers amongst us are somehow inferior or less altruistic than believers when this is not true.”

Blackmore is one of several public figures including scientists, novelists and politicians who have accused David Cameron of ‘fostering division’ within the UK by claiming that Britain is still a “Christian country”.

In an open letter published recently in the Telegraph, they said that his remarks “needlessly fuel enervating sectarian debates that are by and large absent from the lives of most British people, who do not want religions or religious identities to be actively prioritised by their elected government.”

The letter, largely hidden behind the Telegraph’s paywall, runs as follows:

‘SIR – We respect the Prime Minister’s right to his religious beliefs and the fact that they necessarily affect his own life as a politician. However, we object to his characterisation of Britain as a “Christian country” and the negative consequences for politics and society that this engenders.

Apart from in the narrow constitutional sense that we continue to have an established Church, Britain is not a “Christian country”. Repeated surveys, polls and studies show that most of us as individuals are not Christian in our beliefs or our religious identities.

At a social level, Britain has been shaped for the better by many pre-Christian, non-Christian, and post-Christian forces. We are a plural society with citizens with a range of perspectives, and we are a largely non-religious society.

Constantly to claim otherwise fosters alienation and division in our society. Although it is right to recognise the contribution made by many Christians to social action, it is wrong to try to exceptionalise their contribution when it is equalled by British people of different beliefs. This needlessly fuels enervating sectarian debates that are by and large absent from the lives of most British people, who do not want religions or religious identities to be actively prioritised by their elected government.’

It was signed by Professor Jim Al-Khalil, Philip Pullman, Tim Minchin, Dr Simon Singh, Ken Follett, Dr Adam Rutherford, Sir John Sulston, Sir David Smith, Professor Jonathan Glover, Professor Anthony Grayling, Nick Ross, Virginia Ironside, Professor Steven Rose, Natalie Haynes, Peter Tatchell, Professor Raymond Tallis, Dr Iolo ap Gwynn, Stephen Volk, Professor Steve Jones, Sir Terry Pratchett, Dr Evan Harris, Dr Richard Bartle, Sian Berry, C J De Mooi, Professor John A Lee, Professor Richard Norman, Zoe Margolis, Joan Smith, Michael Gore, Derek McAuley, Lorraine Barratt,  Dr Susan Blackmore, Dr Harry Stopes-Roe, Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC, Adele Anderson, Dr Helena Cronin, Professor Alice Roberts, Professor Chris French, Sir Tom Blundell, Maureen Duffy, Baroness Whitaker, Lord Avebury, Richard Herring, Martin Rowson, Tony Hawks, Peter Cave, Diane Munday, Professor Norman MacLean, Professor Sir Harold Kroto, Sir Richard Dalton, Sir David Blatherwick, Michael Rubenstein, Polly Toynbee, Lord O’Neill, Dr Simon Singh and Dan Snow.

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