News and Opinion

Stephen A Warden, Leicestershire chairman of the Society of St George had the following letter published in the Leicester Mercury on 14th December 2015 . The National Secular Society is making a deal of noise about another report, by the former judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, that is expected to recommend state schools should cease holding Christian assemblies so atheist children are not offended. Other faiths will be allowed to continue to hold religious assemblies should they wish. We Christians are pretty well hardened to the annual relentless calls from atheists and secular societies to curtail any and all religious content in public life. However, to single out English Christians would be against all that is English, fair and just. That would turn us toward those dark days when Christian expression resulted in state punishments. England has been a Christian nation since the late 7th century and has introduced Christ to so many countries that it would unthinkable we would even

Dear Mr Vaz, I write to express deep disappointment at your support for blasphemy laws to be re-introduced to the UK. I write this as an open letter to encourage clarity on the matter. It is outrageous that someone, as senior within the Labour party as yourself, would put forward the outdated, regressive, and oppressive concept that faith and belief need legal protection. They do not. These ideas must be subject to as rigorous questioning, criticism, ridicule and offensive comment, as any other idea. Just because someone sincerely believes an idea does not give the person nor the idea any special privilege in being immune from normal human interaction, even if offensive criticism is offered. The line we draw, and it is a reasonable one, is that we do not permit the incitement of hatred nor violence. Everything else must remain within the law. It is the duty of everyone to be prepared to take offence on the chin rather than demand special privilege to avoid facing

One of the weaknesses of religion is the tendency to lay down dogma and create schism (well illustrated by the Life of Brian scene about the People's Liberation Front of Judea etc.). Unfortunately Secular Societies can exhibit the same weakness. Our strapline demonstrates the problem - “for an inclusive and plural society free from religious privilege, prejudice and discrimination”. Some Secularists prefer to concentrate on promoting “an inclusive and plural society”, leading to accusation of appeasing the religions by those who prefer to concentrate on campaigning for freedom from “religious privilege, prejudice and discrimination”. Going back in our history this dichotomy was the cause of a split in the secular movement in the 1860s when many of the secular groups formed in the 1850s disappeared. To quote from “A Chronology of British Secularism” (G.H. Taylor 1957): “Is the theoretical attack necessary or advisable? That was the problem which did more than any other single

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Leicester 9th January 2015 Leicester Secular Society along with secularists around the world condemns the religiously motivated brutal attack in France on a free press and freedom of expression. This is a terrorist attempt to silence criticism and divide society We are not unique in stating our disgust at these brutal attacks and we all unite in strongly urging people and Governments to remember the crucial importance of the right to free expression. Following these unprecedented attack carried out in the streets of Paris, we would like to express our sympathies to the victims and condolences to those who knew the murdered. Gush Bhumbra, President of Leicester Secular Society, said: “We must stand for our right to free expression or we will lose that right. The only rights we can ever have are those we are prepared to take a stand over. Totalitarian ideologies will take for themselves the right to rule our lives, to tell us what we can d