No religious exemptions!

John-John, Paul and I joined the “Secular Europe Campaign” in its protest march yesterday.


Praise be to the Invisible Stoat of Destiny!

About 1000 of us congregated at the Temple end of the Embankment, with a magnificent array of placards, flags and banners. We joined the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) and many other like-minded groups to protest against:

• the privileged status of the churches under Article 17 of the TFEU (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union)
• the privileged position of religious organisations in politics and the law
• the special status of the Vatican in the United Nations
• state-funded faith schools
• the economic privilege and political influence of the Vatican

And to promote:

• freedom of religion, freedom of conscience and freedom of speech
  women’s equality and reproductive rights
• equal rights for LGBT people in all the European Union
• a secular Europe – democratic, peaceful, open and just, immune to the clandestine influence of privileged religious (or other) organisations
• one law for all, no religious exemptions from the law
• state neutrality in matters of religion and belief

At the conclusion of the march - which was very jolly, and got lots of shouts and waves of approval from passers-by along the route - we had a succession of eminent speakers, including Peter Tatchell, the president of the National Secular Society Terry Sanderson and David Pollock, President of the European Humanist Federation.

Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of the British Humanists Association said:

"We are marching today for a secular Europe. Europe is the continent where secularism was invented, where liberal democracy first flowered, and Europe played a major part in developing the very concept of human rights and we should celebrate that today... What does it mean to live in a free and liberal secular democracy? It means if you don’t like abortion, you don’t have to have one. If you don’t like gay marriage, you don’t have to have one, or be a guest at one. If you don’t like assisted dying for the terminally ill, you don’t have to opt for it. But it also means that you can’t enlist the state to force your choices, preferences, prejudices and dogmas on all your fellow citizens."

Among the shocking revelations from the rally were the personal account of Sue Cox about her own childhood abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest and the church's subsequent cover-up of the facts, the ex-Muslim Maryam Namazie and her forthright views on Sharia law and the burka ("it is not just a piece of clothing - it is a symbol of man's ownership of a woman"), and the Italian campaigner who exposed the €3bn tax exemptions for the Vatican his country gives (and by implication, all EU countries contribute to).

Great stuff, and so important! I am very pleased I was there...

Secular Europe Campaign

One of the more famous of the people lending their endorsement to the campaign was the award-winning author Philip Pullman:

Philip Pullman - Secular Europe Campaign

More about the march and rally (including more pictures from the event)

Another report from the march