Allan Armstrong (RCN), 30.9.13
Two interesting articles were published last week. The first one in The Herald (27.9.13) highlighted the recent Scottish census, which pointed out that, for the first time, those professing no religion had emerged as the largest and fastest growing group in Scotland (37%). The second article in the Sunday Herald (22.9.13) highlighted the growing penetration of Protestant fundamentalist church activity in Scotland’s ‘non-denominational’ schools.
The best way to understand and deal with such issues is to
take a secular approach. Twenty years ago, most people, especially on the Left,
would have been quite clear what secularism meant. Secularism is the complete
separation of religion from the state. People’s choice of religion or of no
religion is a private matter.
However, there has been an organised conservative religious
counter-offensive, which tries to equate secularism with the promotion of
atheism. Yet, in the western world, the origins of secularism lay amongst
Christians and Deists, who wanted to overcome the bitter post-Reformation
sectarian legacy. Some states, e.g. the Netherlands, had already moved to a
situation where, although they had an established state religion or
denomination, others were tolerated. However, when the USA became independent
it adopted a secular constitution, which ended any form of religious
establishment, and prevented the state giving backing to any religion, whilst
at the same time allowing citizens the right to practice the religion of their
choice. France took this secularism a step further during the Revolution.
Such a view of secularism is still understood today by
liberal Christians, Jews and some people of other religions, as well as by many
atheists and agnostics. A good example of a Christian who understands the
importance of secularism is Richard Holloway, recently Episcopalian Bishop of
Edinburgh, who has just published the pamphlet, A Plea for Secular Scotland.
So where does Scotland lie on the established
religion/secular spectrum? Since Scotland, at present, remains part of the UK,
you can only understand the current situation in this wider context.
If secularism is understood solely as a social phenomenon -
a decreased hold of religious authority over the lives of people - then the
nations and regions of the UK (with one significant exception) are a pretty
secular societies, where even many of those still adhering to specific
religions, do not necessarily act according to the instructions or advice of
their religious leaders.
England is probably the most socially secular society in the
UK, but both Scotland and Wales are not far behind. Northern Ireland is the
exception to this pattern. In Europe, probably only the Scandinavian countries and
the Netherlands are more socially secular than Britain. West European
countries, including those such as Italy and Spain, recently considered to be
Catholic, are much more socially secular than the USA, despite it having a more
secular political constitution.
However, when you look at the position of secularism in the
UK from a political, rather than a social point of view, the situation is very
different. Official state-backed religion continues to have a conservative and
sometimes reactionary role in society, and indeed also plays a significant part
in holding the UK state together.
First of all there is the established Church of England,
which has 26 bishops sitting in the House of Lords (itself a reactionary
institution). The monarch is the head of the Church of England and is
constitutionally unable to marry a Catholic. These features highlight the
state’s support for a wider Protestantism, which has historical origins dating
from political conflicts between the sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
In Scotland, the Church of Scotland is recognised as the
‘national church’, although only supported by 32% of Scottish people and having
declined by 400,000 since the last census. The General Assembly is arranged so
that behind the presiding Moderator, there is a throne gallery, where the
monarch is entitled to sit. The monarch is also a member of the Church of
Scotland – a nice if limited example of ecumenicism! In practice, she is
represented by the Lord High Commissioner (LHC). He addresses the General
Assembly on behalf of the queen. The current LHC is Tom Murray, whose Google
entry states that he “has years of experience of giving landowners and familiar
advice on the complexities in tax and succession planning”!
However, the Church of Scotland, with the backing of the UK
state in Scotland, extends its role into parts of society, where others are
denied, particularly the so-called ‘non-denominational’ schools provided by the
state. Since the 1980’s, Scottish schools have been forced to provide religious
observance (many had ceased to do so, in the relatively liberal post-1968
years). Parents do have the right to withdraw their children from this. However,
particularly, at primary level, children would not necessarily understand why
they were being separated from their schoolmates.
In practice ‘non-denominational’ religious observance is
left to Church of Scotland ministers (never Catholics, Muslims, Jews or
Humanists), or to individual teachers with strong (Protestant) religious
convictions. This has allowed some particularly worrying developments to occur.
In Kirktonholme Primary in East Kilbride, a US pro-creationist sect was invited
in, whilst in Dean Park Primary in Balerno, Edinburgh, another evangelical sect
provides residential trips for pupils. Today (30.9.13), The Herald has highlighted a case where a physics teacher is
alleged to have promoted a creationist view in a science class in Lasswade High.
Getting back to wider society, although the longstanding and
continuing social secularisation of ‘Britain’ means there would probably be
widespread support for ending the ban on monarchs not being able to marry
Catholics, this would not be so well received amongst Loyalists and Unionists
in Northern Ireland. This ensures that the British establishment and mainstream
political parties are very reluctant to introduce such a measure, which could
call into question continuing British rule over Northern Ireland.
Ulster Unionists and Loyalists can not conceive of
‘Britishness’ in any form other than being Protestant, and in this they
are able to draw support from the existing UK constitution. Toleration
of Catholics represents Unionism’s (small) ‘liberal’ wing, whilst strong enmity
represents the still strident Loyalist wing. This Loyalism is currently making
its political weight felt on the streets of Northern Ireland. Whereas there
have been Protestant Nationalist and Republican politicians, there have never
been any Catholic Unionist politicians in Northern Ireland.
Much of what is termed anti-Catholic ‘sectarianism’ in
Scotland is the knock on effect of anti-Irish racism in Northern Ireland in the
Central Belt. It is strongly promoted by specific organisations such as the
Orange Order and various Loyalist groups.
Indeed, when you look at Scotland, if the historical context
of the time is considered, you will see that, whilst being strongly
Presbyterian, religious repression was not in the same league as say Catholic
Spain (the Inquisition) and France (the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and the
repression following the Revocation of the Edict Of Nantes), or the 40 Catholic
martyrs in England. The Catholic John Ogilvie was martyred in Scotland in 1615;
but the official Catholic Church in Scotland martyred the Protestant Patrick
Hamilton in 1528, whilst the atheist, Thomas Aikenhead, was executed by the
official Church of Scotland in 1697. However, these are single events. None of
this is to deny the highly discriminatory Scottish state and Church of Scotland
practice towards Catholics (and after 1690 towards Episcopalians), just to see
it in the wider context of the times, where such practices were widespread, and
did not mark out Scotland as an extreme case of sectarianism and bigotry.
Of course, when you look at the activities of Scottish
Presbyterian settlers in Ireland from the seventeenth century, you will
certainly see much persecution and barbarity, but the real aim of all this was
not to enforce religious conversion, which would have been counter-productive,
since what was wanted was Irish land. And again, such barbarity was hardly
unique at the time to Scottish Presbyterians, as the role of the Spanish state
and Catholic Church and the British colonists and most Protestant denominations
towards the Native Americans highlights.
By the early nineteenth century, despite some undoubted
continuing reactionary Presbyterian opposition, Scottish Catholics were
increasingly confident that their social and political position was improving,
particularly after the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829. Certainly this
advance was limited, but when compared to say the position of Protestants in
many official Catholic states at the time, Scotland still did not lie on the
most repressive end of the religious spectrum in its treatment of religious
minorities.
That, however, very much changed with the mass immigration
of Irish Catholics after The Famine. This allowed a renewed Presbyterian
sectarianism and intense bigotry to emerge, certainly within the Church of
Scotland (and other Presbyterian denominations), but even more so in the Orange
Order and the Conservative Party.
As recently as the twentieth century, a notorious incident
was the publication of a report by the Church of Scotland’s Church and Nation
Committee in 1923. It was entitled The
Menace of the Irish Race to Our Scottish Nationality. It was presented by
the Moderator, John White, who was a Tory. However, when you read this report,
what strikes you is not its religiously bigoted anti-Catholicism (indeed it
supports Scottish Catholics), but its strident anti-Irish racism, highlighted
by its title. Of course, many Loyalists did not make this distinction, and
would attack any Catholic symbol, as well as the Catholic of Irish origin
living in Scotland. But, even they knew who their ‘enemy’ was – ‘Fenians’, a
non-religious term for the Irish.
To this day, there are many who decry ‘Scotland’s Shame’,
putting it down to an engrained Scottish anti-Catholicism, when what should
really be examined now is the continued anti-Irish racism still found here. By
all social indicators, the position of Catholics in Scotland has steadily
improved, especially since the 1960’s.
By 2001 Catholics enjoyed a position of occupational parity with other
Scots. Denominational inter-marriage has also continued to increase.
Quite clearly, though, a political tension still exists in
Scotland. What is the nature of this tension? This has less to do with any
remaining Scottish Presbyterian anti-Catholicism, but mainly reflects the
knock-on effect of the situation in Northern Ireland, where the UK state
constitutionally underpins a so-called ‘sectarian’ division. Behind the
sectarian labels ‘Protestant and Catholic’ there are more accurate political
labels - ‘Unionist and Nationalist’ -
and national labels - ‘British and
Irish’.
This is why, despite the continued economic and social
progress of Catholics in Scotland, we still see worrying political conflicts,
which appear to take the form of ‘Protestant’ versus ‘Catholic’. These
conflicts are likely to come to the fore, now that a Scottish independence
referendum further threatens the UK set-up, frightening not only the British
unionist establishment, but the Orange Order; Loyalists, BNP and SDL. The real
issue has relatively little to do with religion and a lot more to do with the
political nature of the UK and national identity. Somebody who has written a
good book on anti-Irish racism in Scotland is Phil Mac Giolla Bhain. Minority Reporter, Modern Scotland’s Bad
attitude Towards Her Own Irish.
Apart from the political and media focus on
Protestant/Catholic or Rangers/Celtic antipathies, the other arena in which the
issue of religious division comes up is the existence of state-funded Catholic
schools.
Protestant fundamentalists, and even some liberals, claim
that Catholic schools are the cause of social division in Scotland. Given the
nature of Scottish society (as part of the UK state and British Empire), in the
later nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries, it is not at all
surprising that the majority of Irish descended Catholics in Scotland then gave
their support to the hierarchy’s call for separate school provision. By 1918,
when this was achieved, Scottish society would need to have changed far more,
before the majority of (Irish) Catholics would have had any confidence that
they would be treated equally here. Therefore, widespread Catholic support for
such schooling is wholly understandable.
However, Scottish society has changed and is changing. The
main battle lines are now being drawn around the maintenance of the existing UK
state (where Northern Ireland plays a particular role in Scotland’s debates)
and bringing about more social equality, particularly for women and gays.
Socialists need to be at the forefront of these political
and social struggles, and in the process of helping to change society, and put
forward a secular vision, which seeks to educate children together. There is no
Presbyterian geometry, Catholic algebra, Muslim arithmetic, or Atheist
geography. We oppose segregated housing
provision (e.g. present day Belfast behind the ‘Peace Walls’) and job provision
(Clyde shipyards in the past).
We want to maximise social interaction, whilst giving scope
for people to practice their own individuality, whether expressed in the
religion (or non-religion) and culture of their choice. And support for this
should be demonstrated. When the Muslim mosque in Annandale Street was
firebombed in 2003, socialists, atheists and people of other religions attended
the solidarity event organised there. Many would do the same if a synagogue or
Catholic church was attacked.
Although most socialists would like to see the end of
separate schooling provision on religious grounds, the best way to achieve this
is to end all political and social inequality in society – including the ending
of the ban on the royals marrying Catholics, but better still moving towards a
republic without any established religion. Protestant fundamentalists, who
oppose separate Catholic schooling provision, are strongly opposed to any such
political and social change in the UK, and indeed want to preserve the official
Protestant nature of the state. Liberal opponents of state-funded Catholic
schools ignore this constitutionally entrenched Protestant supremacism.
In its defence of separate religious schooling, the Catholic
hierarchy claims that Scottish society is so deeply anti-Catholic there will
always be a need for such provision. This ignores the considerable economic and
social advances already achieved by Catholics in Scotland, whilst showing a
highly pessimistic view of Scotland's political future. Such a stance though
has its own political purpose. It is designed to protect the privileged
position of a Catholic hierarchy, which is increasingly being questioned by
many lay Catholics.
Tom Gallagher has recently written a book Divided Scotland – Ethnic Friction and
Christian Crisis, which whilst being somewhat ambiguous in its proposals,
sees new political lines being drawn. He thinks that much of the current
opposition to Catholicism (more accurately, to the reactionary politics of the
Catholic hierarchy) in Scotland today draws not upon traditional Presbyterian
anti-Catholicism, but is part of a wider secular opposition to all religious
interference in the state and wider society. Such opposition also includes a
marked hostility to the claims of Protestant fundamentalists. There have also been
new alliances between some Catholic and Protestant groups when it comes to opposing
women’s (especially over abortion) and gay (especially over marriage) rights.
The political effect of promoting socially conservative
Catholic values (not necessarily held by all or even the majority of Catholics)
can be demonstrated in the case of the Scottish composer, James Macmillan. He
is somebody who very much believes in the "Scotland's Shame" - or its
congenital anti-Catholicism. However, his own support for socially
conservative values led him to vote Tory in the last Westminster election. The
Tories were in an electoral alliance with the anti-Catholic Ulster Unionist
Party! Upholding social conservatism takes priority over opposing anti-Catholic
sectarianism.
Getting back to the issue of separate schooling provision,
there is now another issue. If job and social discrimination against Catholics
in Scotland has largely been overcome, another group of migrants, Muslims, still
very much face the discrimination and vilification, which Catholics once
experienced. Some Muslims have raised the demand for separate Muslim schooling
provision.
There are two roads one could take in relation to this. The
first is to accept the claim that it is impossible to change the racist or
sectarian nature of Scottish society, and therefore separate Catholic schools
should always exist and new Muslim schools should be added to the mix. Given
that it is unlikely that any Holyrood government will admit that it allows
racism and sectarianism to persist, then such provision is likely to take the
form of the right of any religion to get state backing for its own schools –
Church of Scotland, Free Presbyterian, Sikh, Jewish, etc. This would not be a
socially progressive move, and would strongly reinforce the hold of various
religious figures and officials over children, often reinforcing reactionary
stances in particular towards women, gays and wider sexuality.
Socialists should uphold a secular vision. First, this means
fighting against the political and social divisions in which racism and
sectarianism flourish. Challenging the UK set-up is central to this. The
provision of fully secular schooling follows from this. However, the
so-called ‘non-denominational’ schools
should be fully secular today. There should be no religious observance in such
schools. That it goes on in so-called ‘non-denominational’ schools should be of
considerable concern, especially given the nature of some of the reactionary
views being pushed. What can be supported is religious and moral education,
which informs pupils of various beliefs and non-belief.
However, the census statistics show that just over 50% of
people in Scotland still claim to adhere to some Christian denomination.
Amongst those, there will be people who remain more committed religious
practitioners. How can secular schools provide for them? First, there should be a number of days
allotted to each pupil/student, in which s/he can withdraw from school on days
of particular religious significance. It should be possible for religious and
non-religious clubs or societies to form in schools, with attendance on a
voluntary basis. Whilst parents might choose to place their children in particular
religious societies, there should also be provision that when a pupil/student
is old enough to make her/his own choice, they make it themselves.
Now, since we are discussing the issue of secularism in its
contemporary political context, including the challenge of the Scottish
independence referendum, there is another issue. The independence march last
weekend was dominated by the nationalists’ saltires (or St. Andrew’s cross).
This is a medieval and specifically Christian symbol, which seems inappropriate
in today’s multi and non-faith Scottish society. If you go to Ireland, where they
have long dropped the Irish unionist and Christian St. Patrick’s cross, people
have the choice of the ancient Irish Harp, the republican Tricolour, or the
socialist republican Starry Plough. Even England has a little-known republican
tricolour (blue, white and green) designed by the Chartist, William Linton.
It’s about time for Scotland to catch up.
Discussion
This was followed by a discussion to which Alister, Andy,
Bob, Iain, Ian, Jim, Pat and Sophia contributed. Ali, whose son was at Dean
Park Primary, outlined the role of the Evangelical church in Balerno, where it
enjoyed considerable local support. In the process it was promoting some fairly
reactionary attitudes, which had caused some alarm. It will be interesting to see how the head
deals with the allegations about its role in the school.
Iain said it was important that the RIC was able to raise
such wider issues that were ignored in the mainstream independence debate. The
debate should cover all the issues that effected people’s lives.
Andy and Jim supported the continued need for Catholic
schools in Scotland. Andy highlighted his experience of less than a decade ago
in North Lanarkshire, where inter-school hostility remained, with stones being
thrown by students from ‘non-denominational’ and Catholic schools. However, he
also highlighted the negative experience of being a gay student in a Catholic
school, where anti-gay attitudes were promoted by some of the staff. Jim
pointed to the historical role of Catholic schools in enabling students to get
the education, which had allowed them to overcome earlier discrimination. He
thought that secularism was widely equated to atheism. He also pointed out that
many Muslims preferred to send their children to Catholic rather than
‘non-denominational’ schools.
Bob pointed out the negative role of the USSR, which had
contributed to the false view that secularism was the same as atheism. Atheism
was the ‘established church’ of the USSR. Furthermore, non-religious socialists
had sometimes adopted a colourless vision, whilst we needed to promote our own
vision of non-religious human spirituality.
Pat did not think that socialists’ vision lacked colour.
However, she pointed out that a great deal of human culture had been expressed
in religious terms, and this was an important part of humanity’s legacy. She
appreciated the Christian stories she was told at school, because these helped
her to understand a lot of wider literature and culture. However, she was also
appalled by the highly charged emotional techniques used by fundamentalist
sects to recruit adherents, particularly when used on children.
Sophia, who is from Greece, highlighted the problems when religion
had been part of a culture of resistance, but later changed its role, as had
occurred in Ireland. The Orthodox Church had opposed the oppression of the
Latins and the Ottomans in Greece. This legacy was still deeply engrained in
Greek culture. However, today, the Orthodox Church plays a reactionary role in
Greek society. But you could only understand much of Greek culture, including
painting and song, by appreciating its earlier past role.
Ian, who comes from Aberdeen, said that a great deal of what
was considered ‘sectarian’ conflict centred on the Central Belt and Western
Isles. Outside of these areas, particularly in the north east, the levels of
those professing no religion in the recent census was higher. He also pointed
out that the composer, James Macmillan, had also given his strong support to
the UK, whilst attacking the National Collective as Mussolini’s cheerleaders.
