Who owns the national conscience?

UK Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown today stated that Christian churches are “the conscience of our country.” This is in the wake of the many Bishops who last week complained that his government was undermining the Christian values of marriage and freedom of religious expression.

Labour has been getting tangled up in faith issues throughout its time in office. During this period there has been a national awakening to the depth, range, and consequences of beliefs that now thrive within the UK and this has naturally lead to new rights being demanded. Certainly, Christianities relationship with the state has changed under Labour and it is no longer the populations default belief system. The church therefore can no longer legitimately assume sole control of the nation’s conscience.

Democratically however Christianity still represents a large cross section of the population so has a right to have a powerful voice at the conscience table. Labour undermines Christian values at its electoral peril. Nevertheless, in a society with such divergent belief systems, Sikh, Jewish, Buddhist Islamic and humanist organisations (etc.) must also be allowed to be part of that same conscience.

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