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Multiculturalism
Jonathan Chaplin argues that multiculturalism still has indispensable contribution to realising a just society.
Media Monitoring
A multifaith Songs of Praise? Not on my watch says BBC religion chief
Songs of Praise is to remain Christian despite calls for it to be turned it into a multifaith programme, the BBC’s first Muslim head of religion has pledged. Aaqil Ahmed said that it was vital that religious programming promoted “diversity” but insisted that Songs of Praise would always remain Christian.
Religion in Twenty-first century Britain
30th November 2009
Why has religion survived?
What is its place in the liberal democratic state?
What are the opportunities and imperatives for the future?
These are the three key questions raised by the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks of Aldgate, in his witty and incisive Theos Lecture. To answer them, he draws on sources as varied as Alexis de Toqueville, Amos Oz and Stephen Hawking.
In contrast to the popular narrative, Lord Sacks claimed that it is not religion that is in danger of dying out, but “liberal democratic Europe” which is in danger both “demographically and in its ability to defend its own values”
The future of religion in twenty-first century Britain, Lord Sacks suggests, lays in three directions: a new dialogue between religion and science, the unparalleled power of religious groups to confront the big global issues of the day, including climate change; and respectful conversations between religious groups and secular humanists.
"Religious groups in the liberal democratic state must be prepared to enter into serious respectful conversations with secular humanists, with charities, with other groups in civil society about the nature of the common good.”
The lecture was introduced by writer and broadcaster Libby Purves, and was delivered at the Lewis Media Centre, Millbank on 4 November 2009.