Thought for the Day, 21 September 2005

The Rev. Joel Edwards

Good morning.

Today the Home Secretary is expected to unveil plans for a new commission looking at ways in which Muslims and other faiths can be better integrated in British society.

Somewhere between 9/11 and 7/7 faith went into denial as Government and faith communities played down the link between faith, fundamentalism and terror. But when British youths blew up other British people, our cover was blown and the conversation about faith and community changed.

That's why the Home Secretary's meeting is timely. I hope that as faith leaders meet to talk about our involvement in British society all of us must ask about the relationship between faith and extremism. For historically all faiths have something to answer for.

Faith-inspired terror in Northern Ireland, Iraq or London is not merely a question about faith: it is also a question about citizenship. For when citizens are terrified by aggressive faith in public places, something has gone terribly wrong with that faith.

There will always be a place for legitimate non-violent protest: civil disobedience in the name of God. But the Rambo-faith now scaring our continents, is never really true to its calling. It lacks the prophetic poise of a Ghandi or King. It misrepresents the greatest spiritual revolutionary of all times: Jesus of Nazareth.

All faiths have claims they hold dear. As a Christian in a liberal democracy I expect the right to say that "Jesus is uniquely the Son of God". And I expect the freedom to do so without being muzzled by well-meaning legislation or muted in the editorial suit.

But religion in public places can appear shallow when it fights exclusively for its own interests and demonstrates only for its own rights. Let interests groups and lobbyists do that. Faith has a higher calling. It is to serve people.

The 4th century theologian Tertullian had a great line in Christian citizenship. He asked the State not to persecute Christians - because, he said, they were the best citizens in the Empire. As faith leaders face the burning questions of the day, we would do well to work with his insight. Quite frankly people in Britain have no interest in who represents whom in exclusive gatherings but they will be interested in faith which works for a safer world.

Or as the apostle James advised us, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted in the world."