Church attacks government for favouring minority faiths

Published on Monday 9 June 2008 10:36

A HARD-HITTING Church of England report today accused the Government of favouring Islam and other minority faiths while paying only "lip service" to Christianity.

The study accused the Government of "religious illiteracy" and called for the appointment of a Minister for Religion.

While praising the Conservative Party for its "strident" plans to tackle poverty, the report claimed the Government had ignored social breakdown and failed to recognise the Church's potential contribution to public affairs.

The report was commissioned from academics at the Von Huegel Institute at Cambridge University by the Church of England's Bishop for Urban Life and Faith Stephen Lowe, the Bishop of Hulme, who was due to deliver the Church's response later today.

The report – entitled Moral, But No Compass said: "The Government has focused so intensely on minority faiths that it has failed to develop a coherent evidence base for the largest religious body in the UK, the Christian church."

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears: "This is an unfair attack on the Government. We engage with the Church of England on a regular basis as we do with all other faiths."