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Should we have a Minister for Religious Affairs?
Christopher Hill
At the time of writing, just prior to the UK General Election, we have
a Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Social Housing and Faith, who
is a junior minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing
and Communities. Following on from Baroness Warsi (2012-2014)
whom, when I was in the House of Lords, I had occasion to talk with
from time to time, there have been no less than six other holders
of this role, with some gaps. The easiest way to follow this changed
listing is, ironically, to be found on the Secular Society website!
This somewhat opaque office is, however, different from a minister
for the Church or religion or faith as it has been found in some
other jurisdictions. For the sake of completeness it may be worth
also recalling that there was a failed attempt to put the position of
Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion on a statutory footing. It
remained in the Conservative manifesto. This, however, was about
freedom of religion. I shall contend that in general, ministries for
the Church or religion have been about the opposite.
One way to explore this would be to attempt (and almost certainly
to fail) to offer an encyclopaedic summary of the arrangements
between Church and state in (say) Europe. A global survey would
require a multitude of doctrinal theses; even Europe, or especially
Europe, would need a vast amount of documented historical
research. I do not attempt this. I rather try to point up what may
lie behind such an office in terms of legal theory about Church and
state and I illustrate this with some limited historical and more
recent examples. I stress these examples are illustrative rather
than exhaustive. On the basis of these limited case studies I think
a ministry of religious affairs or faith is best avoided. Paradoxically,
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