Is the join between Church and State in the UK soon on it's way out?

Poll

The state and the church, divorce?

The UK is a predominantly secular country in practice. Despite this, The UK is still joined to the Church.

Do you think a separation is soon coming? Eventually? Long Term? Never?

Discuss! :biggrin:

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

Socrates

Probably not, given the link is merely ceremonial. Though I contest that a majority of the country is secular (but that is besides the point).

Reply 2

mfm89

As long as we still have a monarchy, I think it will probably stay. It will just continue to become less relevant to people lives. Certainly all the infighting over things that would seem trivial to most people-women bishops-furthers alienation between church and public.

Reply 3

Fusion

If the CoE has representatives in the House of Lords then surely imans and rabbi's deserve some place there.

Reply 4

|>|Imagine|<|

Fusion

If the CoE has representatives in the House of Lords then surely imans and rabbi's deserve some place there.

Or none of them do :yep:

Reply 5

GeoTom

|>|Imagine|<|

Or none of them do :yep:

I agree, religion has NO place in politics.
If CoE hierarchy have seats in the HoL then so should should I, as a self-professed High Lord of His Holiness The Flying Spaghetti Monster and all assorted Noodly Appendages.
You might guess I'm slightly anti-religion, but really, the Church is more of a hinderance than a help in politics.

Reply 6

faber niger

I hope not. I like saying that I'm against the antidisestablishmentarianism cause -- it makes me sound clever. :p:

Reply 7

GeoTom

jismith1989

I like saying that I'm against the antidisestablishmentarianism cause

So you are antiantidisestablishmentarianist? Or just disestablishmentarianist?
Or against establishment?
So you do want to see the Church separated from the State? As this is the establishment?
My head hurts.

Reply 8

jacketpotato

No, the British tend to have hang-ups about changing this kind of thing. If someone proposed it, it would be attacked in Parliament as eroding our culture/traditions/liberties, even if the link is obviously now only ceremonial. Like having gay marriage rather than an identical civil union, its one of those things that probably isn't worth upsetting traditionalists over.

Reply 9

faber niger

TomQMU

Just disestablishmentarianist. If I'd have said that, though, I wouldn't have sounded as clever! :cool:

Reply 10

GeoTom

So you are against the estabishment? i.e. pro disestablishment? I'm not a politics student, I don't really know if that means you are against the church in political power? Can you clear me up pls?

Reply 11

DoMakeSayThink

An antidisestablishmentarian is someone who opposes the removal of tie between the state and the church of england. Consequently, a disestablishmentarian is someone who holds the opposite view, i.e. they believe that the church should not be linked to the state.

Reply 12

GeoTom

Thank you, that's what I thought, just wasn't sure.

Reply 13

Fusion

pretz

Why not throw them all out?

That's my preference tbh

Reply 14

in_jeopardy

Please god (lol?) let the ling be done away with.

It's stupid.

To attempt to be a multicultural nation, acceptance blah blah blah, and still have this strange one-sided 'support' for a single religion... madness.

Reply 15

Psyk

Having an established church does seem a bit out of touch with the general population. According to the census most people are CoE christians, but considering only a minority actually attend church or take part in any religious activity, it's safe to say the church is not important to most people. We have an effectively secular society already. I don't particularly care if some bit of paper somewhere says CoE is the "official" religion if it has no effect in practice. But I suppose it would be preferable to remove it if it's not too much bother. I have no problem with the Queen also being the figure head of the CoE. She has many titles which are not related to her status as the UK's monarch, so it doesn't bother me that one of those titles happens to be related to a religious organisation.

Reply 16

Socrates

pretz

Especially when it is a religion, a minority ofadherents, violently protest against the slightest criticism of it, which is disproportionately exacarbated by the media.

That's better.

Reply 17

funkypish

They don't affect your life in anyway so who cares if the people who built this country still get a minor say in how it's run?

Reply 18

|>|Imagine|<|

funkypish

They don't affect your life in anyway so who cares if the people who built this country still get a minor say in how it's run?

Nonsense,

The fact that this country is still joined to the church creates a subversive cultural bias.

Reply 19

CJ99

Really its not worth making the fuss over as to all effective purposes the state and church are seperate.
The house of lords situation is a tricky one however as it can be argued that Lords are leaders in there choosen fields so by disallowing the religious leaders we disallow religion as a field of importance. That itself does not bother me its just that after religion what comes next?
Also the idea of discluding fields from politics could be bad if taken beyond politics.