Plans to Register and Inspect Churches ‘Profoundly Misconceived,’ Warn Evangelical Charities
ICC Note: The government of Wales has faced backlash from various faith-based charities after announcing plans that could subject church youth groups to inspection and force them to register with the government. Although the government has assured that the groups will not be inspected unless there is a complaint, local Christians are wary that baseless complaints will start popping up due to the secular culture. Six charities released a statement together opposing the plans and have since called upon their supporters to raise their voices as well.
By Harry Farley
06/06/2016 United Kingdom (Christian Today) – The Welsh government faces pressure to abandon plans that would force church youth groups to be inspected and outlaw “unregistered churches”.
A coalition of evangelical charities issued a joint statement on Monday that blasted the proposals as an “unjustified restriction of religious liberty”. The plans would require any out-of-school educational setting that taught children above a certain threshold to register with the government. Many church youth groups could fall above the threshold and therefore have to join the register and face inspections by government officials.
The Welsh government has said churches will not inspected unless there is a complaint. However the charities warned the “scope for for vexatious complaints is considerable, especially in the current climate of aggressive secularism and religious illiteracy”.
CARE, Christian Concern, the Evangelical Alliance, the Evangelical Movement of Wales, the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship and The Christian Institute said the Welsh government should not appoint “a state regulator of religion”. They added: “For an inspector to scrutinise a Sunday School class, Bible study, youth meeting or church weekend away would be highly intrusive. The prospect of inspectors questioning volunteer leaders and children (without their parents) is an unwarranted incursion into private religion and family life.”
The six charities issued a rallying cry to their supporters and called on them to urge assembly members to oppose the plans.
“Christians are peace-loving, law-abiding citizens who respect authority and love their neighbours. They are a major source of volunteering. To require such people to submit to registration and inspection to ensure they are not engaged in “undesirable teaching” is profoundly misconceived,” the statement read.