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There have been a couple of articles in the news that have caught my attention recently on the subject of religious proselytising, and I wanted to comment on them.  The first being an initiative by an organisation called Cafe Church, who want to bring Sunday services into the Costa Coffee chain.  The second relates to the Bishop of Reading holding a harvest festival service in Asda.

In the first case, Whitbread which owns Costa Coffee has decided to allow public religious worship to take place on its premises, and it was reported that some branches are even running the Alpha Course. 

Given these are privately owned premises I would have no issue with the church groups hiring out these venues for private use, such as running an Alpha course.  In much the same way people hire all kinds of venues for different events.  Where I take issue is that a preacher is to be permitted to stand up and give his sermon with no regard for the other patrons of the cafe.  If I were to ask permission to stand up and tell a story or go around offering people in the cafe a short course on humanism, or to promote my own secular views, I’m quietly confident that I’d be refused.

The second story focuses on the bishop of Reading, who decided it would be a great idea to hold Harvest festival in Asda of all places.  According to the interview on the BBC it was too troubling to get all the produce to the church so they decided to bring the church to the produce.  The bishop made several remarks along the lines of, “this is the kind of place Jesus would want us to be”, and “Jesus would have shopped in a supermarket”.  The BBC then interviewed an array of people, with one man politely saying “I’m not sure when I am shopping, but it’s nice to do things in a different way, I guess” and child said “This is weird”.  The only person to come out and say anything definite was some grey haired old lady

The bishop stated in his interview that “The church is for everyone”, although he seems to have missed the point, that by holding his service in a public area that he’s imposing the church on them.  He already has enough churches in the diocese you’d think that would be enough places to hold a service.

The whole affair brings to mind the legislation which covers religious discrimination in the workplace.  Is it right to run the Alpha course in a place of work?  What if employees do not wish to listen to religious sermons during their working day? Surely they have the right not to be subjected to such things?

Hypothetically speaking, if a gay employee is forced to listen to a sermon on the evils of homosexuality, I would imagine he’d have a great case for claiming his workplace was a hostile environment.

It is one thing if someone wishes to say grace in a restaurant, or pray during the working day.  They have that right.  However what is being done here isn’t a simple act of personal prayer; it is outright blatant proselytising and I believe it is totally inappropriate in these spaces, in a public context. 

When I go for my coffee, or to do my shopping all I ask for is great products and good customer service, I don’t need a sermon.

http://www.secularism.org.uk/fancy-a-coffee-look-out-the-evan.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8311712.stm