All of us are struggling with what it means to live in a world of contradictions and competing claims. It’s a legitimate struggle for any democracy. But in our questions about private conscience there is nothing to be gained by treating religious convictions as alien values. Our equalities debates and laws should create spaces in which faith flourishes, influencing private behaviour as well as contributing to public benefit.<\/p>\n
Society simply cannot afford to dislodge faith, for there is nothing intrinsically intolerant about religiously motivated services in public care or education. But religious exemption should never be a blanket for public intolerance. Properly scrutinised it’s as valid as the legal caveats offered to doctors who act in accordance with their conscience.<\/p>\n
And people of faith who demand exemptions from laws to which others are subjected should not regard this simply as a right. In effect its a sharp reminder that faith has an enormous responsibility to bring dimensions of well-being because of the values we bring to people of all faiths and none.<\/p>\n