For the full list of conclusions and recommendations, which places the findings and proposals arising from the Commission’s work in more detailed context, see the section 'Recommendations to the Evangelical Alliance Council'.
Religious Liberty
1. Recognise the preservation of religious liberty and freedom of religious expression as fundamental rights which must be defended, especially in the areas of broadcasting, education, social and community action, employment, and voluntary conversion from one religion to another without legal or economic penalties (Luke 10.25-37; 1 Cor. 8.1-13; Gal.5.22-3).
Role of Evangelicals in British National Life
2. Recognise that the term evangelical is much misunderstood and often vilified in public discourse, but that attempts to abandon it are unwarranted. Acknowledge that a constructive presentation of evangelical faith and practice must be a priority in the area of public policy.
3. Recognise that while politics involves compromise and negotiation on some fronts, authentic evangelical engagement with government and political institutions must resist any temptation to dilute the gospel in pursuit of public favour, to suspend essential evangelical convictions, distinctives and practices so as to comply with the demands of state or party, or to withdraw from the public sphere altogether.
Church, Pluralism and Human Rights
4. Recognise the right of different faith groups to constitute themselves according to their own beliefs and ethos, emphasising that government commitment to political equality should not be used as a pretext for interfering with the organisation or activities of such groups.
5. Protect human rights, on the basis that all people derive their value, dignity and purpose from their creation in the image of God.
6. Support and encourage equality in the areas of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age, as well as in religion, whilst recognising that an evangelical Christian perspective in this area may be very different from current secular views.
Keeping Sunday Special
7. Urge government to recognise the rights of workers to attend Sunday public worship and to maintain a weekly day for rest and family time. Emphasise that it is for the benefit of society as a whole that a proper balance between work and home life be encouraged, by legislation where appropriate. Uphold the rights of other religious traditions to reasonable time off work in conjunction with their own religious festivals.
The Media
8. Urge the broadcasting authorities to present more balanced treatment of religion, noting particularly:
i. The decline in religious broadcasting in the mainstream media and the tendency of terrestrial television in particular to caricature and misrepresent the nature of religion, and especially of evangelical Christianity
ii. The need for orthodox majority religious traditions to be more proportionately represented, with less focus on sectarian, marginal or extremist expressions of faith.
iii. The need for greater right of reply to be given to mainline, orthodox religious perspectives when minority views or hostile critique are emphasised.
Social Justice
9. Actively promote justice and compassion for the poor, vulnerable and oppressed, prioritising care through the maintenance of healthy welfare and charitable sectors for those who suffer disadvantage and need.
Environment
10. Urge government to honour the UN’s millennium development goals through specific policies designed to meet associated targets.
Civil Disobedience
11. As far as possible, use political and legal channels to resist state demands which clearly conflict with Christian conscience.
The House of Lords
12. Urge that representation in any new revised chamber should reflect the diversity and contribution of faith in the nation.
13. Accept that if a proposal to remove or reduce the number of bishops is made in the context of a thoroughgoing reform of the House which is intended to enhance its significance and make an effective response to the decline of Parliament, this should not be opposed.
14. Resist any stand-alone initiative to remove the bishops, on the grounds that this would send quite the wrong signal to society about the role of religion in public life - namely that it should be officially and specifically diminished.
The Judiciary
15. Support the establishment of an independent appointments commission for judges, as a means to allaying suspicions about the judicial appointments process.
The Monarchy
16. Urge that the next Coronation service should:
i. Retain its historic character as an act of Christian worship, while being more ecumenical in form to reflect the growing diversity of Christian life and witness in the UK.
ii. Feature representatives from non-Christian faiths as guests.
iii. Avoid any suggestion of interfaith or syncretistic worship as not only wrong in itself, but incompatible with the monarch’s role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England and ‘Defender of the Faith’ - that is, of the Protestant Christian faith by law established in England.
17. Resist the current heir to the throne’s suggested re-titling of himself as ‘Defender of Faiths’, on the grounds that such a change may too readily be interpreted as an endorsement of syncretism.
18. Suggest that the Sovereign’s concern for Britain’s various non-Anglican faith-communities should more appropriately be expressed in ways that do not appear to compromise the explicitly Protestant Christian constitutional position of the Church of England.
19. Consider possible separate ceremonies confirming the monarch as Head of State on the one hand and Supreme Governor of the Church of England on the other, with representation of different religious groups more extensively acknowledged in the former.
Prime Ministerial Patronage
20. Accept that removing responsibility for the appointment of bishops from the Prime Minister’s office would incur few if any significant constitutional difficulties.
Establishment and the Church
21. Acknowledge that concerted, wholesale disestablishment would involve longstanding and complex constitutional challenges, and accept on this basis that government and churches should not divert significant resources to such a project.
22. Accept that a gradual, ongoing attenuation of establishment is evident - for example, in the lapse of the blasphemy laws - and acknowledge that systematic resistance to such gradual attenuation is not necessarily warranted.
Religious Education and Schools
23. Oppose potential requirements for compulsory acts of multifaith worship that may be syncretistic and thus offensive to other faith groups, as well as to Christians.
24. Whilst acknowledging present-day social diversity, embrace significant new opportunities to develop Christian schools within the maintained sector.
Marriage and Family
25. Commend and support the divine ordinance of marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman, and promote it, together with the family, as central to the well-being of society.
26. Call on government to promote laws and policies and financial incentives that strengthen marriage and family life as foundational for civil society.
27. Resist church services of blessing for same-sex partnerships as unbiblical.
28. Support Christian civic officials (e.g., registrars and members of adoption panels) who find themselves compromised by new regulations that would force them to act contrary to their religious conscience, particularly in connection with civil partnership ceremonies for same-sex couples.
Human Life
29. Urge preservation of the sanctity and dignity of human life, especially at its beginning and end, and oppose extension of individual freedoms and rights in the practice of abortion and euthanasia.
30. Counsel caution in the field of genetic human experimentation, and insist that it be subject to rigorous ethical oversight.
Terrorism
31. Repudiate terrorism, and particularly its targeting of innocent civilians, as morally indefensible and evil.
32. Urge that a balance be struck between civil liberties and national security, wherein government neither exploits nor is to seen to exploit the heightened threat from terror as a means of arrogating power to itself for other purposes.
