Gordon MacRae of the Humanist Society of Scotland on Hope Scouts' mission to 'save' the poor of Glasgow.
So, a group of American teenagers are coming to ‘fix’ Glasgow.
We can only wonder at the relief of artist Ellie Harrison who, after volunteering to be confined to the city limits for a whole year, found herself at the sharp end or criticism from locals who accused her of a ‘poverty safari’.
We are lucky in Scotland to have so many good charities engaged in helping people across a broad range of issues.
We should always be wary of religious charity groups, and their desire to use their charitable work as a platform for promoting one particular world-view.
Most Humanists engage in charitable work for its own sake - not as a way of promoting one world-view or another
Gordon MacRae
The vast majority of charities in Scotland are secular. That is; they aren’t religious. Whilst many may, and probably do, have devout religious individuals working for them, as well as Humanists atheists and others - they exist to further a cause which is unrelated to religion.
That is not to denigrate the excellent work that many religious charities do, it’s simply to recognise the fact that many faith-based charities will restrict job opportunities to religious members or attach other conditions to their charitable work.
As a Humanist charity, we recognise that there are often so many good secular or even religious charities that specialise in particular areas that there is not a need for a distinct ‘Humanist’ approach. Instead, we focus on the best way to deliver effective and positive change, be it through our own campaign, or through working in conjunction with other organisations. Our work on the Glasgow T-Run, an outreach project helping disenfranchised and homeless people, is an example of this kind of co-operative venture between both secular and religious groups.
Just as we would never claim that the huge number of non-religious charities is evidence of the moral superiority of Humanists and secularists, we also reject claims that faith-based welfare points to a particular predisposition of religious people to be more civic-minded.
Every couple of years there’s usually a story about how much more religious people give to charity than other groups. And every time this story runs, Humanists and other non-religious groups point out the flaws in analysis.
Of course many church groups have a culture of collecting money during weekly services, something that other non-religious groups don’t do. And although most churches are charities, it’s questionable that a local member paying money for the upkeep of a building is indicative of a seriously different approach to civic society.
It’s certainly the case than many of our members across Scotland are engaged in local volunteering, and regularly give their time to help improve their communities. Indeed, many non-religious people will often volunteer as part of faith groups, in church choirs for example. There has been research to show that non-religious groups are more likely to be involved in volunteer work.
However, most Humanists engage in charitable work for its own sake - not as a way of promoting one world-view or another.
We should not be shy in questioning the motives of a US-based church group coming all the way to Glasgow. A quick perusal of their website outlines in detail their celebration of church-building projects in India and other missionary activity.
Good people doing good things is, of course, good. However, when it comes to helping people in poverty, faith groups should avoid the temptation to evangelise.
The change that we all want to see in areas affected by poverty will come from people, not prayers.
Gordon MacRae is chief executive of the Humanist Society of Scotland.
