If we destroy the Christian churches, then who will undertake the burden of acute social care that they provide for the nation? These organisations still strive to seek out and provide for those who are weary and overburdened; if they ceased to do so the cost to the state would be in billions. Thousands of young Christians, funded by church-goers, carry Britain’s compassion to the world’s most wretched territories.

Dawkins, Hitchens, Pratchett and their acolytes will protest the visit of this pope and they will denounce his faith and all its works. Perhaps, however, they may pause for a moment and consider this: that it was insidious Christianity that enshrined their right to do so and which endowed the universities that fed and watered their gifts.

Of course, the long history of humanist arguments for open, democratic society, secularism and freedom of speech, often against the explicit protest and criticism of established churches, is ignored.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/13/kevin-mckenna-benedict-visit-scotland

The British Humanist Association is a founding member of the Protest the Pope campaign.