God help UK Christian charities

[...] It is quite a Blairy idea that faith groups can provide his famous Third Way between market forces and government control.

But it turns out that, while the works of faith groups are sometimes welcomed – and almost always needed – the faith of faith groups is too much for the authorities. Thus if a Christian group prefers to employ Christians to do its work, that is discriminatory. If it offers prayer as one of the activities available to its clients, that is anti-diversity.

Another charity, which wishes to remain anonymous as it tries to rebuild itself after the loss of council funds, helped get disaffected black youths out of gun and drug crime. A council officer accused it of "brainwashing" and "being a cult". When asked why, he said that no other course in the field had been nearly so successful, so there must be something funny about it. He did not like the charity's video projector used in its courses, which showed a logo saying "We empower youth".

But of course, for a Christian, faith and works go together, the latter flowing from the former. Works without faith would be like a body with limbs, but no heart. Read more