Mr Chairman, Mr Bourdeaux, Friends:
I am pleased to be here for two reasons this evening. The first, to demonstrate my support for the work of Keston College which has been so vividly described by Michael Bourdeaux, but secondly, it gives me the opportunity to extend my very warm congratulations to him on being awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.
We were all thrilled with the news and we hope that it will give a tremendous boost to the work which you are doing, and because it will bring the knowledge of that work to so many more people. I know from having read so much of how you came to do that work, that you really felt that you had a destiny to do it and you know so very well, the tremendous importance of giving heart, hope and courage to people in those countries whose activities you report, who do not have the freedom which we take so much for granted. It always seemed to me that the true difference between a free society and an unfree society (that's what we are taking about tonight—we are a free society and you work in unfree societies)—it is in free societies we recognise these great liberties, the liberties of speech, freedom of speech, freedom of worship, as not coming from any State and have been far too important for any State to be able to set aside. They are fundamental to human life. We recognise that. That is why we are a free society. But alas there are some States who do not recognise that, who attempt to say that no-one has any liberty save that which is granted to them by a secular State. That is nonsense! But it happens.
You will remember—some of you will remember if you are as old as I am—that during the war, there was a great Atlantic Charter signed by President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. The first two freedoms in that Charter are what I have always called the positive freedoms—freedom of speech, freedom of religion. Then there was a marvellous speech, I think made by Roosevelt afterwards, not known anything like so well, and it said that ‘what is the use of freedom of speech unless you have something to believe and therefore, something to say?’ Well of course, not everyone does, but it must be most irritating and frustrating if you have something to believe, if you have a faith and you wish to proclaim it and cannot, and it's an offence even to possess a bible, it's an offence to teach anyone else's child, other than your own, and your children may suffer by being ridiculed if they dare utter your beliefs, knowing that by doing so, you may be denied entry to higher education and you may be denied promotion. The people in those countries into which you go are deprived of so many of those things—of most of those things! And yet the remarkable thing is, there are daily acts of courage, each and every day, because their faith is so great whatever it might be. They will pass it on and they will get messages out [end p1] to us about their experiences in those countries, and the work of Keston College shows that we never forget them and they know that. And what can we in Parliament do, regardless of our political affiliations because we couldn't have a Parliament without the sort of freedom of speech—I mean you should hear them on Tuesdays and Thursdays at me! I mean we couldn't possibly have a Parliament without freedom of speech and of course, we always start it off, as you know, with prayers just to make certain that we know there are far greater things than those deliberations that we have in Parliament. So we always start it off with prayers. But what can we do? It's my great pride to be Prime Minister of a free society and I have always made a point of seeing people who have come over to this country who have been allowed out of the countries behind the Iron Curtain. Some of them are very well-known names and I see both them and the people who act on their behalf and we will act to try and get others out of those countries so that they may enjoy our kind of freedom. We do it, I confess, under the great searchlight of publicity because that really does help them and then the news gets back. It also is remarkable when they tell you, face to face, of their experiences and I can only say that we've come to feel very small when we think of what we take for granted and how much they quietly have to fight for. We also try to appreciate not only the names of those who are so well-known because they've been exposed to someone or eventually come our way, but it is the thousands and thousands of people behind them who do make a point of passing the messages from one hand to another either by written messages or from one person or another by word of mouth and it really is a tribute to the unknown ones that one wishes to be especially thoughtful today.
Also, as you indicated Mr Bourdeaux, in our public declarations through the Helsinki agreements and through the Madrid declarations, (I would) point out that we have all signed great declarations which should grant the people human rights and indeed, there's the great human rights Charter for the United Nations, and we know full well that those human rights are not being honoured and we make clear publicly, and will continue to make clear, our deep concern at the efforts of the authorities in those countries, who stifle religious freedom and who try to curb the fundamental right of the individual to practise his faith.
We condemn the punishments meted out to those who seek only to exercise that fundamental right, above all of their obligations to the men and women who make up their own people and I naturally hope—indeed we all do—that one day more humane, more civilised and more enlightened policies will be adopted just as I hope, at international level, is improved understanding [end p2] between East and West because I think you have to be able to talk to people to influence them, you have to be able to invite some of them over to see our way of life so that they do know there is another way. Some of them can see what freedom is for the first time. Progress may not be fast and it certainly won't be easy but we shall do our best and make certain we do go forward and always with the ideas and views of enlarging individual freedom in mind. And whatever assistance governments or Prime Ministers may or may not be able to give over the quest for religious freedom, there is little doubt in my mind that ultimately, success will come. That, after all, is why we're all believers, but it doesn't come by wishing it so, it comes by recognising we are the instruments of the faith to which we belong and will only come about through our own efforts. I say that in the knowledge that there are people, courageous individuals, whose determination to stand up for their rights in the face of abuse or imprisonment—shines like a beacon of hope across the world. So let us hope that one day their efforts will be rewarded by the kind of freedom, religious freedom, which those of us here today have the good fortune to enjoy. That is the cause you heard from individuals about individual cases and about the work of Keston College from Michael Bourdeaux. It is vital that it continues—there's nothing else like it the world over and I must tell you that when I see our American friends as Prime Minister, I will frequently use the work of Keston College and say, “Look, this is what they've found out, this is what is happening” . The lady standing in front knows that one of her reports has been shown to the highest politicians the world over. When we've discussed how best to deal with these matters, we will take advantage of the work and the personalities in Keston College. Any Prime Minister would be foolish not to use those, any Prime Minister of any background.
And so on behalf of everyone, I want to thank Michael Bourdeaux and Keston for what they have done and what they are doing, to extend religious freedom to those who do not have it and to let the rest of us know the great values which we enjoy and never take that for granted.
I hope you will be generous.