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　　Good morning. Remember, remember the fifth ofNovember. Gunpowder, treason, and plot.

　　In the nineteenth century the English religiousimagination was kept in balance by the celebration oftwo annual festivals. On 30 January, the feast ofCharles I, king and martyr, people rejoiced that England never became narrowly Protestant.Today, on 5 November, the day of Guy Fawkes’ foiled gunpowder plot, people gave thanks thatEngland was never overrun by Roman Catholics. This was the Anglican balance: to emergefrom 150 years of religious conflict with a compromise that avoided the extremes on bothsides.

　　Today, the celebration of 30 January is rare; and the festivities around 5 November haveblended with the trick-or-treat traditions of Hallowe’en. The truth is, the British have largelysucceeded in domesticating Catholicism and privatising Protestantism so they both appearequally harmless. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean religious antagonism and bigotry havedisappeared.

　　For too long, people of faith have found it hard to do two things simultaneously. They’vestruggled to hold religious convictions deeply, and yet, at the same time, to recognise the rightof others to believe differently. The 1605 gunpowder plot was all about holding religiousconvictions deeply, to the point of blowing up Parliament and seizing political power. But itabides as an example of profound intolerance to those who believe differently – anintolerance that frequently led to the ghastly spectacle of people going to war for the sake ofreligion. Such travesties gave religion a bad name from which it’s never fully recovered.

　　Today people of faith in this country are generally better than their forebears at recognising theright of others to believe differently. We applaud individual rights and freedoms. The trouble is,we’ve rather lost the appetite for profound religious convictions. As a result our culture findsit easy to talk about instrumental goods, about the right to work, to be left alone, to betreated decently, to be given a chance in life; but we find it hard to speak publicly aboutultimate goods, about our true nature and destiny, about truth, purpose and meaning.Religion’s role in the public square is to stimulate this conversation – but it can’t insist onhaving the last word.

　　In one place in the gospels Jesus says, ‘If you’re not with me, you’re against me.’ In anotherplace he says ‘If you’re not against me, you’re with me.’ It’s a paradox that expresses thesame balance. If people of faith want respect they have to allow others to believe differently ornot at all, and learn from, not blow up, the stranger. Looking to God and cherishing yourneighbour shouldn’t be opposites. The challenge is to be equally proficient at both.