Druidry to be classed as religion by Charity Commission

[Romelia]

Thought I would forward this news report from the BBC about Druidry becoming classed as a religion.


'Druidry to be classed as religion by Charity Commission Druidry is flourishing more now than at any time since the arrival of Christianity to Britain Druidry is to become the first pagan practice to be given official recognition as a religion.

The Charity Commission has accepted that druids' worship of spirits arising from the natural world could be seen as a religious activity.

The commission will give the Druid Network charitable status, saying that its work in promoting druidry as a religion is in the public interest.

The move comes thousands of years after the first druids worshipped in Britain.

Druidry was one the first known spiritual practices in Britain, and druids existed in Celtic societies elsewhere in Europe as well.


BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott says that with concern for the environment growing and the influence of mainstream faiths waning, druidry is flourishing more now than at any time since the arrival of Christianity.

Druidry's followers are not restricted to one god or creator, but worship the spirit they believe inhabits the earth and forces of nature such as thunder.

Druids also worship the spirits of places, such as mountains and rivers, with rituals focused particularly on the turning of the seasons.

After a four-year inquiry, the Charity Commission decided that druidry offered coherent practices for the worship of a supreme being, and provided a beneficial moral framework.

The decision to grant the Druid Network charitable status will give druidry valuable tax breaks, as well as the position of a genuine faith.'

bb
R

[DJ Droood]

The decision to grant the Druid Network charitable status will give druidry valuable tax breaks, as well as the position of a genuine faith.

Impressive! UK often seems ahead of the curve....Question....does a religion have to do actual charity work to get a tax break? I would be ok with the tax break part if they were operating a soup kitchen or providing counseling...I suppose they could argue their prayers and rituals are counseling...

[Oneonine]

Yes, the system is that when you make a donation, and register as a tax payer with the charity

For every £1 they get from your donation (either as cash, or, for instance, in donating books to a charity shop who keep a record of what value those books got them) then the tax man gives the charity a maximum of 28p.

A lot of the time the £1 donated won't have 28p of taxes assosciated with it, for instance if the donation is from an unemployed person who didn't pay enough in tax that year. Or if you are in a lower tax bracket, but that's the maximum amount it could accrue.

Anyone making a charity donation could claim back their own tax on it, if they wanted, but you are agreeing your donations includes any tax you could have asked for.

Other breaks are on things like VAT, property and capital gains taxes ect... all of which you have to ba a charity to get automatically.

[Oneonine]

How did it turn out with Christian Scientology wanting to be recognised as a religion and not a cult?

[Dendrias]

What's "christian scientoloty"? A hybrid-cult of developping your inner jesus-thetan? Is scientology doing charity-work? I thought they were giving expensive courses.
When I left England, I gave books to a charity shop, but nobody told me I could get back some taxes. They just took the bag and thanked me.

[Oneonine]

There's a lot of paperwork involved and some charity shops don't do it. More and more are though, especially the larger groups. You have to assign each person that registers a code, but the code on the price tag, and record what each person's donation got you. Then you send that off with the person's form they filled in, and the tax man calculates how much to give back to the charity based on that person's tax position.

Earnings are taxed before you get your wage packet here so if some of those earnings were used for a purpose that shouldn't be taxed, like charity donations, onus is on the taxpayer or their nominated charity to get it back. Shops will assume you know how taxes work in this country if you are a resident. If you are a non-resident, the taxman will send you back anything you paid in taxes here when you get back home to your own country, provided you weren't here over 6 months and other terms and conditions. As such you will have paid no tax, and the books wouldn't have a tax bill from you they could be deducted from.

I don't know if Scientology wanted charity status out of it, but they take a percentage of a person's earnings as a "donation" don't they? So the tax break here for that would be considerable. I know they had been classed as a "cult" and were mad about it, but not sure who by.

[DJ Droood]

How did it turn out with Christian Scientology wanting to be recognised as a religion and not a cult?

Ha..that is a very tiny hair to split....

[Oneonine]

One worth 28p in the £1 though.....

[Dendrias]

No hair is so small that is doesn't cast a shadow!

To be honest, I just handed over the bag to the shop assistant. I didn't want to have any money or tax refund - it's not called charity for no reason.

Btw In it there was a very fine book about druidry, I think published by Shallcrass.

[Oneonine]

If the charity shop was using the scheme, they would have asked if you had the time to register too. Well, when I was out of work last year and volunteered in the local charity shop, I had to hand the form out to each person making a donation, at any rate.

[bocan]

The most interesting thing is that the practice of druidry is actually defined in a legal way now. If you read the charity commission's actual decision paper it's quite interesting : http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Lib ... uiddec.pdf

[Dendrias]

I'm not sure about that, bocan.
It says there (§6): "The definition of druidry and its practice, as used by the druid network [...]"
They really give a definition of druidry, but I'm not sure whether it is meant to define druidry in itself or the kind of druidry practice by the druid network. For me, it's very tedious to read through this kind of blown up language.

[Oneonine]

As defined by TDN... as TDN is a network of a lot of different druid groups, all the groups registered there would fall under this definition, I guess?

Thanks Bocan, I'll work my way through that document.

[bocan]

I'm not sure about that, bocan.
It says there (§6): "The definition of druidry and its practice, as used by the druid network [...]"
They really give a definition of druidry, but I'm not sure whether it is meant to define druidry in itself or the kind of druidry practice by the druid network. For me, it's very tedious to read through this kind of blown up language.

True, it is quite legal in places.

What it's actually defining is, yes - how it's practised by TDN, but this definition is also how the UK government will define druidry until such time as any group wants to try. In fact I'm told that any other group that tried to define it differently would have to explain why they're deviating from it.

[Oneonine]

What I find confusing is that the Description of Purposes Act 2006 has religion defined thus:

1. a religion that has a belief in more than one god
and
2. a religion that does not involve a belief in god

but that the charity commission has chosen to define religion under charity law as requiring a divine or supreme or entity, further saying that druidry must be more than a way of life or philosophy to comply with their definition of religion.

TDN states that Nature is the divine supreme being of druids. What about the druids that state they are athiests. Can they go along with Nature as the divine being of their druidry?

They've managed to sidestep the issue of maintenance of doctrine issue by saying it's as varied as the land.

They've had to define druids as people that might work alone, but who do attend public celebrations and rituals though.

There's a list of core beliefs which I know some druids dont aree with. 8 festivals. Some druids I know only recognise 4. Public Gorsedd, and Grove Work, so again, if you are solitary, you fall outside of the definition.

Anyway. From now on the definition of druidry as used by the TDN will only have to cover all those who wish to avail themselves of their services. The druids outside that definition can still look to the 2006 act for protection under law.

[Dendrias]

That is, Oneinone, not the definition of religion, but what is included in it.

Well, having a look at §20, DJ Droood is out of it. Belief in and to a supreme being, whatever it is, is necessary. It can be a spiritual principle, as well.

[Oneonine]

sorry yes, the 2006 act states it includes those things (and some others)

but the charity law defines it as MUST having a supreme being.

Why the difference anyway?

I notice the definition of druidry that everyone agreed to says SOME druids may see nature as the divine spiritual being. Implying that some may not. Whereas to the commission they said something slightly different...

So the Droood ain't out of the definition. The commission only sought assurances that all the druids availing themselves of the services would have a belief in the published definition in the end, without having the word SOME changed to reflect the reassurances given that all had that belief.

[Dendrias]

"Why the difference"?

There are, as I understood, different commissions for different charitable organisations. It says somewhere, that organisations without spiritual focus could apply at the other commissions. Someone collecting clothes might apply for the "clothing-supplier-charity-commission", or the like. I think the focus is just for this special commission.

Well, we'll take DJ Droood with us, for sure. No worries.

[Jake]

The decision to grant the Druid Network charitable status will give druidry valuable tax breaks, as well as the position of a genuine faith.

Impressive! UK often seems ahead of the curve....

Compared to whom?

In some ways, Druidry in Britain is catching up to Druids and other neo-pagans in the United States, which already provides tax-exempt status for religious groups, said Marty Laubach, Associate Professor of Sociology at Marshall University.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/0 ... le-status/

I'm used to a legal system under which religions per se are not defined by government and religious groups (which, as long as they've drawn up some bylaws, can mean three atheists meeting regularly in somebody's kitchen to extol the virtues of Spasmodic poetry) are granted automatic tax-exemption, and I'm generally opposed to these religious tax-exemptions. I admit that I'm ignorant of what exactly this new legal status implies for Druidry in the UK.

Does it only have to do with tax-exempt status for donations to the group? Does being a "recognized" religion mean that Druid groups will no longer be able to self-define but must adhere to the "recognized" standards of the Charity Commission involving belief in a supreme being and so on? As it's a member of TDN, what does all this mean for OBOD?

"This has been a long hard struggle taking over five years to complete," said the Druid Network, which is based in England, in a statement on its website.

While on the one hand I applaud the achievement of gaining some sort of equality with the more established religions, on the other hand I'm struggling to understand how those 5 years wouldn't have been better spent campaigning for the legal recognition of all religious groups or none.

It reminds me of when I was in Spain a few years ago. The Catholic Church there was being subsidized by the government to the tune of millions a year and Protestant, Jewish and Muslim groups were all lobbying for a share of some of this cash. It seemed that if they would only join together to abolish all forms of preferential treatment for any religion their combined energies and efforts could have helped develop a more just and equitable framework. Instead it looked like they couldn't wait to scramble over each other to get a bigger slice of the pie.

[DJ Droood]

The decision to grant the Druid Network charitable status will give druidry valuable tax breaks, as well as the position of a genuine faith.

Impressive! UK often seems ahead of the curve....

Compared to whom?

ummmm..Kentucky?