- guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 2 2000 11.50 GMT
The Tory leader told an audience of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Jews that they could often be more effective than the welfare state in addressing problems such as drug taking, homelessness, children in care and the elderly. "I want to denationalise compassion where the state is failing to deliver results. I want to roll back the frontiers of the state so that more work of faith and secular community-based initiatives can flourish," he said.
"Religious people have as much right to a place in public life as any other citizens of our great country... why should the religious voice not be heard along with everyone else? When decisions are made about schooling, health care or social services you have religious and moral ideas, traditions of family and community from which we can learn."
He promised faith communities new opportunities to establish their own schools with their own ethoses and priorities, pledged tax reforms to increase charitable donations and promised religious broadcasting channels "fair and equal access" in applying for national licences.
Mr Hague, who has made a point of addressing evangelical Christian gatherings this year, is known to have been influenced by the ideas of compassionate conservatism floated by advisers to George W. Bush in the US, placing increasing reliance on private charities and religious foundations for welfare provision.
He told reporters: "I am not talking about replicating exactly things that have happened in America but I think the general lesson that sometimes things can be done better by religions, by voluntary organisations, by charities than they have ever been done by the state or local authorities... I think that is a very powerful lesson."
The churches have been cautious about being embroiled in the political debate and are deeply sceptical about the degree to which their charitable organisations could take over wide-scale provision. The Church of England's urban fund, set up in the wake of its controversial 1985 Faith in the City report highlighting urban poverty and inadequate inner city provision - criticised by Tory ministers at the time as Marxist - is being run down.
The Tory leader thanked religious groups for their support in opposing repeal of the section 28 legislation outlawing the promotion of homosexuality and claimed the Tories were the only party with serious policies to support marriage.
"The family lies at the heart of our programme for civic renewal," said Mr Hague. "Can you imagine if scientists today announced the invention of a new model of personal relationship that helped children to succeed in school, that cut crime, increased individual happiness and helped bring neighbourhoods together?
"Politicians and policy-makers would be falling over each other in the rush to claim the innovation. Marriage... is the essential building block of a stable society."
A recent poll of Anglican bishops found not a single one prepared to name a Conservative politician as a moral role model while evangelicals and nonconformists believe many of their adherents are more likely to be impressed by other parties' commitment to social justice.
Graham Dale, director of the Christian Socialist Movement, said: "You cannot develop coordinated and accountable policies to tackle the complex social and economic problems experienced by the poor by an ad-hoc, cheque writing abdication of responsibility, giving charities money to take problems off your hands once a year. Compassionate conservatism is a bankrupt idea. In Texas it has only made the poor poorer."
