Asylum claims being made by Christian converts are being dealt with unfairly by officials

Refugees converting to Christianity from other faiths including Islam are having their applications turned down if the Home Office suspects their conversion was motivated by a desire to claim asylum.

Asylum seekers coming to Britain must attend an asylum interview with assessors on arrival, where they are asked "basic knowledge questions" about their new faith.

A report published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Religious Freedom has said that asylum claims being made by Christian converts are being dealt with unfairly by officials. Too often officials are asking about Bible trivia, rather than probing what someone really believes.

Baroness Berridge, a member of All-Party Parliamentary Group, told the BBC that the current form of processing converts was unfair.

"Caseworkers who are making decisions that can be life and death for people were not supported necessarily and trained properly to understand the lived reality of faith."

Reverend Mark Miller, who advises the Home Office about converts - like those in his congregation at Stockton Parish Church - said officials were failing to "understand" why people had converted to Christianity.

"Asylum assessors should be trying to understand why it is someone has left behind the faith of their family their faith of their upbringing, and chosen to follow another faith."

"The guidelines say that this is a major decision that has been made and assessors should be understanding why this decision has come about."

Asylum assessors "should be trying to understand the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge."

Having seen the current system in operation myself, I fully endorse this report, its findings, and the urgent need for caseworkers to be trained properly to understand the lived reality of faith.

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Ooberfuse - We Believe.

Originality: a misnomer inhibiting creativity

Ken Robinson makes an excellent case in today's Guardian for his argument that Michael Gove values creativity but doesn't understand it.

The nub of his argument is that: "creativity is not a linear process, in which you have to learn all the necessary skills before you get started. It is true that creative work in any field involves a growing mastery of skills and concepts. It is not true that they have to be mastered before the creative work can begin. Focusing on skills in isolation can kill interest in any discipline. Many people have been put off mathematics for life by endless rote tasks that did nothing to inspire them with the beauty of numbers. Many have spent years grudgingly practicing scales for music examinations only to abandon the instrument altogether once they've made the grade.

The real driver of creativity is an appetite for discovery and a passion for the work itself. When students are motivated to learn, they naturally acquire the skills they need to get the work done."

Where I disagree with him, however, is when he defines creativity "as the process of having original ideas that have value." The idea that we have original ideas is, I think, a misnomer which inhibits widespread creativity; a view which has been enhanced by reading the brilliant little book by Austin Kleon called Steal Like An Artist. Some of Kleon's arguments against the notion of originality can be read here.

Giles Fraser is, as ever, also well worth reading arguing that art and religion are too important to be placed in the hands of those who seek reductionist explanations of their value and taking issue with Maria Miller's argument that our focus must be on culture's economic impact. He compares this with the sort of realist propaganda with which communism specialised saying they both want to turn art into advertising.

He quotes Herbert Marcuse saying, "The power of art lies in its power to break the monopoly of established reality." His fascination with religion is its ability to do precisely the same:

"That it is able to suggest there is more to reality than the flat-footed empiricism of those who believe that if you can't count it, touch it or weigh it, it doesn't exist. In an age where religion has made itself look so foolish, art carries the torch for the sort of transcendence that art and faith once shared."

The essence of art and religion is not in trying to be original but, "to say things that cannot be said."

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Thea Gilmore - I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine.