Distinctive or Professionalised? Understanding the Postsecular in Faith-Based Responses to Trafficking, Forced Labour and Slavery in the UK

• Published in: Sociology (Oxford) 2021-06, Vol.55 (3), p.505-521
• Main Authors: Lonergan, Gwyneth, Lewis, Hannah, Tomalin, Emma, Waite, Louise
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Charities; Distinctiveness; Forced labor; Public sphere; Religion; Religious beliefs; Religious organizations; Slavery; Trafficking
• ISSN: 0038-0385; 1469-8684
• DOI: 10.1177/0038038520967887

This article examines the intersection of religious faith and the ‘fight against modern slavery’ in the UK, as yet unexplored in sociological literature. Analysis of faith-based organisations’ activities in this area challenges understandings of a postsecular rapprochement between faith and secular actors – where postsecular is used by some scholars to refer to the re-emergence of faith in the public sphere, and where we understand rapprochement to mean the placing of equal value on faith-based and secular worldviews. Our research reveals that faith-based organisations in the anti-trafficking/modern slavery third sector operate on a ‘dual register’, secularising as they professionalise their public face, while retaining religious distinctiveness when engaging with co-religionists. We argue that, rather than evidence of a genuine two-way postsecular rapprochement, it seems that faith-based organisations in this sector are prioritising secular modalities, meaning the learning process is one-sided rather than complementary.