Religion and charity law

In recent debates on possible reforms to the law on charitable status in the United Kingdom, a recurrent issue has been whether "advancement of religion" should continue to be a charitable purpose. Some argue that churches and other religious organisations are pivotal to the whole concept of "charity", while others regard their charitable status as an anachronism. This article discusses some of the issues raised by the current position of religious organisations within the charity law regime and suggests a possible alternative approach.