Gnosticism does not qualify for charitable status

GNOSTICISM (at least in one form) is not a religion and does not qualify for charitable status according to the UK Charities Commission:

Commission rejects Gnostic Centre's bid for charitable status

By Paul Jump, Third Sector Online, 15 January 2010

Review by regulator upholds earlier decision to turn down application

The Charity Commission has rejected an application for charitable status from an organisation that promotes an ancient mystical belief system called gnosticism.

The Gnostic Centre, which is based in Leeds, applied to be a charity with the possible purposes of advancing education, advancing religion or promoting the moral or spiritual welfare or improvement of the community.

However, in an internal review carried out by two of the regulator's board members, the commission upheld its earlier decision to reject the application.

The board members decided that the Gnostic Centre did not advance education as understood in charity law because its objects included the promotion of modern gnosticism, whereas education had to be "based on broad values that are uncontroversial and would generally be supported by objective and informed opinion".

The centre told the commission that gnostics believed the world was created by a lesser god, while gnostics' efforts were concentrating on getting in touch with the true, higher god.

The board members agreed that gnosticism possessed some of the legal qualities of a religion, such as belief in a supreme being, but did not promote "a positive, beneficial, moral or ethical framework" because it focused too narrowly on the spiritual welfare of individuals.

The commission found no evidence of "shared morals or ethics" among the movement's followers and said the centre needed to provide hard evidence that as people's spiritual awareness increased, they "exhibited positive behaviours for the benefit of society".

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A follow-up article here indicates that the Gnostic Centre may appeal. The website of the Leeds Gnostic Centre is here. I'm not a lawyer and I don't know how accurately the board's position is being represented in this article, but if they really think they can formulate a legally useful definition of religion, I wish them joy.