Apostasy Awareness Training

On Tuesday 5 February, 23 people attended an Apostasy Awareness training session delivered by two representatives from Faith to Faithless, part of Humanists UK that supports people experiencing difficulties due to leaving faith.

Attendees included academics, students, and professional services staff from a range of services across the University including Academic Advice, Student Support, Wellbeing, and the Chaplaincy. Attendees also included people external to the University from the wider community including; Hate crime co-ordinators South Yorkshire Police; Sheffield City Council; volunteers working with vulnerable groups; and those who consider themselves apostates.

Training Summary

The training emphasised that freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental human right, and discussions of apostasy should not be considered as critical of religion in itself. However, people leaving more extreme, coercive or fundamentalist groups can experience considerable challenges. Apostasy has not been well researched, and numbers are only estimated.

Apostasy can be seen as a journey with a number of stages, from doubt, to questioning, and finally acceptance of lack of belief. This can be accompanied by a range of emotions including anxiety, alienation, fear and anger, but also optimism and integration of non-belief with other identities.

Apostasy can have negative effects on personal wellbeing, and lead to shunning and abuse by family and friends. Apostates can experience loss of security, poverty, homelessness, mental distress and physical injury. Problems can be exacerbated by services that fail to understand the needs of apostates.

Groups discussed three case studies highlighting some of the consequences and risk factors faced by people in this situation, and many attendees commented how helpful this was in illustrating the issues presented.

Engagement with Stakeholders

Meetings were held with a number of key stakeholders from across student support services prior to the training event to benchmark the training. Although most were previously unaware of this issue and the challenges faced by those leaving faith, current services available to students can provide the support that apostate students are likely to need. All stakeholders emphasised a conversational approach and understanding the individual needs of the student.

Feedback and Outcomes

The event was very well received by all attendees, and all agreed that the training increased their knowledge of apostasy and the potential consequences for those leaving a coercive religion, and that they felt more confident about having conversations with service users who may be facing apostasy related issues. Attendees commented on the value of hearing first hand from the attendees present with personal experience of leaving faith, including ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses, ex-Muslims, and ex-Christians.

Representatives from the following these teams attended the Apostasy Awareness Training

  • Student Support Advisors and Academic Advisors can provide initial support, and signpost to more specific services if needed.
  • The non-faith / humanist advisor within the Chaplaincy is available for any student to make an appointment to talk about questions of faith in a non-judgmental, non-prescriptive environment.
  • Wellbeing advisors can provide support around mental health issues, emotional difficulties and hate crime.
  • There is additional support for estranged students – those who are not in contact with or supported by their families – to help access a range of practical and pastoral support services including financing and student loans.
  • International students can access help relating to visa’s and be directed to legal support if required.

Therefore any student accessing these services due to issues arising from leaving their faith, should be able to access the support that they need from a range of professional service staff and academics that understand and can respond to their needs.

Recommendations

The main recommendation is to embed the learning from the training event into information and signposting, raising awareness of the support available to students and staff.

Further recommendations are

  • The term ‘apostate’ may not be known by or used by students. Wording relating to leaving faith may be helpful, making clear that this is a recognised issue, and students will be understood and believed.
  • Include an option around leaving faith on the Wellbeing registration form. This will help students to be aware that support is available and will to help monitor this issue more effectively going forward.
  • Be clear that it is acceptable to challenge harmful behaviours or practices arising from religion or culture and this does not represent criticism of religion itself.
  • Report and Support information could clarify that support is available for apostasy-based hate crime. It would be helpful to record specific data to monitor incidences.