Is Christianity under threat? Photo credit: Shutterstock.
The background
Four Christians are heading to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to argue that they have been prevented from practicing their religious beliefs in the workplace due to UK law. The group includes former nurse Shirley Chaplin, who was banned from wearing a crucifix by her employer, and registrar Lilian Ladele, who refused to carry out civil partnerships for same-sex couples.
Issue is employment law, not religion
“The cases aren’t so much about religion as about breaches of employment law, policies and codes of practice to which Christians have previously signed up,” wrote Jonathan Bartley at Ekklesia. Bartley said that, for example, the ban on Chaplin’s cross was due to healthy and safety concerns over wearing a necklace that could be grabbed by a patient: “Managers suggested she pin her cross to her uniform or wear it on her identity lanyard.”
Wearing the cross causes no harm
“Many of us think that a ‘big expansion’ of a ‘faith-based education’ isn’t a great idea. We’d prefer it if our taxes weren’t used to teach children that the world was created in seven days,” wrote Christina Patterson in The Independent. But that doesn’t mean Christians should be prevented from wearing the cross in the workplace. “If I were a practicing Christian, I think I might feel quite fed up… I think I might be quite surprised that there seemed to be more ‘tolerance’ for the beliefs of people who sometimes seemed to want to do other people harm than for the beliefs of people who didn’t,” Patterson said.
Why are Christians singled out for discrimination?
“Why this toleration of all manner of versions and perversions, but this intolerance of Christianity?” asked the Reverend Dr Peter Mullen in The Telegraph. “What have Christians done to be singled out for this most selective disdain?” Mullen argued that Christianity has become “the faith that dare not speak its name” in modern times, and that the ECHR is unlikely to rule in the complainants’ favour.
No evidence of persecution
“There is no evidence to support fears of systematic discrimination against Christians in Britain and the country is becoming neither more nor less secular, researchers have found,” reported The Times (£). The report, commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, found that some Christians have erroneously come to see equality law as a vehicle for religious persecution.
