Is Christianity Really Under Attack?

Is Christianity really under attack as the Daily Mail headline screamed from the newspaper racks on Saturday morning?

The article in the Daily Mail concerned two cases that have recently gone before the British courts.  The first concerned Bideford town council who had been saying prayers at the start of council meetings.  A former councillor, an atheist, had taken the council to court claiming that the saying of prayers was a breach of his human rights.  The court rejected the claim on the grounds of human rights, but ruled that formal prayers at council meetings were unlawful because of a technicality in the Local Government Act 1972.  The court’s decision has been predictably opposed by prominent Christians including a former Archbishop of Canterbury.  A government minister has promised to amend the legislation to make such prayers possible.

Is this really an attack on Christianity?  To be honest I don’t think that it is.  I am not, of course, for one moment suggesting that prayers should not be said before a council meeting, or any other meeting for that matter.  Asking God to be involved in guiding discussions and the decision making process is always going to be a good thing to do.  I do wonder, however, about the value of making it part of the formal business of an essentially secular meeting and forcing people with no faith to take part.  Far better, I feel, to allow those who wish to pray to gather informally as a group before the meeting commences and to pray together as sisters and brothers in Christ.

The second case concerned a Christian couple who owned a bed and breakfast business who had a policy of allowing only married people to share a room.  They were sued by a gay couple in a civil partnership who were told they could not share a room because they were not married.  The Christian couple lost the case and were made to pay compensation to the gay couple.  I’m not going to comment further on the issue here because the whole issue of whether homosexual acts are sinful is one still fiercely debated amongst Christians.  Clearly, though, the Christian couple acted as they did because they believe the Bible teaches any sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong.  One of the Court of Appeal judges, commenting on the decision, said “I do not consider that the appellants face any difficulty in manifesting their religious beliefs, they are merely prohibited from so doing in the commercial context they have chosen.”  This appears to be reasonable, but in my own personal opinion it may not be since we do not leave our faith at the door of the church or in our homes; we are called to be Christians every minute of every day.

In an article in Saturday’s Mail the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, had written an article in which he claimed that those who practice the faith are being pushed into the background by the country’s secular establishment.  Carey writes, “We’ve become enslaved to multiculturalism, political correctness and so called equal rights, so obsessed with the idea of minimising any possible offence to any minority group that we don’t seem to have realised that one of the great British human qualities – tolerance – has now been replaced by intolerance.  Indeed, in the name of so-called tolerance, Christians are not being tolerated.”  George Carey goes on to say, however, that British Christians are not being persecuted as some have said, but that we are being pushed into the background by the secular establishment.  He concludes by writing, “We Christians need to be more muscular and vigorous in defence of our faith and it needs to be more widely understood that this faith is not something that we leave behind when we go to work. (a reference to the fact that many recent cases have involved workplace and commercial situations)”

So Christianity is not being persecuted in this country.  That word must be reserved for countries where people are imprisoned, tortured and even murdered because they are Christians.  But it does seem as if our faith is under attack in this country from a secular establishment that either fails to understand, or does not care about the fact that our faith affects every single area of our lives all the time.  We are not Christians for an hour or two on a Sunday morning; we are Christians 24/7.

I think that George Carey is right; it is time for those of us who are Christians to take a stand for our faith, for our right to live out our Christian beliefs in the whole of our lives, not just in the bits of our lives that are convenient to society.  We must do so lovingly and we must look to the example of Christ as we seek to live like him; but we must be faithful to our Lord Jesus who gave everything for us.

We can take a stand for Jesus and be victorious, even in our work lives.  A few years ago the Library service I worked for decided to introduce Sunday opening at some libraries.  They further decided that all staff would have to take their turn in working on a Sunday.  I have always believed in keeping Sunday special and that only people who work in essential services should do so on a Sunday.  I informed my line manager that my conscience would not allow me to work on a Sunday and was told that a refusal to do so would constitute a disciplinary issue.  I told her that should Sunday opening be introduced and should I be told I had to work Sunday then I would refuse.  Fortunately the Library service management team decided to introduce Sunday opening on a volunteer basis and to employ part-time staff to cover any shortfall in man hours. Maybe my stance, and that of other Christian staff, was reported to them; but whatever the reason Sunday working was introduced on a voluntary basis.

As our society becomes more and more secular we Christians are going to find it more difficult to be faithful to Jesus 24/7 because as Christians we will be seen as more and more counter-cultural.  We must remain firm in our faith, remembering that our Lord Jesus is always with us through the indwelling Holy Spirit, strengthening us, helping us and guiding us.  To him be the glory forever.

I end with some words spoken to a young George Carey as he was about to go into National Service:

“Stand up for your faith.  Don’t wait for people to mock you for it.  Live it out, be proud of it.”