Display of Christian symbols SAM ADAMS
claiming that Christians of deep faith face discrimination, his intervention lent an Establishment weight to a project that has been building momentum for some years. For behind Not Ashamed, a campaign urging Christians to “wear their faith with pride”, are two interconnected organisations that have fought hard to publicise what they see as the victimisation of Christians with traditional values. Christian Concern, a pressure group, was
Just cause? W
hen the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, spoke out last week at the launch of the Not Ashamed campaign,
set up four years ago to focus on issues that they say have particularly upset Christians, from the liberalising of legislation on homo- sexuality to what they see as extreme cases of political correctness which restrict the use of Christian symbols. Lord Carey himself put it like this at the launch of Not Ashamed outside the House of Lords: “What we believe in is of paramount importance to our nation, and were we to lose it, then I have no idea what will happen to the Christian faith in this country.” Intertwined with Christian Concern is the
Christian Legal Centre (CLC), which aims to fight what its proponents sees as particular forms of discrimination against Christians through the courts. Andrea Williams is chief executive of the CLC, set up in 2007 by Christian Concern to mount a fightback against the perceived growth of anti-Christian discrimination. From the nurse who was sus- pended for asking a patient whether she wanted to pray with her, to the BA check-in worker sacked for refusing to remove her cross while at work, the CLC has fought the cases which it says show that being openly Christian in public appears to have become less and less acceptable in contemporary Britain. The CLC’s concern is not only that
Christians are under attack in secular Britain, but that they are discriminated against in a society which is far keener to respect other religions. They accuse the state and even some private-sector employers of going out of their way to accommodate Muslims and people of other faiths, while discouraging and even penalising ostentatious Christian expression. An experienced lawyer who now mainly focuses on handling the centre’s strategy and media relations, Williams works alongside four Evangelical Christian lawyers – including
4 | THE TABLET | 11 December 2010
A new campaign to encourage Christians to show their religion openly has been launched, echoing a concern felt by some that they feel discriminated against because of their faith. But the legal groups that advise them may be simply worsening divisions as they fight their corner
barrister Paul Diamond, who works inde- pendently and has taken on some of the highest-profile cases that have appeared in the national media. The centre, she says, is run on “a shoestring. ...We are funded by voluntary donations. Many people give us monthly standing orders of around £5 to £10, which we are grateful for.
“All of our work is done on a pro-bono basis so that the issue of money doesn’t put people off coming to us for help.” The 45-year-old mother of four blames sexual- and religious- equality legislation – such as the 2010 Equality Act – for leaving many “law-abiding” Christians with orthodox views on the wrong side of the law. “Christians are living in fear because of the supposedly kind-sounding leg- islation that has been brought in to ‘protect’ people’s rights,” she said. “There’s an increasingly hostile atmosphere towards Christians in society at present. Not a day goes by without us receiving at least one or two requests for help from people who feel they are being penalised or restricted from expressing their faith.” Most people who approach the CLC for help work in the public sector, she said, where equality laws are most keenly adopted. She believes another key problem is the “confu- sion” among police officers about how to deal with overt religious expression. “We have found that people are being arrested under public-order legislation for expressing orthodox Christian views on issues such as homosexuality. There seems to be some confusion over what is allowed and what isn’t.” Mr Diamond, 50, who represents the CLC’s clients in court, said Judaeo-Christian values
are simply dismissed as “discriminatory and oppressive” by many in politics and the press. Referring to the case of British Airways check- in assistant Nadia Eweida, who is suing the airline after she was put on unpaid leave because she refused to remove a necklace with a cross pendant while at work, Mr Diamond said: “There’s a political agenda. BA staff are allowed to wear hijab and other religious items but the only thing that breaks their diversity rules is a cross the size of a sixpence.” Ms Eweida was allowed to return to work in 2007 after BA amended its policy to allow staff to display faith symbols, but she claimed the suspension had discriminated against her. She lost her case at the Court of Appeal earlier this year, but now plans to take the dispute to the European Court of Human Rights. The CLC deals with a wide range of other issues affecting Christians, from blasphemy to bioethics, the right to life, and adoption. Among its most high-profile current cases is that of a Pentecostalist couple, Eunice and Owen Johns, who were banned from being foster parents because of their overt rejection of homosexuality. The Johnses, who have fos- tered almost 20 children over several years, applied in 2007 to continue their work after a short break, but Derby City Council with- drew their application after it discovered their views. The couple challenged the council’s decision and reapplied the following year but the council’s adoption panel failed to come to a final decision about their application. With the CLC’s support, the Johnses have won the right to take their case against Derby City Council to a judicial review at the High Court. Ms Williams said the issue of the Government insisting on the acceptability of fostering and adoption by homosexuals, which has forced the closure of many Catholic adoption agencies or their distancing from dioceses, is having the opposite effect to what was intended. “It’s just divided people rather than bringing them closer together. Adoption is a big issue for us. Christians make up a large proportion of those families who adopt or foster but those who express orthodox Christian views are being excluded from the system. “We are advising a family at the moment
who have been required to go on a re-educa- tion programme in order to pass the test to be considered for adoption. It’s a worrying sit- uation when we have parents being excluded from the adoption and fostering system just for openly expressing their Christian views.”
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