“It’s
easy to be an atheist in Britain,” said Oxford philosopher, Nigel Warburton. As
Britain has become a more secular society in recent years, and according to a
study conducted by the BBC, the UK is the third most secular country in the
world, behind Russia and South Korea.
As
church and state become more and more opposed, the Church of England feels
threatened by the British government, and this polarization is only increasing
as the UK plans to make gay marriages legal in the eyes of the state. Although
the government has stated that this will have no impact on the church, people are
angry.
The
Catholic Church is speaking out, looking for supporters, and saying that it was
their morals and beliefs that England was built upon. Many British Christians are
making accusations that they are being discriminated against for their religious
practices, and the secular society is infringing on their rights to practice
their faith. While secularism has pushed religion to the side of everyday life,
accusing employers and government of discrimination doesn’t help gain sympathy from
the public.
According
to the Sunday Telegraph, there have been numerous claims that people have been discriminated
against for not being able to wear crosses at their workplaces. Nadia Eweida,
who worked for British Airways, is looking for compensation after being sent
home from work for wearing a silver cross in 2006.
Sarah
Moore, Eweida’s lawyer said: “There is only one core issue, which is whether
British Airways discriminated against the appellant on the grounds of her
religion or belief when it prevented her from wearing visibly a small cross around
her neck at work, which she wished to do as a means of expressing her Christian
faith."
Eweida
believes that this violation of her rights under Article 9 of the European
Convention of Human Rights, which states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of
thought, conscience, and religion.” In response to this, the British
Government
has said that wearing a cross is not a “requirement of faith” for the Christian
religion, and therefore Article 9 does not apply to these cases.
According
to the Guardian,
Moore and Eweida argued that people of Muslim and Sikh religions are allowed to
wear Kara bangles and hijabs as a symbol of their faiths, but she, as a
Christian, was asked to hide her cross necklace from sight.
Recently
other claims of discrimination have come up. Childcare worker Celestine Mba
says she is discriminated against for not wanting to work on Sundays and in
another case, a family counselor was fired for refusing to give sexual therapy
to a gay couple.
“They
[Merton Council, her ex-employers] say they believe in diversity, but I don’t
think they’ve been diverse enough,” Mba said to the Wimbledon-Guardian. “If they valued my faith
or valued me as a person, they would have taken my faith into account and
worked around it like they said from the beginning.”
These
claims have enraged devout Christians in the UK. Andrea Williams, the director
of the Christian Legal Centre, said, “In recent months, the courts have refused
to recognize the wearing of a cross, belief in marriage between man and a
woman, and Sundays as a day of worship as ‘core’ expression of the Christian
faith. What’s next? Will the Courts overrule the Ten Commandments?”
An
article written for the National Secular Society of the UK said, “As the cases
became sillier and sillier, people began to see what was happening. The reason
the cases were failing was because they were unreasonable and were claiming
that Christians should have special rights in the workplace and in society at
large. When these special rights were not granted by the courts, it was
immediately claimed that ‘Christians have fewer rights than anybody else’.”
Christians
having fewer rights seems like an odd claim when it is homosexuals who have
been fighting for the right to marry in the eyes of the civil law for years.
The right for gays to marry is not an oppression of Christians to practice
their faith.
The
UK Government has stated many times that the legalization of gay marriage is
not an attack on the Church, and they will not be forced to perform ceremonies
that violate their religious views.
“This
is absolutely not about religious marriage,” said Equalities Minister, Lynn
Featherstone, “It’s about civil marriage for people who love each other.”
In
response to this, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the most senior Catholic in the UK,
wrote for the Sunday Telegraph, stating, “Imagine for a moment that the
Government had decided to legalize slavery but assured us that ‘no one will be
forced to keep a slave.’ Would they justify dismantling a fundamental human
right?” This is a brash comparison to make – love between two people of the
same sex and the act of slavery are very different concepts.
If
the Church of Britain is looking for support or sympathy, they are not going to
get it by crying that their beliefs are being marginalized, or comparing the
legalization of gay marriage to the legalization of slavery. These claims from
the Church are making them look like bratty kids who didn’t get their way. If
they want supporters, they need to show the public how good their faith can be,
because right now, we’re only seeing the ugly side.
//Leah Scheitel, writer
//Graphics by Indervhir Jhudi
//Graphics by Indervhir Jhudi
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