No exemptions for faith
Earlier this year, a group of English bishops charged that the nation's Christians faced systematic discrimination that endangered their right to hold public office. Some even warned that anti-Christian hostility amounted to open persecution, which could provoke civil unrest. Pope Benedict, meanwhile, charged that new British statutes clearly violated natural law.
Many commentators contended that the charges were excessive. This is, after all, England, where the church is established by law. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams especially criticized the use of the p-word at a time when Christians in Iraq, Sudan and elsewhere are being subjected to massacre and torture. But the fact that responsible leaders are using such inflammatory language demands explanation. If English—and European—Christians are not suffering persecution, they certainly are facing unprecedented legal challenges that will demand a thorough rethinking of their behavior and, perhaps, their doctrine.
Any veteran of the U.S. culture wars will be familiar with the issues involved, especially the debates over public displays of faith. One case that provoked the English churches involved a woman who was dismissed from her job as a nurse for refusing to remove the crucifix she wore. Her employers were happy to tolerate the headscarves of Muslim co-workers, which surely amounted to a comparable statement of religious loyalty.
