Christianity ‘under attack’ within the UK

Christianity is being “marginalised” within the UK and people who profess the Christian faith are “regarded with contempt”, a recent report has warned.

Christians whose beliefs contradict the prevailing LGBT ideology are “most certainly to be attacked”, says Voice for Justice UK (VfJ), which compiled the report.

The report draws on responses to a VfJ’s survey from 1,562 UK Christians about their experiences of intolerance or discrimination within the UK. 

Only around half of respondents (53%) said they felt free to say what they give thought to social issues, falling to 38% of under-35s.

Over half (56%) reported experiencing hostility or ridicule for discussing their religious beliefs, rising to 61% amongst under-35s. 

Over three quarters (78%) didn’t feel that religious discrimination was treated as seriously as other types of discrimination.

“Often respondents felt that discrimination against other religions was given attention; what was ignored was discrimination against the Christian faith,” the report said.

“This was seen recently within the calendar which the National Trust produced for its volunteers. Eid, Ramadan, Diwali, even LGBT+ history month were included. But Christmas and Easter weren’t.

“Many of our respondents had noticed that efforts were made to accommodate the beliefs of individuals from other religious backgrounds and avoid offending them, while the identical consideration was not given to those of Christian faith.”

Despite this, most Christians (78%) were comfortable talking about their faith and beliefs, although 1 / 4 said they felt the necessity to hide them at work, rising to a 3rd amongst under-35s.

Half of all respondents said there have been negative stereotypes about people of religion of their place of job or study. 

A young Catholic student described being “ostracised” by most of his university friends for holding pro-life views. 

“When they discovered they began to query ‘whether it was moral to remain friends with me’ and quite a lot of them decided against it,” he said. 

One respondent described “quite a lot of sneering and mockery” once they worked for a neighborhood council, while one other former local authority employee said their council was “very LGBT supportive but had no support for alternative positions”.

A former NHS employee said that “as a Christian I’d often be ignored (shunned) or ridiculed for my beliefs” within the workplace, and one other respondent described “a measured push from the hierarchy to advertise LGBT issues”. 

The report said, “While there needs to be no hierarchy within the list of protected characteristics, this appears to be contradicted by the truth. It appears that there’s a hierarchy of protected characteristics, with all things LGBT+ at the highest and ethnicity barely below that.”

Nick Fletcher MP said: “Christianity is the cornerstone for thus lots of the values we take as a right. If it weren’t for Christianity our tolerance, our diversity, freedom of conscience and love for our neighbour would turn out to be a thing of the past.

“This report must be circulated widely amongst those working in human resources, those liable for education, in addition to employers, Church leaders, civil servants and people liable for policy making.

“We all have to wake as much as the attack on Christianity in our society, before it turns into something much more sinister. This report is a crucial step in sounding the alarm.”

Lynda Rose, VfJ director, said the findings made for “alarming reading”.

“Christianity lies at the inspiration of British society, underpinning our tolerance and acceptance of diversity. But our survey shows Christians within the UK, each within the workplace and socially, are increasingly subjected to discrimination and marginalisation,” she said. 

“Society has fallen victim to an ideology actively hostile to Christianity. This is a violation of our law. If we wish to safeguard our tolerance and freedom then we want to guard Christianity itself.”

The report was compiled in response to research by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians which ranked the UK among the many top five worst countries in Europe for anti-Christian hate crime.

Last month, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) chided several European governments that had “targeted individuals for his or her peaceful religious expression”, including the UK over the treatment of pro-life volunteer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce who has been charged several times for praying silently near abortion clinics.