Posted on 06/03/2009 3:57:04 PM PDT by bronxville
Christians in the UK Facing Increasing Official Discrimination: Poll
By Hilary White
LONDON, June 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A poll conducted by the Sunday Telegraph has found that thousands of Christians in Britain fear losing job promotions and are being harassed at work because of their religious beliefs. The poll has been released at the same time that reports that Britain is becoming increasingly hostile to Christian believers are increasing.
In the Telegraph poll, one in five said they had faced “opposition” at work because of their beliefs. Over half said they had suffered from some kind of “persecution” at work.
44 percent said they had been mocked by friends, neighbors or colleagues for being a Christian. 19 percent said they had been ignored or excluded for the same reason.
In recent months and years nurses, public officials, charity workers, foster parents and potential adoptive parents, policemen, teachers, and even school children in the U.K. have been sacked and threatened with legal action and job discipline for expressing their religious convictions. A great majority of these cases are those in which people who stand by the Christian belief in natural marriage have come into conflict with Britain’s increasingly powerful homosexualist political lobby.
In January, a local council threatened to cut the funding of a nursing home for elderly Christian evangelists because residents had refused to relate their opinions on homosexuality. In a number of recent cases, potential foster parents and adoptive parents have been turned away by council authorities because of their faith-based opposition to the homosexual “lifestyle.”
In May, the government’s Equality ministers announced that Christian churches will be forced to hire active homosexuals as youth ministers even if their religion teaches that such activity is sinful. Despite efforts to include exemptions for religious groups, the Christian Institute says that the Labour government’s Equality bill “dramatically narrows exemptions in sexual orientation employment laws which protect the religious liberty of churches and other faith groups.”
The government has paid the anti-religious group the British Humanist Association (BHA) £35,000 to draw up “guidelines” for the Equality ministry. Andrew Copson, director of education at the BHA, said that sharing religious beliefs at work could be called harassment under the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003.
He said, “The law specifically protects people from being intimidated or confronted with a hostile environment in the workplace.
“Systematically undermining someone's beliefs or persistently attempting to convert someone would lead to the creation of a hostile environment.”
The group has encouraged the government actively to undermine the religious “ethos” of Britain’s “faith schools.” The BHA, responding to a letter in the Times newspaper, said that under the Equality bill they would be working to “pressure Parliament to outlaw religious discrimination in our schools.”
Atheists and Muslims tend to have that effect....
I hope those UFOs over Britain (in the other thread) start dropping bombs (but not on Christians).
Unfair penalties for Christians
Telegraph View: Toleration must not become an excuse for the persecution of Christianity - which is still the official state religion of this country.
We are pleased to see that Caroline Petrie – the nurse who we reported last Sunday had been suspended for asking a patient if she could pray for her in order to aid her recovery – will be reinstated and allowed once again to work with patients. That at least is a victory for common sense.
But we are surprised and saddened to discover how little of that commodity the Government and other authorities seem able to deploy in their attempt to lay down rules for the expression of Christian belief by doctors, nurses and other health professionals.
As we report today, it took legal action by Pilgrim Homes, an old people’s home specifically for Christians, to persuade Brighton and Hove council to restore to it an annual grant of £13,000.
The council had cut the money because Pilgrim Homes was reluctant to ask its residents, 39 of whom were over 80, about their sexual orientation not just once, but four times a year. The council accused the home of “homophobia” because of that reluctance, and because it did not feature gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender old people in its promotional leaflets.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/4551305/Unfair-penalties-for-Christians.html
I find it amazing that the UK government is cracking down on Christians when they must know full well that Islam hangs gas on a daily basis. What is their thinking - assuming they[re not just stupid one might wonder.
gas = gays.
Christian hospital worker Helen Slatter fears for her job after refusing to take off a crucifix which “could harbour infection”.
Published: 3:55PM BST 25 May 2009
Ms Slatter, 43, says she will not choose between her faith and her job after the NHS claimed the jewellery could spread disease or even be used as a weapon.
Gloucestershire Royal Hospital explained that health and safety rules applied to everyone and the regulations had nothing to do with religion.
The blood collector - or phlebologist - said she was called to a disciplinary meeting and warned she would be sent home if she failed to comply.
Despite working at the hospital for five years she is also considering leaving her role to escape the “awful situation”.
She said the hospital was threatening to send her home from work for reasons of “health and safety and infection control”.
She told the Gloucestershire Echo: “I just feel it is so wrong - I have always worn my cross inside my uniform and it means a lot to me. They have told me I can carry it in my pocket but it isn’t the same.
“My faith is important to me but I’m not a bible basher and don’t push it onto colleagues. Now I have to choose between my job and my faith. It is an awful situation.”
Ms Slatter, from Robinswood, Gloucester worships at St Peter’s Catholic Church in London Road.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5383056/Christian-hospital-worker-told-crucifix-is-infection-risk.html
Really bad over there - coming to a city near each of us...
I think it’s more to do with Marxists than Atheists. Marxist bullies get their kicks by bullying others - AND an Islamic trait.
Don’t the homosexuals know that according to Muslims that’s a ‘son’ as well?
At least Christians only say it, Muslims have beheaded people for being homosexual.
Now when that ‘war’ starts it should be on pay-per-view
a’son = a ‘sin’
never try to type and smoke at the same time :(
So very true, your last sentence.
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