Authorities in the UK are sometimes really are “out to get” Christians in Britain, a senior figure in the Church of 
England has warned.
Revd Dr Malcolm Brown said that many groups agreed that a housing trust’s decision to discipline a Christian employee for comments he made about civil partnerships was “crazy” and “bonkers”.
His comments come after a leading gay columnist in the London Times said that the decision of Trafford Housing Trust to slash the pay of Adrian Smith for his comments about civil partnerships is “reverse persecution” and “bullying”.
Mr Smith was penalised by bosses at Trafford Housing Trust for commenting on his private Facebook page that churches shouldn’t be forced to register civil partnerships.
Dr Brown also cited the way Catholic adoption agencies in the UK have been forced to either close or ditch their religious ethos as an example of an unnecessary restriction on religious groups.
Dr Brown, the Church’s Director of Mission and Public Affairs, said: “It’s a constant tension in being a Christian in a country that’s still on the whole comfortable for Christians.
“That said, I think there is a problem. It relates to what I said earlier about power, because when a body that was formerly had its worldview taken as normal for most people, feels it’s no longer in the driving seat, there’s naturally a sense of unease, anxiety and loss.
“Which comes out as a sense of ‘they’re out to get us’. But sometimes they are out to get us.”
Dr Brown added: “The case of the Catholic adoption agencies is a locus classicus for all of us of a case where no apparent harm would have been caused for anyone had the decision been made to allow different sorts of adoption agencies to flourish according to their worldview.”
Dr Brown’s stark warning came as he appeared before a parliamentary inquiry, chaired by Gary Streeter MP, into the marginalisation of Christianity.
In September police officers in Blackpool told the owner of a Christian café to stop displaying bible texts, claiming that it breached public order laws.
And Christian registrar Lillian Ladele, a marriage registrar who was disciplined because she asked whether her religious beliefs about same-sex civil partnerships could be accommodated in her workplace, is currently taking her case to Europe.
Meanwhile, Matthew Parris, referring to the case of Adrian Smith said: “This kind of reverse persecution is an embarrassment to those of us who want to end persecution.
“Gay rights campaigners have made astonishing progress in recent years — to the point when we need to remind ourselves that other people have rights too, and that we campaign against bullying, not for it.”
The columnist backed comments from homosexual activist Peter Tatchell who had branded the actions of Mr Smith’s employers as “excessive and disproportionate”.
Earlier this week it was revealed that the Government’s Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, also said he agreed with Mr Tatchell’s comments on Adrian Smith.
Mr Smith was demoted and given a 40 per cent pay cut for using his personal Facebook page to post the comment “an equality too far” in relation to an article on the registration of civil partnerships in churches.
He also said on Facebook: “I don’t understand why people who have no faith and don’t believe in Christ would want to get hitched in church.
“The Bible is quite specific that marriage is for men and women. If the state wants to offer civil marriage to the same sex then that is up to the state; but the state shouldn’t impose its rules on places of faith and conscience”.
He is taking Trafford Housing Trust to court.
The issue has been noted in Parliament by Stewart Jackson MP, who described the actions of the Trust as “despicable” and raised questions about its public funding.
Mr Smith has also received the backing of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. Its chief executive said: “Trafford Housing may have acted with the best of intentions here, but we believe they have overreacted and very much hope that they will reinstate Adrian Smith.”
When the story emerged last month, Guardian writer Ally Fogg said: “If the trust was concerned about its reputation for inclusiveness and tolerance, it couldn’t have got things more badly wrong.”