In a recent radio interview with Premier Christian Radio, Prime Minister Gordon Brown appeared to make soothing noises about Christians in public life.
Given the attitude of some of his colleagues within the Labour party, it was gratifying to hear him say that he doesn’t “accept this idea of privatisation” of faith.
However, his protestations on this subject beg a number of questions. For a start, where does he stand on the large number of cases in which employees of the British State who have brought their faith into the workplace have been threatened with disciplinary action, including the sack?
These include a Christian registrar, Lilian Ladelle, who was suspended for refusing to carry out the registration of a same-sex civil union, Christian hospital worker Helen Slatter, whose employers threatened to send her home after she refused to take off a crucifix, Kwabena Peat, a Christian teacher suspended for complaining about the marginalisaton of those with religious objections to homosexuality.
Does Mr Brown favour the harassment or prosecution of those who propagate traditional Christian teaching on homosexuality? A number of individuals in the UK have faced problems from the police after criticising homosexuality, including Joe and Helen Roberts, two Christian pensioners, who were interrogated by police in 2005 because they had expressed their opposition to their local council spending public money on ‘gay rights’ projects.
After launching legal action, the couple eventually won an apology and damages from Lancashire Police and Wyre Borough Council. The police and the council also changed their procedures to avoid making the same mistake again.
In November 2003 the Bishop of Chester, the Rt Revd Dr Peter Forster, was investigated by Cheshire Constabulary after he told his local newspaper that some homosexuals re-orientated to heterosexuality with the help of therapy.
A complaint was made to the police that his remarks were a ‘hate crime’. The police passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service, who decided not to prosecute because the Bishop had not broken any “current” laws.
Stephen Green, a Christian campaigner, was arrested in 2006 for handing out evangelistic tracts at a gay pride festival in Cardiff. Police admitted that he had not behaved in a violent or aggressive manner, but confirmed that officers arrested him because the leaflets contained biblical quotes about homosexuality.
The Prime Minister’s Government has forced adoption agencies, including Catholic adoption agencies to refer same-sex couples as prospective adoptive couples. Clearly, the Prime Minister believes that, at least in this respect, faith not only ought to be “privatised”, but that this privatisation must be obligatory.
So what exactly does he mean when he says that he doesn’t accept the idea of privatisation when it comes to faith?
It is a matter of record that Brown’s socialist convictions are closely linked to the intense Christian convictions of his father, a Presbyterian minister. Perhaps this is what the Prime Minister means when he speaks of his opposition to the privatisation of faith: Faith convictions that lead one to socialist principles and Labour Party must be allowed to be voiced in the public square.
When such convictions lead one to oppose equality absolutism, however, they must be quashed. Does the Prime Minister agree? If not, then in practice he too believes in the privatisation of faith.