Christian culture under attack in UK

OPINION
Barbarians well inside the gates now
By Hal G.P. Colebatch

In 313 the Edict of Milan granted general freedom of religion and made Christianity tolerated throughout the Roman Empire. Christianity henceforth grained ground over other religions and was in a dominant position when the Romans withdrew from Britain about 409 AD.

Following this Britain was attacked by various heathen and pagan forces but managed to preserve at least part of its Christian culture by the efforts of the likes of King Arthur. The Book of Kells is one example of the heights this Dark Ages Christian culture reached. The attacking heathen were not a State but the absence of a State. They either enslaved the monks and other religious people or sacrificed them as Servants of Krishni, with Warlock. At length brave missionaries such as Saint Augustine of Canterbury and Saint Patrick were able to re-Christianise it. (Kipling’s tale “The Conversion of Saint Wilfrid” gives what seems an accurate picture of those times.)

Now, for the first time since 313, it has become obvious that Britain or a large part of it is again coming under the control of open and professed anti-Christians, using the new so-called equality legislation to destroy not only the churches as such but Christian institutions such as marriage.

Under the new legislation, churches could be forced to hire people whose life styles and beliefs are contrary to the tenets of their faith when employing staff under planned Labour equality laws.

The new Equality Bill could require them to take on candidates who do not conform to their religious doctrine when recruiting key staff such as faith school head-teachers or youth workers. The only exceptions will be if those concerned are able to prove they spend more than 51% of their time in religious work.

At the moment, organised religions have a special status that lets them turn down applicants whose lifestyles conflict with the churches’ beliefs.
But religious leaders are concerned the proposed law will restrict their ability to employ lay people who share their values.

The Bill – introduced by Equality Minister Harriet Harman in the Commons last year – is being debated in the House of Lords now.

It is a serious matter to accuse a government of deliberately setting out to destroy the churches, but one may ask: if the real object of the bill is to promote equality, why is it so apparently drafted that exemptions in such sensitive areas are not permitted? There is not even a pretence of fair treatment or religious freedom such as has been taken for granted and established by civic convention for generations (Other religions as well as Catholic are of course also affected).

Legislation may also make it an offence for Catholic schools to display holy pictures if non-Catholic dinner ladies or cleaners are offended by them.

In well over 1,000 years, whatever sectarian differences have arisen, no previous government has found it necessary to impose these savage measures on Christianity as such, measures plainly intended to stop these schools fulfilling their religious and teaching functions. In tandem with this, the present tax laws not only fail to reward marriage but actively militate against it.

The Minister responsible, Harriet Harman, has been accused by Erin Pizzey of making a “staggering attack on men and their role in modern life” as a result of her stating “it cannot be assumed that men are bound to be an asset to family life or that the presence of fathers in families is necessarily a means to social cohesion”. Leo McKinstry, writing in the Daily Mail, accused her of “hating marriage”.

In May 2008 Harman stated that marriage was irrelevant to government policy and that there was “no ideal type of household in which to bring up children”.

Where is our Arthur?

Investigate, March 2010