Two reports have been published that finally provide official acknowledgement of the discrimination that Christians in the UK are suffering because of equality law. The first came from the biggest ever consultation carried out by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, as part of plans to issue guidance over resolving religious disputes in the workplace. Over 2500 people of various or no faith responded claiming they had seen or experienced discrimination. Some of the alleged discrimination was carried out by Christians; for example, an unmarried humanist woman who became pregnant was advised to wear a fake wedding ring because she worked in a Catholic school. However, the largest number of responses concerned discrimination against Christians, and the report’s summary noted that many workplaces seemed to assume that any open expression of Christian views would be opposed by “gays, Muslims, Hindus or atheists.” The head of the Evangelical Alliance said, “We warmly welcome the new constructive tone of the Commission … after many years of ignoring Christian beliefs and actually opposing them in court.” The deputy director of the Christian Institute was more direct, however, “Equality legislation is often part of the problem rather than the solution.”
The second report was submitted to the Council of Europe by a Moldovan MP who is a member of the Moldovan equivalent of the Equality Commission. It was entitled 'Tackling intolerance and discrimination in Europe with a special focus on Christianity', and was overwhelming backed by a Council vote; this means the report is recommended, though not compulsory, for national governments. The report highlights that although freedom of religion is protected there is still hostility towards religion in Europe, including acts of violence and vandalism; it urges member states to “promote reasonable accommodation”, “uphold freedom of conscience in the workplace” and “respect the rights of parents to provide their children with an education in conformity with their religious or philosophical convictions”; and calls for states to “ensure national legislation does not unduly limit religiously motivated speech”.
A Christian school in Durham has decided not to challenge in court the Education Secretary’s decision to close it down. The school, which is directly funded by the Department of Education, has called the closure a “miscarriage of justice” and said it is based on an OFSTED report that “contradicts a whole raft of evidence”. But they have accepted that even if their legal case (which is based on the unfairness of the procedures used to announce and push through the closure) should succeed, it would not guarantee that the school stayed open. More than 50 of the school’s 94 pupils wrote to the Education Secretary to beg her not to put political preferences ahead of their education, but she was unmoved.
A Christian radio station in Nigeria that broadcasts in eleven indigenous Nigerian languages has turned at least one Muslim away from belief in jihad to believe in Christ. He said, “Just as Boko Haram is trying to keep people in bondage through terror, the terrorists themselves are in bondage to a belief system that demands that they kill and terrorize. Only the gospel message has the power to bring peace to those terrorized and to rescue the terrorists.”
However, in America, radical Muslims have found a way to restrict the free speech of Muslims who have converted to Christianity; if they make a death threat against such a man, the police prevent him from speaking in public for reasons of public safety. This happened to Kamal Saleem at a high school in Michigan, when he was due to speak about the threat that Sharia law posed to America’s internal workings. The death threats were not even recent ones; however, a woman phoned police to make sure they were aware of the threats just before the talk was due to start. A lawsuit against the police’s actions was dismissed.
In the Netherlands, two new approaches to caring for the elderly have been trialled with considerable success. Budget cuts have raised the price of, and therefore reduced the demand for places in care homes; so in the town of Deventer, the council has started letting students live in the spare rooms rent-free as long as they spend time interacting with the elderly residents. And near Wheesp on the outskirts of Amsterdam, the village of Hogewey is entirely populated by elderly people with dementia and their carers (who pretend to be gardeners or shop staff), plus friends and family who visit. This benevolent version of “The Truman Show” is intended to be familiar to residents, so their homes are designed to reflect the decade they remember best. Also, because elderly folk often have difficulty with finances, there are no cash transactions in the village. The village has been such a success -- residents at Hogewey require fewer medications, eat better, live longer, and appear more joyful than those in standard elderly-care facilities – that versions have opened in other countries; for example, a non-residential 1950s village has been built in the grounds of a nursing home in Huddersfield.
In sports news, the drivers for the new Formula 1 season have been announced. For the first time ever, one of the reserve/test drivers is a woman – Susie Wolff, a Scot who married the head of the Williams team in 2011. She was development driver for Williams last season.
And finally, TV advertising is often criticised, but can occasionally be a force for good. Samsung decided to advertise its new video call centre for the hearing impaired by visiting an area of Istanbul where a deaf man lived, teaching sign language to everyone in his neighbourhood so they could communicate with him, and then setting up lots of hidden cameras. The video of the event has been viewed more than 5 million times; you can view it at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrvaSqN76h4.
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