Britain's blind side

If things were not becoming more difficult for Christians in our country there is a sense in which we would be right to be worried. Jesus told us: ‘In this world you will have trouble’ (John 16.33). If we had none we might well be concerned that Jesus had got it wrong or that we were not following him properly.

March 1 saw the latest evidence of Bible Christianity being increasingly outlawed. The High Court refused permission for a Christian couple to challenge Derby City Council who had decreed that they could no longer act as foster carers because of their view that homosexual behaviour is wrong. What is interesting is that Christians are being stopped from doing good deeds which normally are viewed with admiration.

Oscar winner

Just last year, Sandra Bullock won the best actress award at the Oscars for her role in the film The Blind Side. Guess what the movie is about? It is based on the true story of a Christian couple from Memphis, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, who took on fostering a black teenager from a very deprived background. This youngster, with their encouragement, went on to become a great American football star. The film is clear about the couple’s Christianity. How ironic that this is precisely the kind of scenario which many of our politically correct social workers and law officers want to put a stop to. ‘Christians may do great good to children but if they don’t tick all the right boxes of the “equality” agenda, let’s put a stop to it.’

In her column in The Daily Telegraph, Alison Pearson defended Christians, highlighting that at present there is a shortage of more than 10,000 foster families. So how is this judgment actually going to help needy children? The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) had intervened in the High Court case. They argued that views disapproving of same-sex relationships and lifestyles have a harmful effect on the wellbeing of children. But I wonder what the evidence is for that? It is highly unlikely that there are any hard statistics on that claim. Their argument is probably based on interviews with gay people. Fair enough. But has anyone ever interviewed other people on how they felt about being told by an authoritarian figure that homosexual relationships are normal when their instincts were totally the opposite? Of course, if the EHRC’s argument is accepted it will not be long before it is thought that not only are Christians unfit to foster children, they are unfit to have children.

Nation on the slide

A European equality law now means that car insurance must cost the same for men and women even though women have far fewer accidents. The ‘equality’ agenda has a terrible totalitarianism about it which defies common sense.

Speaking on Radio 5Live about the judgment Harriet Harman said: ‘Our laws override the Scriptures’. That actually means that the secular humanist agenda has no place for freedom of conscience. You really do have to be as blind as a bat not to see that the demise of Britain over the last 50 years has gone hand in hand with the rise of the permissive society which the ‘equality’ agenda drives forward (see Romans 1). We are an increasingly impoverished and violent society, now having to contemplate sending the army into schools to restore discipline (see BBC’s Panorama, March 6).

However, Christians should not be shaken. Jesus said: ‘In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world’.