CHRISTIANS IN THE FIRING LINE
By Dr Richard Scott
Wilberforce Publications. 200 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 0 957 572 515
This book contains the accounts of 13 Christians in Britain who, over the last few years, have found themselves in battles with their employers, professional bodies, local authorities, colleagues and even the law of the land over their expression of their Christian faith.
The author, Dr Richard Scott, a Christian GP, is one of the cases himself and he concludes that these ‘are symptomatic of deep, seismic shift, taking place in our nation’.
They are very much the stories of ordinary people in ordinary jobs who find that the practice of their Christian faith in sharing the gospel, seeking to opt out of certain activities on grounds of conscience or merely expressing their personally held views, land them in deep water. It also highlights the work of Christian Concern and its sister organisation the Christian Legal Centre in giving Christians legal support and, equally importantly, help with managing (and in some instances promoting) the media profile which often exists around these cases.
The stories themselves make for compelling reading – each chapter taking a different individual, introducing them and their roots, describing their struggle and its potential consequences for Christians’ rights both now and in the future. They finish by telling us of the personal cost that the affair often had on the Christian concerned.
How to behave?
Undoubtedly Christians will disagree about the way some of the individuals may have conducted themselves or the positions they adopted in these cases, but – do you know? – that is ok! In Dr Scott’s own experience he found a Christian on the ‘other side of the table’ considering his case, which was found against him. By God’s grace I managed to navigate a career of over 30 years within local government reaching a senior level and on some occasions, while reading the book, I had sympathy for those in the organisations who were dealing with the cases on the other side! Life is a pickle – many Christians have worked or continue to work and witness in the very same areas where these cases arose and we thank God for his grace in keeping us and using us all whatever our situation, in trouble or in calm.
What is absolutely clear is that those 30 years that spanned my career have seen a massive shift in public attitudes to many of life’s key issues and that shift continues apace. This is especially true in the way Christians and their beliefs and values are viewed and portrayed, particularly in ‘public’ life. This book brings into focus some of those changes, and their consequences both now and in the future, and I would recommend it as it as a very useful and engaging read that will open the eyes of many to what is happening in 21st-century Britain.
