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Christianity is being “marginalised” within the UK and people who profess the Christian religion are “regarded with contempt”, a brand new report has warned.
Christians whose beliefs contradict the prevailing LGBT ideology are “more than likely to be attacked”, says Voice for Justice UK (VfJ), which compiled the report.
The report attracts on responses to a VfJ’s survey from 1,562 UK Christians about their experiences of intolerance or discrimination within the UK.
Only round half of respondents (53%) mentioned they felt free to say what they consider social points, falling to 38% of under-35s.
Over half (56%) reported experiencing hostility or ridicule for discussing their non secular beliefs, rising to 61% amongst under-35s.
Over three quarters (78%) didn’t really feel that non secular discrimination was handled as severely as different types of discrimination.
“Often respondents felt that discrimination towards different religions was given consideration; what was ignored was discrimination towards the Christian religion,” the report mentioned.
“This was seen not too long ago within the calendar which the National Trust produced for its volunteers. Eid, Ramadan, Diwali, even LGBT+ historical past month have been included. But Christmas and Easter weren’t.
“Many of our respondents had observed that efforts have been made to accommodate the beliefs of individuals from different non secular backgrounds and keep away from offending them, whereas the identical consideration was not given to these of Christian religion.”
Despite this, most Christians (78%) have been snug speaking about their religion and beliefs, though 1 / 4 mentioned they felt the necessity to disguise them at work, rising to a 3rd amongst under-35s.
Half of all respondents mentioned there have been detrimental stereotypes about folks of religion of their administrative center or examine.
A younger Catholic pupil described being “ostracised” by most of his college pals for holding pro-life views.
“When they came upon they started to query ‘whether or not it was ethical to remain pals with me’ and lots of them determined towards it,” he mentioned.
One respondent described “lots of sneering and mockery” once they labored for a neighborhood council, whereas one other former native authority employee mentioned their council was “very LGBT supportive however had no assist for different positions”.
A former NHS employee mentioned that “as a Christian I’d usually be ignored (shunned) or ridiculed for my beliefs” within the office, and one other respondent described “a measured push from the hierarchy to advertise LGBT points”.
The report mentioned, “While there must be no hierarchy within the checklist of protected traits, this seems to be contradicted by the truth. It seems that there’s a hierarchy of protected traits, with all issues LGBT+ on the prime and ethnicity barely beneath that.”
Nick Fletcher MP mentioned: “Christianity is the cornerstone for therefore lots of the values we take as a right. If it weren’t for Christianity our tolerance, our variety, freedom of conscience and love for our neighbour would grow to be a factor of the previous.
“This report must be circulated broadly amongst these working in human sources, these accountable for training, in addition to employers, Church leaders, civil servants and people accountable for coverage making.
“We all have to get up to the assault on Christianity in our society, earlier than it turns into one thing much more sinister. This report is a crucial step in sounding the alarm.”
Lynda Rose, VfJ director, mentioned the findings made for “alarming studying”.
“Christianity lies on the basis of British society, underpinning our tolerance and acceptance of variety. But our survey reveals Christians within the UK, each within the office and socially, are more and more subjected to discrimination and marginalisation,” she mentioned.
“Society has fallen sufferer to an ideology actively hostile to Christianity. This is a violation of our legislation. If we need to safeguard our tolerance and freedom then we have to shield Christianity itself.”
The report was compiled in response to analysis by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians which ranked the UK among the many prime 5 worst nations in Europe for anti-Christian hate crime.
Last month, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) chided a number of European governments that had “focused people for his or her peaceable non secular expression”, together with the UK over the therapy of pro-life volunteer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce who has been charged a number of instances for praying silently close to abortion clinics.
