Ministry launches effort to protect religious freedom in the law

British Parliament in London

An international Christian ministry is launching a campaign to secure in the law protection for religious freedom, because this Western country had restrictions, which slowly were removed.

But they're coming back.

The Western leader the Barnabas Fund has concerns about is the United Kingdom.

"Do you know the difference between toleration of religion and full freedom of religion? They sound the same don't they? But there is a vitally important difference. In countries with religious toleration, Christians are generally allowed to worship but they face restrictions such as not being allowed to do certain jobs, not being allowed to meet for worship or openly preach their faith outside church buildings," the organization explained.

"Although Christians in some countries face arrest and outright persecution from the government, in others they are allowed to worship but face serious restrictions. They are excluded from some public posts, may be excluded from attending university, standing for election and have to be very careful about any public display of their faith. In other words, they are tolerated on sufferance."

That, the ministry explains, is where it sees England going.

"In the course of just 21 years we have moved down the slippery slope from street preachers not having been prosecuted since Victorian times to a point where preachers are regularly arrested and even church authorities seek to restrict the public reading the Bible," the organization reported.

"We are sliding further backwards from the full 'Freedom of Religion' which was achieved 130 years ago to mere 'Religious Toleration,' where Christians are still allowed to worship freely but restrictions are placed on other aspects of openly practicing their faith," the group said.

It's UK-wide pushback now is called "Turn the Tide" to stop the "erosion of religious freedoms.

Its campaign and petition call on the UK government to introduce an act in Parliament "to enshrine fully and permanently into law our hard-fought-for religious freedoms."

Over history, the United Kingdom mostly had religious toleration, which was changed into freedom in 1888, following more than a century of eliminating the various "Test Acts" which, among other things, required school teachers to affirm the teachings of the Anglican church.

But today, there "is a real risk that the U.K. is slipping back down the slippery slope from full freedom of religion to mere toleration, on sufferance. Like the proverbial frog in a saucepan of water that is being slowly brought to the boil, Christians in the West could all too easily become accustomed to this gradual erosion of freedom of religion, not noticing until it is too late," officials wrote.

They cited the recent case of Allan Coote, "an ordinary Christian from East London who believed God wanted him to read the Bible in front of St Paul's cathedral."

He was arrested.

The first step down the slope happened in 1997, when Alison Redmond-Bate was arrested after preaching on the steps of Wakefield Cathedral. The conviction eventually was thrown out, but the precedent was there.

"Since then we have seen literally dozens of arrests of street preachers, with many held in custody for the best part of the day, then either released without charge or bailed, with the Crown Prosecution Service quietly dropping charges weeks later. Even when they do go to court the preachers are often acquitted, sometimes within minutes," Barnabas Fund wrote.

Then in 2017, a federal prosecutor said during the trial of two street preachers that quoting from the King James Bible, "in the context of modern British society, must be considered to be abusive and is a criminal matter."

Step three was on Christmas Eve 2017, when Roland Parsons was reading the nativity story from Luke outside Victoria Underground state. He'd done that every Christmas Eve for 20 years.

But police ordered him to stop.

Now Coote was ordered to be silent – after "staff at St. Paul's Cathedral asked police" for help in quieting the Bible-reader.

"It is particularly sad that it is church authorities who have now sought to ban Bible reading in public although, following all the publicity Allan's case has now received they have relented and said they will allow it for half an hour a week!" the report said.