The Elephant

The old phrase, “The elephant in the room” comes to mind sometimes. There are subjects which are avoided like the plague when people get together, which are so obvious and indisputable, that you have to ask yourself why is it avoided, and not tackled head on? These elephants can be about the Christian’s attitude to death, serious or terminal illness, same sex ‘marriage’, or maybe a massacre of school children, and we either don’t know how to respond, or more likely we don’t want to admit that the elephant really IS there.

So we don’t talk about it in case we offend some elephant lovers. The elephant is ignored, or used to hide behind, or can’t be seen because it isn’t YOUR elephant. There might even be a few people with very loud voices who tell you that the nice elephant is really your friend, and is not the problem. Then of course it might stop looking like an elephant, and start to look like something else, and much smaller, like a very friendly and protective pet.

Hmmmm..... Ok, so let’s go on ignoring the elephant! That’s easier for everybody, right?

The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. Prov 12:15 NIV

Christian Faith and a Prayer Chain

Another case of a Christian being harassed over her faith had to go to court, and her case upheld. My simple question is, why did it have to get that far? We are talking about schools and teachers who are not silly or uneducated people, by definition. I think you will find the following press release interesting and enlightening. 

School Receptionist Prayer Case

The dispute began in January last year when Mrs Cain’s daughter Jasmine, then aged five, was reprimanded by her class teacher for talking about her Christian faith to another child. On hearing that her daughter had been reprimanded for expressing her faith, Mrs Cain sent a private email to church friends and family asking them to pray about the incident. The email was sent from Mrs Cain’s home computer, outside work time, using her personal email account.

Investigation

But the email ended up in the hands of head teacher Gary Read who launched an investigation against Mrs Cain for professional misconduct. She was told to stay away from her job for nearly four months before receiving a written warning over the affair. In August it was reported that Mrs Cain was launching an Employment Tribunal claim for religious discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

Claim

The claim was brought against the governing body of Landscore Primary School and the school’s head teacher, Gary Read. A claim was also brought against Devon County Council for aiding the discrimination. Speaking in August, Sean Kehoe, senior partner of the law firm Advance Legal who represented Mrs Cain, said: “No one ever seemed able to answer the simple question of what exactly Jennie had done wrong. We say there is an undercurrent of anti-Christian sentiment which she has come up against. If she had been from another religious background, nothing would have happened.”

For my part, the last statement by a senior partner in a law firm says it all. Why is there this undercurrent against Christianity in this country? I have my own thoughts, and you will have yours. We are in the middle of a very contentious UK General Election campaign, and the politicians are talking about almost anything and everything, but guess what subject is missing so far? Morals, or morality, or faith of any kind. The plain fact is that there are votes to be lost very easily by making the wrong statement. It comes down to weak politicians who will not 'do religion'. Remember Tony Blair's words while in office? It was "I don't do religion" but we found out later, after he had left Downing Street, that his faith was important to him, and then he was free to pursue it, and talk about it. There is a big hole in our country, and our government (of any and all political persuasions) and it is Faith. It is the elephant in the room which no one wants to talk about, but everyone knows is there. The reason? "..we don't want to offend anyone...". I think the Bible says something about the gospel being an offence to the unbeliever, and it is getting more and more obvious in our nation. 

We have a country being encouraged to be 'tolerant' and 'understanding of other's views' but only as far as non Christian values are concerned. The result is that Christianity is being slowly but surely sidelined in favour of our tolerance and understanding. The elephant is certainly in the room. Now, do we ignore it, or talk about it??