Humanist group condemns former Attorney General for claiming Christians face persecution in UK
The British Humanist Association has challenged a former Attorney General’s “lazily stitched together” claims that Christians face persecution in the UK.
Dominic Grieve, the Conservative MP for Beaconsfield, was sacked from his post of Attorney General for England and Wales in the government reshuffle last month.
The former Attorney General claimed this weekend that an “aggressive form of secularism” is preventing Christians from publicly expressing their beliefs.
In response, BHA spokesperson Pavan Dhaliwal said yesterday: “It is all too common now to see senior politicians who should know better making misleading and provocative arguments for the existence of Christian persecution in Britain.
“Typically this takes the form of lazily stitched together references to Alastair Campbell’s 2003 remarks to a journalist, the enforcement of equality laws requiring the equal treatment of gay people, and a series of failed employment court cases alleging discrimination against Christians.
“If you examine the facts of each of the court cases which Mr Grieve alludes to, you will find no evidence that Christians face discrimination in this country.”
BHA executive Andrew Copson added: “It is deeply disappointing to see the former Attorney General, who by profession should know the subject matters of these cases better, attempt to perpetuate this false narrative further.”
Mr Grieve’s comments echoed those of Baroness Hale, who claimed earlier this year that “the pendulum has swung too far one way” against religious freedom, after a long-running legal battle found against Christian B&B owners who turned away a gay couple.
Civil partners Martin Hall and Steven Preddy were turned away from the Chymorvah Hotel near Penzance in 2008, under the owners’ policy of not allowing unmarried couples to share rooms.
