Landmark Victory For British Airways Employee Over Right To Wear A Cross At Work

Airline check-in operator wins appeal at European court but three similar cases fail, as other rights trump faith

BA worker feels Christians are vindicated by cross ruling – video Link to video: BA worker feels Christians are vindicated by cross ruling

After seven years of legal appeals and accusations that Christians are being persecuted for their beliefs, the European court of human rights has ruled that a British Airways check-in operator should not have been prevented from wearing a cross at work.

Nadia Eweida, 60, was jubilant over her landmark victory, declaring it a "vindication" for Christians, after the court awarded her €2,000 (£1,600) in compensation for the "anxiety, frustration and distress" she endured.

While the finely tuned judicial compromise does not establish an absolute right for every employee to wear a crucifix, or religious symbol, visibly at work, it will help define the limits of religious freedom.

Read the rest of this entry at The Guardian >> 

Christians Face Judgement Day In Strasbourg 'Right To Wear The Cross' Case

A senior figure in the Church of England has warned that if Christians lose a landmark case in the European Court of Human Rights this week it will amount to “clear discrimination against the Christian faith”. 

Rulings: Lilian Ladele, left, a Christian registrar who declined to conduct civil partnership ceremonies, and Nadia Eweida, who was ordered to remove her cross by BA Photo: JANE MINGAY/HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY

Judges at Strasbourg will rule on Tuesday whether four Christians were discriminated against at work, including two women who claim they were forced out of their jobs for wearing the cross. 
The British government is fighting the cases, arguing that because crosses are not a “requirement” of the Christian faith, employers can forbid the wearing of such symbols and sack workers who insist on doing so. 

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, the former bishop of Rochester, said ministers must move swiftly to clarify the law, as they have promised to do, if the applicants’ case is rejected under the European Convention on Human Rights. 

The four Christians have also secured the backing of Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, who said Christians were being “persecuted” by the courts and “driven underground”. 

Lord Carey added: “The secular human rights agenda has gone too far.” 

Read the rest of this entry at The Telegraph >>

British Government: Christians Have No Right to Wear Visible Cross or Crucifix

From CNSNews.com

By Patrick Goodenough

Shirley Chaplin has been taken off the wards at The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust Hospital after refusing to remove her necklace.

Britain’s Conservative-led government plans to argue in a European Court of Human Rights case that employers are entitled to ban the visible wearing of crosses at work because displaying the symbol is not a recognized “requirement” of the Christian faith.

A document leaked to Britain’s Sunday Telegraph outlines the argument the government plans to present at the tribunal in Strasbourg, France, where two Christian women will claim that their rights were violated when employers barred them from wearing crosses at work.

At the center of the applicants’ case is Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”

Is It Actually True that there Is Serious Discrimination Against Christians in Europe?

Look at the facts: then tell me what if anything we should do about it

An EU calendar distributed to over three million pupils omitted major Christian holidays, including Christmas and Easter (CNS photo)

From The Catholic Herald (UK)

By William Oddie

Earlier this week, the Pope sent a message to a conference of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences which was discussing the subject of “Universal Rights in a World of Diversity: the Case of Religious Freedom”. The Pope’s message was one we have heard from him before:

As I have observed on various occasions, the roots of the West’s Christian culture remain deep; it was that culture which gave life and space to religious freedom and continues to nourish the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion … Today these basic human rights are again under threat from attitudes and ideologies which would impede free religious expression. Consequently, the challenge to defend and promote the right to freedom of religion and freedom of worship must be taken up once more in our days.

We can read that in two ways. Most obviously, we can see it as a comment on freedom of religion in general terms and at the global level. But beneath it, surely, lies a more particular meaning: that even here, in Europe, where these things had their origin, “the challenge to defend and promote the right to freedom of religion and freedom of worship must be taken up once more”. Am I being fanciful in giving it that particular meaning? This isn’t meant to be a controversial statement; it’s one of those papal utterances which invites us to tease out its meaning in our own circumstances. And a recent report speaks volumes about what those circumstances, for anyone bringing up children in the EU, actually are. An unnamed Irish priest made a complaint to the EU ombudsman that a diary circulated to thousands of schools around Europe omitted major Christian holidays, even Christmas and Easter, though it made a point of including other religious holidays such as the Jewish and Islamic New Years and the festivals of other religions like Sikhism and Hinduism.