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We are a Christian Fellowship meeting in North London with a strong interest in teaching the Bible and understanding our time in
the light of Bible prophecy
Christianophobia in Britain today
An attempt was made to cancel a meeting organised by Nicky Cruz (of Cross
and the Switchblade fame) in Hackney, East London. This was part of a
programme being organised by the Nicky Cruz Organisation and Truce
Ministries to reach out to disadvantaged youth in the area with the message
of the Gospel. Before the meeting took place on 27th and 28th July emails
were sent out saying Hackney Council had cancelled the meeting on the
grounds that Nicky Cruz Outreach is ‘homophobic and against abortion.’ I,
along with many others, emailed Hackney Council and received an email back
with a statement from the Borough Chief Superintendent Simon Pountain
saying: ‘After careful deliberation during which time I have worked closely
with representatives of both the Church and the Lesbian and Gay community in
Hackney I have decided not to oppose the events at Ocean this week. … I
delayed making this decision until I was sure that Nicky Cruz had been
spoken to in person about the values of the Metropolitan Police and Hackney
Council and that the assurances we sought had been given unequivocally.’
While it is good to know that the meetings were able to go ahead, the clear
implications of this incident are that if assurances are not given that
nothing will be said which might offend local homosexuals the event would
not be permitted by the police.
A successful Christian course called ‘Inner Change’ being used in Dartmoor
Prison was less fortunate in its brush with the powers that be. The prison
service ended the course because it did not comply with diversity policies.
Lady Georgie Wates who helped set up the course in Dartmoor said, ‘There are
two reasons for the closure. First we don’t comply with the diversity
policy of the Prison Service because we teach the sanctity of heterosexual
marriage as the Bible says, which is seen as homophobic. Secondly because
we don’t fit in with the multi-faith agenda. They think we should be
teaching a bit of every religion and that what we are teaching offends other faiths.’
The Chaplain General of the Prison Service, the Ven William Noblett queried
the programme’s principles after a visit last year. He is currently asking
chaplains to sign up to a multi faith covenant which includes requirements
‘not to knowingly say or do anything which insults or in any way denigrates
the faith of any other person and not to knowingly distribute or display any
literature which offends another Faith tradition.’ Another objection came
from the Prison Service’s Area Psychologist who was outraged by the Inner
Change programme leader saying ‘The root of offending is in individual sin.’
The assault on evangelical Christianity from the apostate church and
humanist establishment is creating the conditions for suppression of the
Gospel, the elimination of freedom of speech and ultimately persecution of
the true church in this land. Recognising this, 178 leaders of Black
Churches wrote a letter in the Daily Telegraph condemning the government as
anti-Christian. They wrote ‘Increasingly the Labour Government is
discriminating against Christians in order to appease minority groups.’
Jesus said a sign of the last days will be that ‘You will be hated of all nations
for my name’s sake.’ (Matthew 24.9). We see this happening now through
actions like these which are becoming more and more common in our society.
(Information from British Church Newspaper, 21/7/06).
Nicky Cruz