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ENGLAND: Reclaiming the Cross in the UK
by Patrick Sookhdeo
Yesterday Nadia Eweida lost her internal appeal against her employers, British Airways. She had been seeking the right to wear a small silver cross visibly around her neck while working in her check-in job at Heathrow Airport.
Nadia's case is an example of the discrimination which now exists in the UK against the Christian faith. While British Airways allows Muslim check-in staff to wear the hijab (which is not obligatory for Muslims) it forbids the public display of a Christian cross. BA's argument is that they would prefer all religious symbols to be concealed by their uniformed staff, but only the cross is small enough for this to be practical.
I have known Nadia for some years, and Barnabas Fund has supported her spiritually, emotionally and financially through her current ordeal.
The time has come for Christians to stand up for what they believe, to stand with Nadia in her desire that the cross should not be hidden. Secularism and pluralism have reduced Christianity to a nonentity. Many Christians have unwittingly fallen prey to the gradual neutralisation of the Christian faith. If the most basic symbol of Christianity is to be removed from public life, if the cross is to be viewed as mere jewellery, then the Christian faith will have become invisible in the UK.
Nadia pointed out yesterday that BA have in the past made the decision to adapt their uniform regulations to allow the Islamic hijab and the Sikh turban and bangle. Why can they not now amend them again to allow Christians to wear crosses? Just because the Christian symbol is modest and discreet, why should it have to be concealed, if followers of other faiths can publicly wear their more ostentatious symbols?
I appeal to Christians everywhere to stand now with our dear sister and to say that it is not acceptable for public institutions to discriminate against the Christian faith. Please contact British Airways (contact details below) and ask them to change their uniform policy so that it no longer discriminates against Christians. Ask them either to allow the Christian cross to be worn publicly or to ban the wearing of faith symbols of any kind publicly.
I fully realise that some Christians will reject this call on the basis that wearing the cross is not commanded either by the Bible or by Church traditions. However, in countries like Egypt, where Nadia's roots are, the wearing of the cross speaks of loyalty to the Lord Jesus and faith in the risen Christ. For her, and for millions of other Christians in Egypt and other non-Western contexts, the words of Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 16:24 are to be taken in a literal as well as a spiritual way. "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Wearing the cross is a means of identifying publicly with Christ, no matter if it brings shame and persecution.
Speaking with Barnabas Fund staff on 21st November, Nadia said "Without the help and support of Barnabas Fund I would not have been able to stand against BA. I am very thankful for my Christian brothers and sisters."
---Dr Patrick Sookhdeo is the International Director of the Barnabas Fund. The Fund works to support Christian communities around the world where they are facing poverty and persecution.
International Website: http://www.barnabasfund.org/
