You are here
How about tolerance for Christians, Mr Cameron?
Despite having recently asserted that Britain is "a Christian country" Mr Cameron failed to back the Asher bakery
By Amanda Platell
DAILY MAIL
July 11, 2014
The family-run Ashers Baking Company is well-known locally for its delicious pastries, cakes . . . and the owners’ deeply held Christian beliefs.
So one has to wonder about the motives of Gareth Lee, of the campaign group Queerspace, who asked the firm to bake a cake to celebrate International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, decorated with the slogan ‘Support gay marriage’.
After the company declined, Mr Lee threatened legal action, claiming its refusal breached equality laws.
The bakery manager, Daniel McArthur, has insisted that Christians must be allowed to apply their beliefs to the running of their businesses.
However, his cause was not helped by David Cameron.
Despite having recently asserted that Britain is ‘a Christian country’ and talking about the role religion can play in ‘helping people to have a moral code’, he failed to back the bakery.
At Prime Minister’s Questions this week, rather than defending Mr McArthur’s religious freedom, Mr Cameron lamely said that ‘tolerance and equality was a very important part of being British’.
It’s also part of being British, Mr Cameron, to support those who believe in Christianity, which has been the defining culture of this country for hundreds of years.
But, then, too often today Christians are soft targets, denied the ‘tolerance’ that in our increasingly politically-correct age is so slavishly offered to minority groups.
Imagine another possible scenario. What if an animal rights campaigner had asked a Halal butcher for a piece of meat from an animal that had not been slaughtered by a cut to the jugular vein? I bet that politicians would be queuing up to jump to the defence of the butcher if he was threatened with legal action.
END
