Christians contemplate their future in secular Europe
Posted: Saturday, November 26, 2011, 20:00 (GMT)
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christians.contemplate.their.future.in.secular.europe/28950.htm
Christians have been told they must find a framework for promoting their beliefs if they are to confront the challenge of aggressive secularisation and the erosion of Christian values across all spheres of life.
Opening the Beyond Individualism conference on Friday, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali said it was “amazing” that a Christian nurse in Britain today could be suspended for offering to pray for a patient, when it was Christians who had set in place many of the institutions and public services now taken for granted.
He warned that the Christian values inherent in Europe’s heritage have been eroded by a process of “aggressive secularisation” that Christians must understand if they are to challenge it.
While politicians offer “thin” values like respect and tolerance, the bishop said such “political mantras” were “not enough for society to be cohesive”.
Instead, Christianity presents European nations with a means to move beyond the individualism they have come to be characterised by, he argued.
“To have individualism without any sense of mutuality is very damaging for society,” he said.
Bishop Nazir-Ali took issue with attempts to detach concepts like equality and diversity from their Christian roots, arguing that they could only be properly understood from the vantage point of Christianity, with its emphasis on the common origins of all human beings and their intrinsic value as God’s creation.
Diversity, he said, should be understood as “Christian hospitality”, rather than multi-culturalism, which has “led to the segregation and isolation of communities”, he maintained.
Bishop Nazir-Ali went on to say that respect for individual conscience “had not been in the fore” in recent legislation in Britain.
Reflecting concern over recent court cases involving Christians, he said it was “unacceptable” that the law had “ignored” the rights of Christians.
“We must respect the autonomy of public law but we also need to argue for law to respect conscience,” he told the conference.
Social critic and author Dr Os Guinness said that one of the greatest issues facing the whole world today was how to live with our differences.
He said the emergence of a global public square meant that Christians need to speak increasingly with one “constructive” voice.
Rather than contradict civil liberty, Dr Guinness said that strong religious convictions could complement it.
However, Christians must examine some of the “unwise” responses they have made in the past “to make sure we do better”.
He criticised Christians for being too politicised, partisan, and self-interested at times.
