A report says more than half of Christians in the United Kingdom have experienced hostility and ridicule for their faith.
It also said that 58 per cent of the 1,500 respondents from different Christian denominations and age groups, reported negative pushback for sharing their belief in some capacity.
Of those under 35, that number increased to 61 per cent.
The report titled, “The Costs of Keeping the Faith,” was compiled by the Voice for Justice UK (VfJUK), a non-profit organisation.
It was released recently according to Christian Post.
“Christians did not feel free to express their views at work. The younger generation appeared to have had more of these negative experiences than the older generation, suggesting that things were getting worse,” the report said.
It also said that though there are theoretical legal safeguards for free speech in the UK, the country exhibited some of the highest levels of intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe that led to a prevalence of harassment, self-censorship, direct and indirect discrimination.
The report, in the third chapter, focussed on discrimination, which is reportedly increasing among younger Christians. Christians are not only being forced in their places of work to work on Sundays but are also asked to keep their beliefs to themselves for fear of vengeance.
The fourth chapter of the document deals with the National Health Service (NHS). Here it said there are repeated cases of Christian employees being punished over sundry issues like wearing cross necklaces. It said for instance, one Mary Onuoha, who worked with a London Hospital, was reportedly punished for wearing a cross necklace.
There are also cases of Christian parents and teachers who are increasingly shut out and discriminated against.
The report said much of the cultural hostility toward Christians is derived from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LBGT) ideology.
“Our research showed that when it comes to beliefs about marriage, sex, and gender, while the rest of society was swept along by progressive ideologies, most Christians appear to have remained steadfast to orthodox Christian faith.
“Counterintuitively, it was often the younger generation who had more traditional views than the older generation,” it said.
“This set Christians on a collision course with progressives,” it added.
Reaction
Some organisations have reacted to the report.
The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians (OIDAC) in Europe said in a statement that the “alarming” report echoed some of the trends it has discovered regarding the increasing anti-Christian sentiment in historically Christian nations.
Declining Christianity in UK
According to a 2022 survey, commissioned by five Christian organisations, the number of Christians in the UK has been declining. The survey involved more than 3,000 adults.
The UK’s Office for National Statistics also said less than half of the population identifies as Christians for the first times since the country’s first census in 1801.
According to the data, only 46.2 per cent or 27.5 million of the UK’s more than 67 million people identified themselves as Christians.
In the 2011 census, 33.3 million people (59.3 per cent) described themselves as Christians.