CANTERBURY, England (RNS/ENI) British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says Christians do not have to hide their religion in the workplace and believers should not be forced to keep their beliefs private.
Brown’s comments were made in an interview with the British-based Christian radio station, Premier, and came amid concern that employees in Britain’s public sector are facing punishment for practicing their religion.
“I think the role of religion and faith in what people sometimes call the public square is incredibly important,” said Brown, whose father was a minister in the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland.
In June, a British nurse said she was considering legal action after she was suspended without pay for two months when she offered to pray for an elderly woman. Around that time a worker was kicked out of a professional association for allowing a girl in her care to convert to Christianity. In addition, two legal registrars claimed discrimination after they refused to perform same-sex ceremonies, saying they were forced out of their jobs.
“In Britain we are not a secular state as France is, or some other countries,” said Brown. “… (I)f you held a survey around the country of what people thought was important, what it is they really believed in, these would come back to Judeo-Christian values, and the values that underpin all the faiths that diverse groups in our society feel part of.”
Asked if it might be better in Britain if Christianity were privatized, the prime minister replied: “I think it’s impossible because when we talk about faith, we are talking about what people believe in, we are talking about the values that underpin what they do, we are talking about the convictions that they have about how you can make for a better society.”
Brown rebuffed the notion that the government was giving preferential treatment to Muslims.
“When you’ve got a society that is diverse, what happens is for a time, the issue is integrating your minorities into that society,” Brown said. “And so people want to make sure that people who may feel discriminated against have the chance to get jobs, or get education, or get chances that otherwise they might not have.”
