When Partner-who-loves-tea and I met we were pleased to know that we agreed on the subject of religion. Our view, put simply, was that we were not church-going, we adhered to no particular branch of the Church, we did believe in some Higher Being of some sort, but that our main reason for calling ourselves ‘Christians’ was that we adhered to what we considered to be Christian principles. I know some people reading this will consider worship and church-attendance as inherent parts of those principles but many of those principles I am referring to are to be found in just about every other religion in the world.
Amongst those principles are to be a person of excellence and to do your best quality work at all times; to obey those Biblical commandments which are key to being a humane person such as not killing, stealing, or coveting your neighbour’s property; but most important of all to love your neighbour as yourself by being there when help is needed.
Inherent in loving your neighbour is the idea that nowhere does it say your white neighbour, or your female neighbour, or your Church of England neighbour, or your neighbour who is heterosexual, etc. In other words, your neighbour is your neighbour whatever their sex, colour or creed. Since the world is now drawn so close together by the World Wide Web it’s fair to say everyone is one’s neighbour. Most of the people reading this are likely to be many thousands of miles away.
Inherent in those Christian principles, as I see it, must therefore be the freedom to express oneself as having a different coloured skin or a different sex or a different religion. (I appreciate there are clashes here where, for example, a religion forbids a woman to work outside the home; in which case I choose to interpret matters as being that a person is a woman first and member of a religion second and as such she should have equal freedom with men but debating that is not the purpose of this little essay.) No one should have to try to hide their racial origin, their sexuality or the nature of their religion.
Which brings me to the reason I chose to write a ‘sermon’ today.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has called for Christians to wear a cross every day. In his Easter Sunday sermon, Cardinal Keith O'Brien will tell worshippers to "wear proudly a symbol of the cross of Christ" each day of their lives. His comments come as a case is going to the European Court of Human Rights to allow employees to wear crosses. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said that Christians "need to be free to act in accordance with their own principles".
Former nurse Shirley Chaplin, from Exeter, and Nadia Eweida, from Twickenham, who worked with British Airways, are taking their call for all employees to be able to wear a cross at work to the European Court of Human Rights. Both women were told in 2010 by their respective employers that they should not wear crosses at work.
On a chain around my neck I have a cross that Mum wore. I have worn it on and off for a while now, as much as a link with Mum as for any other reason. It could just as easily have been an ankh. Much as a I wear a wedding ring to show my link to Partner-who-loves-tea.
But as a mark of my support for the right to wear a cross I shall be wearing it continuously now until the case of Shirley Chaplin and Nadia Eweida has been heard and, hopefully, won.
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