CHRISTIAN COMMENT Wearing a cross

The issue that’s soaked up hours of Equalities Commission energy – well, it seems like it. The issue that defines some people’s Christian witness.

And that’s the real issue.

We’re probably all aware of the cases – usually focused around claims of unfair dismissal – that have been with us for several years. A man or woman chooses to display their Christian faith by wearing a cross on a necklace or as a lapel badge. Someone alerts the employer who decides that such items contravene Equalities law or Health and Safety provisions or will, in some way, give offence. The employee is required to remove or hide the cross – or face dismissal. What follows is usually a great deal of heart-ache and, if it goes to a tribunal, a great deal of expense.

Who’s right in these cases?

My own gut-feeling involves refers to sledge-hammers and nuts – if you take my meaning. But, of course, there’s more going on than meets the eye.

No, we’re not talking ‘voodoo history’ here – a reference to the tendency always to spot a conspiracy going on in the background. True, there is often a sense of officials getting tangled in their own legal language and unintended outcomes driving the situation. That’s what the Bible refers to as ‘human wisdom looking really foolish up against what God says’.