Justice For The Righteous

Image: https://lp.billygraham.org/persecuted/

In 2014, a member of the Queerspace gay rights advocacy group, Mr Gareth Lee placed a cake order with Asher’s bakery in Belfast to mark the occasion, International Day Against Homophobia. The cake was to have a slogan saying “Support Gay Rights”. However, Asher’s bakery declined to make the cake on the grounds of their religious beliefs - Christianity. The case was taken to court and in 2015 and the judge ruled against Asher’s and found that t h e y a c t e d u n l a w f u l l y a n d d i r e c t l y discriminated against Mr Lee on the grounds of his sexuality.

In a statement made by Daniel McArthur, the general manager of Asher’s, he said: “We served him before, we'd serve him again,” he insisted. “But some people want the law to make us support something with which we disagree….. They seem to think that some people are more equal than others.” His point was that the issue had always been with the message on the cake and not the Mr Lee. Asher’s have since then appealed against the ruling and are due to go back to court this year. Last year, a transgender business owned by Joanne Lockwood approached a Christian printing company to print business cards promoting their business, after meeting twice at a weekly business event, where Mr Williams had shared about his faith as a Christian to the attendees. Nigel Williams, refused to print for the business SEE Change Happen, who's main focus is on LGBT and support. A spokesman for a Christian Institute said: “For years we’ve warned of growing hostility towards people with mainstream Christian views. The terms ‘equality’, ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’ have been twisted out of all recognition in an attempt to marginalise, shame and punish Christian people.”

Sarah Kuteh is a Christian nurse who was fired by the NHS, for talking to patients about her faith and occasionally offering prayer, while helping them to prepare for surgery. Sarah’s job involved asking about patients’ faith, as part of a pre-assessment questionnaire.

A Christian family fear, that unless they allow their 14-year-old daughter 'Bethany' to change her name to 'Gary', (names changed for legal reasons in order to protect the anonymity of the child) that she might be taken into foster care.

A Christian couple were told they could not adopt their two foster children, because of their "concerning" views that the children needed a mother and father. Barry Trayhorn is an ordained Pentecostal minister who was forced to resign from his post as a gardener at HMP Littlehey, after a complaint was made about Bible verses hequoted at a prison chapel service where he volunteered.

Victoria Wasteney, a senior NHS occupational therapist was suspended for nine months after giving a Christian book to a Muslim colleague.

Victoria then received a written warning following allegations of 'harassment and bullying' by a Muslim staff-member.

www.christianconcern.com

“And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation’” Mark 16:15. This scripture amongst many others within the bible clearly tell us that we are to proclaim the Word of God worldwide. In other words, we need to evangelise. We are living in the 21st century, 2018 and it seems it is now harder than ever to share your faith with others. We supposedly live in a country who’s official religion is Christianity, yet Christians are being persecuted because of their faith.

Non-believers are realising this and are now seizing every possible opportunity to take the matter to court or to have one arrested or sacked from their jobs. How sad this nation has become. Just reading some of the headlines above can discourage a fellow believer from even telling someone that they are a Christian, yet alone talking about Christ. I wish to plead with you to not give up hope and not give up the faith. Although we are going through trying times, remember the God you serve. Remember the things He has done for you and why you became a Christian in the first place.

Please bear up in prayers those who are being persecuted just for standing their ground about Christianity. I pray you will not have to go through this experience.

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ Matthew 5:44