50 pct of Britons consider UK a ‘Christian country’: Poll

LONDON - Only half (50 percent) of Britons say the UK is a ‘Christian country,’ according to a ComRes poll.

The poll results come in the wake of former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, writing to Prime Minister David Cameron and asking him to review laws that have seen Christians being forced to abandon their faith in public.

According to The Telegraph, Carey warned that reforms introduced under Labour promoted “tolerance, equality and fairness” at a cost of eroding Christianity as the foundation of British culture and society.

Stressing on the point that Christians were too often “ridiculed” and dismissed as relics of “a bygone age,” he wrote in the letter: “Notwithstanding its vast and varied contribution to our society, there appears to be a suspicion about the validity and value of the role that the Christian faith plays in our national life.”

“This has been highlighted by the spate of recent instances in which ordinary Christians who have sought to manifest their Christian faith in the workplace and have allowed their Christian conscience to direct their public service have fallen foul of new employment practices and then discovered that rather than protect them, the law has sided against them,” Carey added.

Many cases have been filed following the warning, which resulted in clashes betweens beliefs of Christians and the state authorities.

The poll of 1,000 adults also found that 72 percent of them think Christians should be able to refuse to act against their beliefs without being penalised by their employers. (ANI)