Christianity isn’t dying, it’s being eradicated
By Cristina Odone Society
Last updated: March 1st, 2011
Translation by Autumnson Blog
Owen and Eunice Johns at the High Court (Photo: Jane Mingay)歐文和尤尼斯約翰在高等法院（攝影：簡明加）
It’s official: Britain is no longer a Christian nation. In banning Eunice and Owen Johns, a devout Christian couple, from fostering children, Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson declared that we live in a secular state, and that the Johns’ religious convictions disqualified them from raising citizens of that state. We’ve outgrown Christianity, the judges professed. Instead, we have graduated to the status of a multicultural nation, blessed by a plurality of faiths.
官方的：英國已經不再是一個基督教國家。在禁制一對虔誠的基督徒夫婦尤尼斯和歐文約翰認養兒童時，主法官芒比和法官比特森宣佈，我們活在一個世俗國家，而約翰的宗教信念使他們失去資格養育該國的公民。法官宣稱，我們已超越基督教。代之，我們已逐漸變化成一個多元文化國家的狀態，由多重信仰所祝福。
Ironically, the justices who have pronounced that Britain is no longer Christian did so in a court where witnesses swear on the Bible and invoke God’s help in telling the truth. I do not imagine that these judges leave out the first word in “God Save the Queen” – nor would they shun an invitation to the Royal wedding, which is happening not at a registry office but the centrepiece of official Christendom, Westminster Abbey.
諷刺的是，已宣布英國不再是基督教的法官在法庭做這，在這裡證人在聖經上發誓和祈求上帝的幫助以說出實話。我無法想像這些法官省去“上帝保佑女王”的第一個詞 - 他們也不會逃避皇家婚禮的邀請，那是發生在一個不是登記處的地方，但卻是官方基督教的核心 - 西敏寺。
In taking part in these traditions, the judges – and the rest of us – are no different from past generations. For Christianity is not merely a part of life here, a provider of schools, hospitals and orphanages. It is the backbone of our laws, the impetus for the charity, justice and tolerance that have long been characteristic of this country. Its grand principles have inspired citizens to extraordinary actions, such as William Wilberforce’s campaign against slavery, and to ordinary kindnesses, such as reading to hospital patients or delivering meals on wheels. When David Cameron speaks of our moral duty to our Arab brothers, or shares his vision for the Big Society, he taps not into narrow party allegiance, but into our common Christian heritage.
在參予這些傳統，法官 - 和我們餘下的人 - 與過去幾代人沒有不同。對於基督教不僅是這裡生活的一部分，是學校、醫院和孤兒院的供應者，它亦是我們法律的骨幹、慈善的推動力、長久已是這國家特點的正義和寬容。它的大原則已激發市民作特別的行動，例如威廉威爾伯福斯反對奴隸制的運動，和釋出普通的善意，例如對醫院病人的閱讀或提供送餐服務。當大衛卡梅倫說及我們對阿拉伯兄弟的道德責任，或分享他的大社會遠景，他沒有輕叩入狹窄的黨效忠，但叩入到我們共同的基督教傳承。
The Christians of an earlier era may not have known about multiculturalism, or predicted that it would be the signature tune of our times. Yet their faith gave them a moral imperative that demanded respect for others: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Without this moral underpinning, multiculturalism sags into a factionalism of competing demands and conflicting interests. Instead, the Gospel’s commandment inspires the Christian majority to accommodate Jewish, Muslim, atheist and Hindu minorities, without losing sight of the basic principle of mutual respect.
在較早年時代的基督徒可能不知道關於多元文化主義，或預測它將是我們時代的代表性論調。然而他們的信仰給予他們一項道德義務，要求尊重他人：“己所不欲，勿施於人。”沒有這種道德基礎，多元文化凹陷入競爭需求和利益衝突的黨派之爭。反之，福音的誡命激發基督徒大多數容納猶太人、穆斯林、無神論者和印度教少數派，而不會失去相互尊重那基本原則的視野。
This, indeed, is one of the reasons why non-Christian believers are so passionate in wanting to protect Christianity as a presence in public life. Jews, like Muslims, recognise that while Christians – and especially Anglicans – may enjoy a special status, their faith embraces all people as made, and loved, by God. The Act of Succession, which bans us Catholics from the throne, makes me angry; but like all members of a religious minority, I feel safer in a culture that cherishes spiritual values than in one that rubbishes them.
So it is not just Christians that the ruling in the Johns case will alarm and unsettle. As the judges wagged their fingers about the secularist principles that, they claim, define the nation (and which “ought to be, but seemingly are not, well understood”), they were not describing the status quo: a strong majority of Britons still consider themselves to be Christian. Instead, they were making clear their desire to steer this country in a direction of their own choosing – one that matches the views of an increasingly strident group that is determined to scrub Christianity from public life.
Its efforts to push the majority faith underground are evident everywhere, from our bus stops to our workplaces. The British Humanist Association is campaigning to discourage “cultural Christians” from identifying themselves as believers in the forthcoming census. Jo Johnson, a Tory MP, wants to drop the prayer that traditionally opens Parliamentary sessions. Companies like BA forbid their Christian staff from wearing crosses to work. Schools and offices present Christian holidays as secular breaks. And now devout Christians are to be prevented from becoming foster parents.
According to our learned judges, “the aphorism that ‘Christianity is part of the common law of England’ is now mere rhetoric”. How excruciatingly unjust.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/cristinaodone/100078209/
氣候門，綠龍和基督教的結束
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英國首相為何要發動多元化戰爭
多元文化失敗論的驚濤波瀾
葛福臨：敵基督的精神是無處不在
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