Monday, February 9th – Persecuted

I know I’ve already written about this statistic.  Only 7% of the English population attend church, and that includes people who are occasional attendees.  There have been articles in the paper regarding the downturn of Christianity in England and one article a couple of months ago said that Christians are ALMOST persecuted in England.  This week something very sad happened.  A nurse was fired for offering to pray for one of her sick, elderly patients.  The article says, “Although the 79 year old woman was not offended, she was “taken aback” by the suggestion and reported the comment to her carer.”  The nurse, a woman in her 40s and mother of 2 was, “suspended on suspicion of failing to demonstrate a personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity.”  The National Health System (her employer) said that her actions were inappropriate.

 

Praise God that this woman last week was re-hired, but told to never again to mix her faith with her job.  The brave woman claims that she intends to continue to offer to pray for her patients.  Her quote is, “If I am nursing, I would offer prayer to somebody and I am not going to change.”

 

I have offered to pray for my friends here when they confide in me about something personal, and I get a weird reaction.  Most of the time it’s as if they are startled (one reaction), or something in them turns off (another reaction). 

 

I do not sense a darkness here, as I’ve heard people describe other countries; however, it’s a very lonely feeling being in a country where the Christian faith is hanging by a thread.  The kids’ school is Anglican, meaning Church of England, meaning Episcopalian.  They practice Christianity, but they teach about all religions.  They stress appropriate “Christian behavior” (kindness, respect, helpfulness, etc).  They sing about Jesus, but I have yet to find one Christian mom whom I could approach to see if we could get together and pray for our school (I get the sense that that’s a little “too out there”).

 

I don’t want to depress anyone!  We feel completely safe here.  We attend a great evangelical church and have good friends in that church.  I thought for comparison purposes, it might be interesting to report the front page of Britain’s Daily Telegraph to give you a feel for our experiences here.  Lonely and isolated is how I feel frequently – but never ALONE.  My time with God here has been completely amazing.  I have felt His presence much more strongly than in the U.S., probably because I have been more dependent on Him to fill and sustain me.  I’m sure that many of the apostles felt alone as well.  We’re in good company!  Rejoice that God has you in America!  VOTE for those Christian values!  Of course people are free to choose what religian they want to follow (if any), but don't allow Christianity to be lost as a result of trying to respect other religians.  Patronize stores/catalogs that say, "Christmas" and not "Happy Holidays".  Do your part.  We've seen what could happen and it's not pretty.