COLIN Atkinson is an electrician working for Wakefield and District Housing, and he drives a company van which bears the letters WDH. But his insistence on displaying a palm cross on the dashboard of the vehicle gives the distinct and wholly wrong impression that this not-for-profit organisation is a Christian outfit, and his employers ordered him to remove it.
The zealot refused and, according to the Christian Legal Centre, Atkinson is currently under investigation and faces possible disciplinary action because of his determination to continue displaying the thing.
The CLC says that, following a complaint from a WDH tenant, who suggested that the cross might offend other faiths, Atkinson:
A palm cross, similar to the one displayed by Colin Atkinson
Has been put under huge pressure to remove the cross.
Atkinson told the ghastly Daily Mail, which delights in running nonsense of this sort:
I have worked in the coal mines and served in the Army in Northern Ireland and I have never suffered such stress. The treatment of Christians in this country is becoming diabolical. It is political correctness taken to the extreme.
He added:
I have never been so full of resolve. I am determined to stand up for my rights. If they sack me, so be it. But I am standing up for my faith.
Atkinson also accuses WDH of hypocrisy, pointing out that the boss of the depot where he works in Castleford has been allowed to display a poster of the Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara in his office.
Denis Doody, who is WDH’s environmental manager, also has a whiteboard on which are written several quotations by the Marxist guerrilla leader, who was a key figure in the Cuban revolution in the 50s.
Atkinson will be informed about whether he will face his disciplinary action shortly.
Andrea “Minicello” Williams, CEO of the Christian Legal Centre, thundered:
Colin Atkinson is a decent and hardworking man, yet after many years of service he has been told that he cannot continue to have a small palm cross in his van. This smacks of something deeply illiberal and remarkably intolerant. Freedom of expression now needs to be robustly defended.
Andrea Minichiello Williams
When a man can’t display a palm cross in his van in a historically Christian country, it should give people serious pause for thought. Is this the kind of society that the British public want to live in?”
She added:
The cross is a profound symbol of God’s love for all of us. We should not be embarrassed about it, and the historic Christian character of this nation should be retained for the benefit of all.
At the Christian Legal Centre, together with its sister organisation Christian Concern, we will continue to promote the Not Ashamed campaign encouraging Christians everywhere to be open about their faith and the hope it brings over Easter.
Meanwhile, in an interview this month with Spain’s Talk Radio Europe, former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, a Catholic, promised an almighty “fight-back” by Christians over what she described as “unprecedented levels of persecution against Christians in the UK”.
Widdecombe did not specify what form this impending “fight-back” would take, nor what weapons would be used.
Hat tip: AngieRS
Another deliberate attempt to become a martyr and all that whining about Che Guevara, love or hate him he actually existed.
“If they sack me, so be it. But I am standing up for my faith.” Will the sky fairy feed your family when you’ve been sacked? Hell no, the taxpayer will. The JCP should put a sanction on any claim he makes in the same way they would if you walked out of a job. Idiot.
Persecution? We atheists could do with a bit of their kind of persecution. 26 unelected bishops in the House of Lords; propaganda every day flooding from the RC centred BBC; newspapers criticising atheists and supporting christians regardless of how dotty; Anne Widdicombe a regular on the airwaves to preach her brand of superstition; the great christian led royal wedding pantomime; the Pope allowed to vent his bile on the country at great expence and not required so far to pay the £6 million he owes to the UK government; christianity the established religion.
An odd kind of persecution!
I must admit I did have a smidgin of sympathy until I read “I have worked in the coal mines and served in the Army in Northern Ireland and I have never suffered such stress.” Then I started to wonder if this actually might be a joke.
As for “The cross is a profound symbol of God’s love for all of us.” How the hell is allowing your own son to suffer an excruciating death a symbol of love for the human race?
What @Broga said.
Well, I am an atheist, but I think there’s no big deal in displaying a small cross/David’s star/flysing spaghetti monster on your dashboard. As long as it is not too in your customers’ face, it’s ok. No need to get overly distressed by that, when there are more serious offenses, like the bigots working in adoption agencies or abortion clinics.
Talking of Widdecombe, did anyone watch that Does Christianity Have A Future? on the Beeb last night? Trying to make my mind up whether to watch it — if I can manage to sit through an hour of her.
@Daz: I am pleading guilty to running for cover when Widdicombe appears. That half snarl, have sneer which is her trademark, allied to her inevitable preaching to the country has led to my nerve giving way.
What she should be asked, and an answer insisted on, are these:
1. What do you mean by god;
2. Why is your god, your religion the right one in the midst of thousands;
3. Do you really believe you eat Jesus flesh and drinking his blood at the hands of a priest;
4. Why do you give your allegiance to a Pope who protects paedophile priests?
I suspect she will be treated reverentially as is usual on the BBC and given lots of opportunity to spout her brand of superstition.
I watched the Widdie programme until just after the natter with Johann Hari. I think if the whole programme had been centred on that, it would have been worth watching, just to see Widdie made mincemeat of. As it was, that section was too brief and I couldn’t be bothered.
“I have………served in the Army in Northern Ireland…..”
And experiencing the consequences of sectarianism taught you nothing?
“I have never been so full of resolve.”
Of all the terrible things that have gone on in the world during your lifetime THIS is what has motivated you the most? How self-centred can you get?
Daz/Broga,
I caught the programme last night with Widdicombe being given yet more airtime by the BBC to spout her nonsense (and this is persecution?) However, her harpy like voice grates on me so I turned off after 5 minutes.
But I, for one, am glad that this ‘persecuted’ christian has been given support by the christian legal centre. With their success rate he must be shitting himself.
But I loved that comment by Andrea Williams – ‘We will continue to promote the Not Ashamed campaign.’ Williams should pick up a history book, read it, and then promote a ‘hang our heads in shame’ campaign
Atkinson also accuses WDH of hypocrisy, pointing out that the boss of the depot where he works in Castleford has been allowed to display a poster of the Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara in his office.
Oh? And does he frequently drive his office around to work sites so that customers can associate his personal artifacts with company policy?
When a man can’t display a palm cross in his van in a historically Christian country, it should give people serious pause for thought.
It does! I seriously pause and think: would she similarly defined Muslim or Hindu emblems? It doesn’t sound like it at all. She is not promoting freedom of religion, but Christian exceptionalism. That’s not something I can support.
Ann Widdicombe makes my flesh crawl. I couldn’t bring myself to watch the programme.
I was going to watch ann widdicombe last night but there was a much more interesting documentary about shackleton on discovery so I watched that instead
Tozza,
I’ve always felt that Widdicombe would have been a much happier person if she had experienced sex at some point.
For the sake of the team, I volunteer you to get her a bit tipsy and do the dead.
Your bravery will always be remembered.
I salute you.
I gritted my teeth and watched ‘The Sea Monster’ (as my small kid calls her) for 30 minutes, past vacuous reportage of the ‘success’ of Ratzo’s UK holiday and up to the point where she ‘interviewed’ the cretinous Nicky Gumbal of Alpha and some homophobic throwback from a Pentecostal superchurch, inevitably without challenging either on their views, then going on to ask Rowan Williams why he couldn’t match their success. First time I’ve felt sorry for Williams, the guy really does have to deal with some dingbats without losing that ‘nice vicar’ aura, while most of us would just feel like slapping them. But by then I was feeling physically sick, so I couldn’t manage the second half hour.
It would be interesting if they had/have muslins, hindus, or jews working there and make them take off their head pieces or what ever.
As they say the cross has to goes because it would falsely indicate a xtian activity. I have seen these palm crosses and have never connected them to a xtian sponsored activity but associated them to the individual.
Thanks, folks, for the replies re the Fun Filled Widdicombe Roadshow. I think the balance of opinion says ‘give it a miss’. Which I shall do.
As to the story, I agree with The Woggler. At first I was with him, vaguely, as it does seem a bit petty, especially as the complaining “WDH tenant who suggested that the cross might offend other faiths” sounds like a curtain-twitching prodnose, as bad as any of their religious counterparts. Then I reached the part where he says it’s the worst stress he’s ever faced. Lucky man, say I, he’s had a remarkably stress free life then.
I suspect CLC might actually be onto a winner here, as the actual ‘offence’ is pretty damn petty. Well, assuming the Daily Fail haven’t totally skewed the story.
Erm, did I just say that?
‘Daily Fail’? Yep, said that.
‘haven’t totally skewed the story.’? Yep, said that.
Ah, the problem occurs when you fit the two sections back together!
I’m pleased to note that I was not alone in my courage failing at the prospect of viewing Widdicombe. I have tried to watch her previously but she is so in your face, so certain, so preachy that she turns the stomach. Add to that the Edward G. Robinson (an admirable man) mouth, the dripping contempt for any who don’t share her dotty ideas and her constant sub text of “I am here to give you a serious bollocking because I know and you don’t.”
Damn, I meant to reply to Tony.
Tozza, you are a brave, brave man sir, and I salute you. Just watch out for her head spinning round 360°. When that happens, duck. The projectile vomit will not be far behind!
The way that palm is looped at the top makes it look almost like an Ankh.
I agree that this issue does indeed sound pretty petty. On the other hand if I had displayed something personal in my works van and my employer had asked me to remove it, I would have simply removed it and then forgotten all about it. It is his boneheaded stubbornness that is his problem. Why not just remove the effing cross and get on with your life?
I liked the bit about the level of persecution of Christians being unprecedented. If they meant that it has never been so low I suppose that they have a case but I think that Persecution of Christians might have been slightly worse in Tudor times. Maybe it doesn’t count if it only involves the Christians persecuting each other.
Okay, I gave in and ventured onto the Mail site to read the story. (I hate giving ‘em the clicks.)
At some point he’s changed churches from C of E to the much more radical-sounding Pentecostal Destiny Church, which seems kinda telling, though circumstantial.
He needs two minutes to tell them ‘I’m a Christian’? I know reading between the lines is dangerous, but I’d say there’s some careful thought being put into the phrasing there, and here too:
With no attempt shown by the brave crusading Fail reporter to follow up on the contents of this ‘scurrilous’ letter.
Then, being fair, we get a section where his union rep seems to be agreeing that it is all about the cross, though this being the Daily Fail it’s hard to know if it’s actually all that’s being cited as a problem, and not all union reps are paragons of virtue, either.
Then we get a typical attempt to conflate the wearing of a Burka (which certain sects believe is necessary to their faith), with the display of a cross (which never is, so far as I know). But hey, it gives them an excuse to put a scary picture of a Muslim woman in the middle of the story, so that a good percentage of their readers, drip-fed ‘blame the mussies’ stories by the Fail as they are, will wander off with the vague impression that it’s somehow partly the fault of them odd foreign-looking people. Heavens! They’re probably, you know, brown-skinned, under there.
Ah, the ‘PC-Brigade’, another Fail obsession.
And a little later:
So it’s not just religious symbols, it’s any ‘personal representations’. He’d be in just as much trouble if ’twere a Motorhead logo, or an ‘I love fly-fishing’ sticker. Typically, that bit’s right at the end. Always read to the end of a Fail article. That’s where they hide the factual bits.
@Stonyground: Christians persecuting christians? They love it. Here is a taste and it is just one of many. This is from a spat between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants and is an episode from the St Bartholomew’s massacres. In 1579 a French provincial lawyer, Jean La Rouviere, wrote to the king to beg help for the rustic poor in his area. Here is part of what he wrote:
“…..people buried alive in heaps of manure, thrown into wells and ditches and left to die, howling like dogs; they had been nailed in boxes without air, walled up in towers without food, and garrotted upon trees in the depths of the mountains and forests; they had been stretched in front of fires, their feet fricasseed in grease; their women had been raped and those who were pregnant aborted; their children had been kidnapped and ransomed, or even roasted alive before the parents.”
The Pope encouraged this and was delighted by the efforts of his flock to visit the most grisly tortures on their religious opponents.
Michel de Montaigne wrote at the time, It is “putting a very high price on one’s conjectures to have someone roasted alive on their account.”
Montaigne’s Essays spent 200 years on the Papal Index of banned books. You can’t beat christian versus christian for inflicting torture and slaughter on each other. All, of course, in the name of gentle, sweet, “turn the other cheek” Jesus.
The Bishop said that collectively, they are needed, “as we voted against the war in Iraq”. Funny, as Tony Blair, a Christian took us into war. No mention from Anne that the falling numbers in the Church may be due to the disgust people have at the behaviour of some priests. The cult of Andrea Minichiello is in full swing again. Must be quite a lucrative win win situation for the so called christian lawyer or an orchestrated set up for her Not Ashamed Campaign.
“The cross is a profound symbol of God’s love for all of us.”
No it isn’t, Ms Williams. It’s actually a profound symbol of the unforgivable false hope and false promises sold to the masses by people like you as truth and salvation.
And on the Ann Widdicombe front, I make no apologies whatsoever for linking once again to her disastrous outing on the Intelligence Squared debate, in which she was made to look like a hysterical squawking banshee by Stephen Fry. (I really could never get tired of watching this.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL5WVecNdhk
Mr. Atkinson will find no commandment in this bible to display a cross, and so his stress is self induced. Most believers are satisfied to wear their crucifix on a chain under their shirt, to enjoy it’s magic value. This guy wants to display it to the world, in which case, it is not a talisman, it’s an advertisement. Fire the fuck and end his stress.
If my best friend died of cancer, it would not possess me to have the coroner preserve his tumor and wear it around my neck. Or display it on my dashboard. I guess I’m not much into slow death by torture.
As for television evangelists, I have crashed drunk on a Saturday night with the TV on, and woken to their hypocritical shit on Sunday morning, but, it doesn’t matter how incapacitated I might feel, I turn that shit off. It’s like the Real Devil preaching the REAL end of humanity in subtle lies and toxic bile. I makes me vomit. I fail to understand how you can watch it.
NeoWolfe
ok, cracked record here. If this is persecution, I have no doubt that millions of christians in Islamic countries (actually I believe they now only number in the hundred-thousands) would no doubt welcome it as a change from the bombing, burning alive, shooting, raping and general nastiness that passes for religion over there.
At the same time – wearing a veil to cover ones face is not discrete, but accepted because, well look what happens when it is not!
So we have on the one hand an accepted symbol of ‘women are inferior’ according to Mo and the unaccepted miniature torture instrument on the other.
Someone aught to tell these people that no one gives a damn which god they worship – keep it to yourself!
One vindictive letter which could have come from someone in his office who didn’t approve of him having been a soldier and having served in Northern Ireland. The writer could have been Irish. The writer also could have been a death cultist who hate all British soldiers, serving or not. The writer speculates that some people could be offended by this good luck charm. Animal rights people could have been offended if it had been a rabbit’s foot. There is an awful amount of bile being spread today about a harmless “charm” being carried around in this guy’s cab. Can we step back and stop being a howling mob, baying after the silence of someone who is, after all, just expressing his opinion in a quite inoffensive way.
@Marcus: Thanks for that. I had not seen it. Widdicombe is a seriously nasty and vindictive women. A twisted, frustrated, stomach curdling polemicist, devoid of decency or kindness, but determined to damn everything her superstition tells her. What a mess of a human being she is. Apart from her ranting and the publicity she attracts I doubt whether their is much satisfaction in her life.
I thought Fry’s opening comments were brilliant.
@ Broga Hope you managed to track down the rest of the debate on YouTube. Christopher Hitchens uses intellect and reason to put Widdecombe on her arse with great effect, too. However, there’s no denying that Stephen Fry’s impassioned speech completely stole the show.
Gee, would the CLC be as supportive if an employee wanted to have a Pride Flag, a star and crescent, a pentacle or pentagram displayed on the dashboard of the van? Most likely they’d be screaming about Christians being offended and bullied by this, and rioting for boycotts. But when it’s a Christian wanting to flaunt his crap to customers on his employer’s dime it’s suddenly all about “persecution”.
Having a dead bloke on a stick stuck to the dashboard says more about the persecuted believer than his reaction to his employers order. Does the suffering christian enjoy his canibalistic foray in church each sunday? Slurping down the blood of the zombie and feasting on the dead blokes flesh can’t be a healthy thing to do. Who knows where the dead blokes been. And did he wash his hands?