Activist: UK Laws Have Been Moving Away From 'Biblical Truth' for 30 to 40 Years

Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who spent years on death row in Pakistan after being convicted of blasphemy, has left for Canada amid continued threats of persecution despite her conviction having been overturned by the Supreme Court in 2018. Stewart Green, a Christian activist, has discussed the current persecution of Christians around the world.

Sputnik: Do you believe that Christianity is the becoming a persecuted religion globally? 

Stewart Green: I think Christianity as a religion, as a faith, has always faced persecution. And Jesus speaks in the Bible in Matthew chapter 10, and john chapter 15, that actually, we should kind of expect persecution because the world hates God. And so it sees Christians as a way of targeting it's hatred towards God in that sense.

So, persecution against Christians is nothing new. However, as you say, one third of people suffer persecution and report with the Bishop of Truro, the interim reports just out, shows the Christians are the most targeted for persecution. And that it's rising at the fastest rate across the world. So it's nothing new, but it is becoming a greater issue.

Sputnik: Now, the Asia Bibi situation is going on for years now. Why do you think the British government remain so neutral through the ordeal.

Stewart Green: I would challenge the idea that they've remained neutral. I think there's been a lot of work behind the scenes, without going into the specific confidential details of that, there has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes into the case and lobbying the British government on behalf of Bibi and hoping that they would make an offer of asylum. 

Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case. And just in Prime Minister's Questions this afternoon, Prime Minister Theresa May is being challenged about the specific issue as to why it took Canada to offer her an offer of asylum and the UK just didn't seem to offer anything. And the Prime Minister's somewhat unsatisfactory response was we thought it was right, to support Canada's offer on this individual case. 

Which, to my mind, just doesn't seem quite right. We are a country of immigrants were a country of a society that has looked after people over many, many generations. And now, when the UK was asked to do something, it has been found wanting and I think that is speaking volumes about the state of our government, and the state of our society more widely.

Sputnik: Okay. And that's quite a large question. Do you believe that Britain is still a Christian country?

Stewart Green: Britain is a Christian country in the sense that we have an established Church. That we have aspects of Christianity ingrained within our political system and parts of our culture. But increasingly and certainly in the last 30 to 40 years, slightly more than that possibly, our laws have started to move away from ones that are based on biblical truth and towards a more humanistic secular understanding of things. 

The consequence of that is actually the drift is moving away from Christianity. And now we're increasingly finding the church and those who choose to stand up for biblical truth in the UK being undermined, being ignored and people are actually now losing their jobs as a result of standing up for what they know to be the truth as written in the Bible.

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