A year ago, a landmark report was published. Philip Mounstephen, Bishop of Truro, was asked by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to produce a review of the persecution of Christians worldwide and the FCO response. And while the review highlighted the widespread persecution of Christians, it also made an extremely important point: that we cannot confine ourselves to speaking up only for Christians. Where Christians suffer, it’s very likely that other religious minorities are also suffering, and in the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus made it clear that our calling as Christians is to seek justice for them too.
One year on from the Truro report, Mervyn Thomas, Founder President of CSW, spoke to Bishop Philip.
He told Mervyn, ‘I was asked to do this review into the persecution of Christians – and I would absolutely defend that because I think Christians have been significantly overlooked in the global understanding of what religious persecution looks like – but I was absolutely clear that my recommendations needed to be framed in terms of guaranteeing the freedom of religion or belief of everybody. That includes the freedom not to believe, as well as the freedom to believe and to change your religious affiliation.
‘There are many reasons for doing that – if you said, “We’re going to privilege Christians in all of this,” you actually can make Christians more vulnerable. And you were unlikely to have come up with a set of recommendations that would have been agreed by the government.
‘And even more fundamentally, it’s not part of the Christian tradition to argue for special pleading for ourselves.
‘Our understanding of the love of neighbour says we’ve got to love everybody indiscriminately.’
A picture of radical love
Bishop Philip’s words underscore what CSW regards as one of our fundamental principles: that we are called to defend the rights of everyone, whether they are Christian or not.
In 2018 Mervyn wrote about how he is convinced that as Christians, we must speak up for people of all faiths and none – because that is what Jesus would do.
The parable of the Good Samaritan confronts us with a picture of radical love for those in need. There is not only a command to ‘be nice’ to those around us, or a religious and moral obligation to do good unto others, but also a compelling and Christ-like calling to show love to those who are not ‘like us’.
Mervyn wrote: ‘Our neighbour, as Jesus so clearly shows us, is the person who doesn’t look or think like us, and may believe different things to us – and at times, someone with whom we may not agree.
‘In the parable, those sharing the victim’s religious and ethnic background pass him by in his moment of greatest need. Instead he was helped by someone from a totally dissimilar background, a person whom the victim and his community would ordinarily actively avoid.’
You’ll see this principle throughout our work: that we will help anyone who needs assistance, regardless of their religious beliefs. It’s what Jesus would do.