Pity the Poor Christian!

Iain Dale is frothing at the mouth at a Mail on Sunday story that falls under the category of "Pity the Poor Christian": the sort of piece that the amoral (at best) Mail occasionally run for reasons that defy understanding. Over to Dale for a brief summary:

The Mail on Sunday's lead story this morning concerns a teacher who has been sacked for offering comfort to the parent of a sick child by offering to pray for the her (sic). The teacher specialised in teaching children too ill to attend school. The parent made a complaint and the teacher was sacked by her managers.

Let's, for a moment, swap the religion of the teacher. Does anyone seriously imagine the teacher would have been sacked if she had been a muslim, and offered prayers for the child? Of course not. And rightly so.

Really? Wouldn't she? Where's the evidence for that? As far as I am aware this situation has not arisen with a Muslim, making it quite a bold claim to assert that this wouldn't happen to a Muslim teacher when there is no way of proving it one way or another. If you turn it on its head and look it at another way, then maybe a Muslim teacher wouldn't dare to make the offer to pray for a child because their religion in this country has been made far more taboo than Christianity. Of course, I have no evidence for that - just as there is no real evidence for the claim that this wouldn't happen to a Muslim.

Let's look at exactly what this teacher did:

What a warped society we have become when a parent makes a vexatious complaint like this, and when the teacher, who clearly meant no harm, is then told by her employer that sharing her faith could be interpreted as "bullying".

Except, that isn't quite what happened though, is it? According to The Mail, the teacher concerned did a *little* bit more than just offer to pray for the girl:

On the fourth visit the girl stayed in her bedroom because she did not feel well enough for lessons, so Mrs Jones chatted to her mother and raised the subject of her faith, saying she believed God had saved her life.

The teacher said when she was a teenager she had been driving a tractor on the family farm near Carmarthen in Wales when it slid down a slope but came to a halt just before tipping over.

‘I shut my eyes and thought I was going to die,’ said Mrs Jones. ‘Then there was a sound of a rushing wind, like that described in the Bible, and then total stillness.

‘I was convinced it was a miracle. I shared my testimony to encourage the mother to believe that there is a God who answers prayer. I believe I have a personal relationship with God, who is a constant source of strength.’

So, what this teacher actually did was talk about a spurious miracle (involving a runaway tractor, for fuck's sake) before talking about the power of prayer to save lives. This isn't an offer just to pray for the ill girl; this is the full on preaching experience, followed by the emotional guilt trip about the power of prayer. To say that all the teacher did was offer to pray for the girl is just plain wrong - even according to the no doubt biased Mail on Sunday.

And put yourself in the shoes of the mother. Your daughter is ill - too ill to go to school, and on the day in question, too ill to get out of bed. This teacher turns up and starts banging on about a supposed miracle before talking about the (absolutely useless) power of prayer. If you were the parent of a very ill child, you'd be forgiven for not believing in God, and not believing that the power of prayer is going to make your little one better. And to have this woman come into your home only to witter on about a merciful God probably would seriously piss you off. Particularly when she talks about a freak accident as "testimony" for a God you do not believe in. This complaint isn't vexatious. It is entirely understandable. If I was in that mother's shoes, I would have made a complaint too - and told the woman to fuck right off as soon as she stared preaching.

Of course, this woman has a right to her Christian beliefs. However, she doesn't have a right to bring them into the workplace. And she certainly doesn't have that right when her workplace is someone else's house - especially if it is a household with a sick child. She should have the common fucking sense not to preach at someone, and to treat the whole situation with a little more respect and using a little more empathy. If she wants to pray for this little girl, she should feel free to go and do it. Without broadcasting what she is planning to do. And she shouldn't patronise a mother with her facile, unsubstantiated beliefs. She should be a bit more professional in her dealings with people.

The bottom line is this. People believe different things. And either we have a situation where, in the workplace, everyone can bring their beliefs to the workplace and talk about them openly (and, my Christian friends, that involves me being able to use my increasingly militant atheism to critique your archaic beliefs) or we should leave beliefs - religious or otherwise - outside of the workplace. For the sake of professionalism, I favour the latter. Don't get me wrong, you are entitled to your beliefs. But out of respect for your colleagues/clients/customers/pupils etc you should not bring them into the workplace.

I don't know whether this case warrants the sack. And I do understand that this woman thought that she was doing something good, although clearly she lacked the empathy to understand that she offending someone. But at the end of the day, whilst a Christian (or any other follower of a religion, mainstream or otherwise) is entitled to their views, others are entitled not to have to hear those views from professionals as they conduct their duties.