Are we any longer a Christian Country?

The answer may be a tentative "Yes", as many traditions continue, but the full answer seems to be "yes, but not for much longer".

It is true that church attendance of the major Christian denominations is generally down, and that all are struggling to recruit priests and ministers. Christian influence is declining as well.

That secularism is growing cannot be challenged, and that there is a well-meaning but slightly ridiculous attempt by elected bodies to reinforce this, e.g. in the renaming Christmas "Winterfest" or some other heathen name. The Red Cross no longer displays its origins in its shops, - no reference to Christianity. Schools have replaced nativity plays at Christmas with a range of other themes, and school assemblies ignore the 1944 Act with what are merely civil and secular occasions.

Recently we have seen signs of a more active "persecution" or limitation on Christians.

1) A mother is sacked for e-mailing church friends and asking them to pray for her five year old daughter who is confused after being reprimanded for talking informally to a fellow student about Jesus and heaven.

2) Foster parents are removed from a list used by the local council, after fostering 80 children previously, because a 16 year old girl who had previously decided that she wished to convert from Islam to Christianity did so while with them.

3) A nurse who asked an elderly patient whether she would like the nurse to pray with her, was sacked, although later reinstated with a caution.

4) A headmistress was pressured into resigning because she felt that separate Muslim and other devotions should be replaced by a united one.

The very strong impression seems to be, that while the state is very careful not to offend Muslims, such as in allowing the wearing a religious symbols, it regards Christians as "open season". It seems to pay to be ready to agitate, protest and threaten in numbers, and the Muslims seem to be organised and more willing to do this at all levels. The message for Christians seems to be, contrary to their faith, that if you wish to protect your faith don't rely on your leaders who seem to be infected with the same multicultarist partiality as politicians. Rather, organise yourselves, - protest, agitate and be awkward. But this does not come easy to their faith.

So we may expect Christians to continue to suffer discrimination, and for other groups to continue to gain concessions. The influence of Christianity seems to be likely to wane, at least until they become more obviously persecuted. In the early church "The martyrs were the seed bed of the church", one of its main sources of recruitment.