Lord Carey backs campaign to stand up for Christian values

Lord Carey gave his backing to the Christian Concern "Not Ashamed Day", urging Christians to "wear their faith with pride" in the face of alleged attempts to "airbrush" them from public life.

He said Christians in recent years had been penalised for activities such as wearing crosses and offering to pray for other people.

"Christianity is a public religion, always has been and always will be," he said.

"What we believe in is of paramount importance to our nation and were we to lose it, then I have no idea what will happen to the Christian faith in this country."

The former archbishop unveiled a leaflet as part of the campaign warning that Britain's Christian culture is "under attack".

The campaign aims to highlight a series of cases involving Christians who have lost claims for discrimination.

These include Nadia Eweida, the British Airways worker from London, and Shirley Chaplin, the NHS nurse from Kenn, Exeter, who both lost high-profile discrimination claims over wearing crosses at work.

Lord Carey was joined in Westminster, central London, by Gary McFarlane, 49, a Christian marriage guidance counsellor from Bristol who lost a court bid earlier this year to challenge his sacking for refusing to give sex therapy to homosexuals.

His application to appeal was dismissed in spite of a call from Lord Carey for a specially-constituted panel of judges with a "proven sensitivity and understanding of religious issues" to hear the case.

Mr McFarlane claimed Christians felt "intimidated" from talking about their faith publicly.

"The intimidation is pretty strong, they seek to muzzle me, and I do not any longer see a level playing field in our society," he said.

Olive Jones, 55, from Weston-Super-Mare, a Christian supply teacher dismissed after offering to pray for a sick pupil, had also travelled to London for the launch of the campaign.

"I am not ashamed of my faith and I passionately believe in Jesus. I believe that the Bible is the solution to all our problems," she said.

"I believe that the things that we value in this country such as education and the NHS have their foundations in Christianity."