Stand up for the faith

This week we report about the downgrading of the chapel in Johannesburg International Airport to a “prayer room”, along with the substitution of Christian symbols with Muslim emblems on signposts.

It would be easy to wearily acknowledge and forget the report. Instead, it should galvanise Catholics to stand up and confront the creeping marginalisation of Christianity in public life.

The airport chapel was the result of long and hard lobbying by mainline churches, including the Catholic Church, whose Fr André Fillion played a pivotal role in starting and maintaining it. The airport authorities only grudgingly ceded some room to cater for the spiritual needs of Christian travellers.

Now the airport management has unilaterally designated the chapel an inter-faith “prayer room”. It seems unlikely that the daily Masses there can continue. At the same time, prime space has been found to establish a mosque at Johannesburg International.

The obvious message is that Christians are not regarded as significant by the airport authorities in any form other than as fare-paying passengers, their airport taxes notwithstanding.

This attitude is not unusual, and it is not confined to South Africa. In drafting its new constitution, the European Union has deliberately omitted a reference to the role of Christianity in the continent’s history. This is a staggering notion, since the development of Europe is indivisible from the expansion of Christianity. It cannot be blithely wished away.

Instead, the omission of a reference to Europe’s Christian roots should be seen as an effort to marginalise and disempower the church. A similar movement may be observed in South Africa.

Unlike Europe, South Africa retains a strong Christian constituency–even though the secular media often fail to reflect this. At the same time, the mainline churches are failing to show the strength of their following–which in turn serves to encourage those who seek to marginalise the churches even further, because of antipathy or indifference.

It is a pitiful state of affairs when devout Catholics in public life choose not to comment on their faith because it may harm their reputation, or when the media officers of elder statesmen decline to issue pertinent statements to Christian publications because they fear being associated with the church.

We should be concerned when the media think that it is acceptable freely to mock the Christian faith and its symbols–and cravenly hide behind the noble cloak of “free speech” when criticised.

Increasingly, the small evangelical splinter churches are becoming the public façade of Christianity. Bolstered by their assertive fundraising capacities, they are able to buy access to the public.

This is not an option for the mainline churches, including the Catholic Church. Alternative ways of resisting the creeping alienation of Christianity from public life must be found.

This has to include action by the faithful–including and especially by those in position of influence–who must find the fortitude to stand up to those who feel free to ride roughshod over Christian needs.

It would be appalling if Christians were to accept a position of being apologetic doormats. Let us take a leaf out of the books of our Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters, and stand up for our faith.