Lord Carey thinks Christians are being bullied by the political establishment. In reality, they enjoy many privileges.

Lord Carey’s recent accusations – of politicians bullying Christianity – brought to mind Andrew Brown’s rather delicious observation regarding the former archbishop of Canterbury. “The trouble with Rowan Williams is that he can never remember that he is Archbishop; the trouble with George Carey was that he could never forget.” Carey, who enjoyed a good innings at Lambeth Palace, still has an enviable public profile, able to command full page op-eds in national newspapers and champion the cause of the marginalised. But he makes a mistake by counting British Christians among the persecuted.

In the UK Christians still form the dominant religious group, their churches are part of the physical landscape in towns and cities everywhere, their schools educate thousands of children every year and they have their interests represented by bishops in the House of Lords. The prelates have been especially busy of late, lobbying successfullyagainst changes to the equality bill and the provision of sex education in faith schools. Their earlier outcry, about proposed changes to registering civil partnerships in places of worship, persuaded some peers to include a proviso that there was no obligation on religious organisations to host civil partnerships if they did not wish to do so. In the last few months politicians have begun talking about the importance of the religious vote. To the untrained eye, then, it would appear that it is not the government doing the bullying. In any case, the one time that a politician explicitly stated that Britain was indeed a Christian country it prompted a fit of outrage from Carey (it was Nick Griffin on Question Time).

Continues: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/04/george-carey-christianity