In Paris at the time of the Sun King, on one of the few hills that broke the monotony of the flat cityscape crossed by the river Senna, stood the church of St Medard.
In the church yard and in the area near the church strange events used to take place, episodes linked to the spirit, including fits and- it seems -even miraculous healings.
These events were quite embarrassing especially because they were not really in line with the regime, so much so that the king promulgated an edict which banned gatherings and meetings in the St. Medard cemetery, where friends and supporters of one Jean de Paris who was buried there and considered by many a saint and the primary source of such displays of spirituality, used to gather.
An anonymous source affixed next to the edict a satiric notice which gave the false impression of having been drafted in Versailles and read “De par le Roi – Defense a Dieu – De faire miracle – Dans ce lieu” (From the king- God is banned - from making miracles- in this place).
A similar thing is now happening in the United Kingdom where the British Standards Authority (ASA) warned a Christian group based in Bath , Somerset, against declaring and making public, whether in an open or covert way, the fact that people can be physically healed thank to their prayers.
A duly registered Christian trust called “Healing on the Streets – Bath”, which consists of teams of Christians from many different churches, has been regularly praying for the public outside Bath Abbey for three years running and regularly offers to pray for people who are sick to receive healing.
These Christians had been peacefully going about their business, until atheist Hayley Stevens, a 24-year-old from Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, who is a regular blogger, speaker at skeptic conferences in a relentless campaign against religion, complained to the British Standards Authority that the claims of people being healed through prayer could “not be substantiated.”
On the www.thisissomerset.co.uk website, she is quoted as saying, “I have complained before to the ASA about claims to do with healing people, but they were against spiritual healers or people making false claims about treatments. I didn’t even realize the Healing on the Streets people were Christian until I got home and looked at their website”. She added “My issue isn’t with their Christian faith; it is with the potentially dangerous situation of vulnerable people who think they will be cured of something as serious as cancer. I don’t think it is appropriate for them to be out on the streets taking the chance that they could come across someone with, say, mental health issues who should be being treated properly."
Her complaint was upheld and the Authority has now ordered the Christian group to stop stating on their website or in literature that God can heal. The founder of the group Paul Skelton declared “Other teams around the country have been targeted in similar ways. It seems very odd to us that the ASA wants to prevent us from stating on our website the basic Christian belief that God can heal illness.”
According to Skelton the British Standards Authority asked the leaders of the group to sign a document the content of which was unacceptable to them “ - as it no doubt would be for anyone ordered not to make certain statements about one’s own conventional religious or philosophical beliefs”.
In truth with its ruling, the Authority is asking the Christian group to avoid expressing a common and widely held belief that is an important aspect of the Christian faith. In effect it is a request to renounce the Christian faith in the Bible.
The leaders of this Christian movement tried to reach a compromise.
Skelton declared “But there are certain things that we cannot agree to - including a ban on expressing our beliefs”.
As a consequence Healing in the Street will officially oppose the ASA decision and appeal against it.
This case aroused the interest of the international organization “Christian Concern”, which deals with Christian rights-violations worldwide. Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of “Christian Concern” declared “This decision strikes at the heart of freedom of belief in the United Kingdom. Will we be told that telling people their sins are forgiven, or that you can go to heaven, breaches advertising standards next? Will all Christian websites and leaflets now be liable to these types of complaints? Is all Christian doctrine now going to be ruled as misleading by the Authority?”
According to Mincihiello Williams “This decision reveals all too clearly how basic freedoms are quickly lost in a nation that has increasingly chosen secularism over the Christian faith.”
“Imagine living in a country ruled by people so literal and authoritarian that you couldn’t even say ‘ God heals’ on the basis that, from a technical point of view, it might not be true.”