Daniel 3:1-30 page 1

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On Wednesday, Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, announced plans for the introduction of citizenship ceremonies when young people reach the age of eighteen. The idea is that young people of different ethnic backgrounds will all be inculcated with the history of British heritage and learn what it means to contribute to British society. It's about social cohesion, in other words, of finding something to unify all British citizens, and it comes in the wake of the criticism on Monday by David Bell, the chief of OFSTED, who said that Muslim schools had to make greater efforts to show pupils a common British Heritage. Mr Bell also said that Muslim, Jewish and Evangelical Christian schools must be 'intolerant of intolerance'. [Full press release here.]

In other words, our government is seeking to do something that political and religious powers have attempted to do down the ages. They want to find some way of holding a diverse society together. Anyone who criticises their tool for social cohesion commits the unforgivable sin. So Communist Russia displayed large pictures of Lenin, they kept his dead body embalmed and on show, they issued diktats from the centre of power to impose their political correctness. The Roman Empire didn't mind its citizens following whatever religion they liked, so long as they all burned a pinch of incense once a year to Caesar and confessed Caesar as Lord.

And in Babylon Nebuchadnezzar set up an image of gold. Whether you were a native Babylonian or from one of the nations they had conquered, you had to bow down when the siren of music played. Failing to do so meant the fiery furnace. You were a threat to national unity, identity and security.

It makes me wonder how these citizenship ceremonies might be misused by a cynical government, if indeed they are introduced.  Anyone who claims an allegiance to truth may be in danger. Recently Cardiff City Council cancelled a civic reception for the Argentinean evangelist Luis Palau who was due to take part in the centenary celebrations for the Welsh Revival. They did so on the grounds of his 'extreme evangelical beliefs'.

It's not just about our sexual ethics, either: it's about whether we will bow the knee to a society based on an economic system that depends on us buying what we don't need. As Bono sings in U2's recent single 'Vertigo'.

All of this, all of this can be yours
Just give me what I want and no-one gets hurt
[Bono/The Edge, © Blue Mountain Music 2004.]

There will be no danger of a fiery furnace: such provisions would be outlawed by our commitment to European law and international human rights treaties, but in some sense the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego might be one that has prophetic significance for Christians in our society.

So what kind of lessons might we learn from them in order to prepare ourselves? What kind of faith do we need to in order to live faithfully in a society that is progressively more hostile to our faith? There are many things to be said in response to such questions, but these are the things I glean from this story:

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Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration.