European Court of Human Rights: British Airways Employee Can Wear Cross

By Robert Paul Reyes  

"A British Airways employee suffered discrimination at work over the wearing of a cross, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday

Nadia Eweida, a 60-year-old Christian, took the airline to the European court after British courts upheld BA's decision to ban her from wearing a crucifix.

The Strasbourg-based court ruled that the British courts had given 'too much weight' to BA's desire to "project a certain corporate image" and her right to manifest her religious beliefs had been violated.

Europe is a secular and enlightened society, but that doesn't mean that believers should be relegated to a second-class status.

Secularists and believers of all stripes should commend the European Court of Human Rights for rendering a fair and just decision.

Projecting a corporate image and wearing a symbol of faith in Christianity are not mutually exclusive objectives. If a flight attendant wears a cross it isn't a sign that she is unprofessional or intolerant of employees or passengers who don't share her beliefs.

I can understand British Airways objecting to a flight attendant wearing a one-foot cross around her neck, but Eweida's cross was discrete and tiny.

Europe and America are secular and democratic societies, and if citizens choose to wear religious symbols it doesn't weaken our secular or democratic ideals.

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Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze. Read more stories by Robert Paul Reyes.

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