A taxi driver has been asked to remove a cross from the dashboard of his vehicle following a passenger complaint.
A 15 year old boy, who had been taken to school in the taxi in which the cross was displayed, complained to his local council that it looked ‘phallic’. The local council asked Clair Cook, who runs AnD taxis, to ask the driver to remove the cross from his car.
Miss Cook expressed her dismay at how City of York Council handled the incident, adding that had the object been a symbol of another religion she would expect the case to have been dealt with far more sensitively.
The driver, who does not want to be named, is a devout Roman Catholic who bought the cross on holiday in Greece six years ago.
He said: “I couldn’t believe that anyone would think it wasn’t a cross. I have taken it off the dashboard as requested because I do not want to lose my licence but I do not think this has been handled properly.”
Colin Rumford, head of environmental health and trading standards at City of York Council, acknowledged that the case had not been handled well and that the taxi operator was “wrongly advised” to remove the cross. He went on to say that in hindsight the Council’s action should have been confined to simply making the taxi firm aware of the complaint and allowing them to resolve the matter with the customer.
The incident comes just weeks after Colin Atkinson, an employee of Wakefield and District Housing, was told to remove a small palm cross from his work van. Following pressure in the media an agreement was reached with his employer which allowed him to keep the cross displayed in the vehicle.
Father Derek Turnham of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough, which covers York, said: “The subject of the display of religious symbols in public places is currently very topical and the Diocese of Middlesbrough would always want to defend the right of people to display their faith in practical ways through various signs and symbols.”
Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, said:
“This case demonstrates once again the intolerance that Christians often encounter whilst seeking to quietly live out their faith. Often they are pressured to conform for fear of losing their jobs. The cross is a symbol of extraordinary hope; when it is misunderstood this needs to be explained.”
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