London council claims it could be ‘prejudiced’ to ask for ‘Christian names’

A London council has come under fire for pushing staff not to ask the public for their “Christian name”.

In an ‘inclusive language guide’, published in 2022, Sutton Council claimed that people’s religion should only be referred to “if it’s relevant to the information being communicated”. For example, it told staff to say “‘First name, forename or given name’, not ‘Christian name'”.

The guidance, which has recently come to light, claimed that “using incorrect or outdated language can perpetuate, contribute to, or cause bias, prejudice and discrimination”.

‘Ridiculous’

Toby Young, Director of the Free Speech Union, told The Sun: “This is woke hyper-sensitivity taken to ridiculous lengths. I’ve never met a Jew, a Muslim or an atheist offended by the words ‘Christian name’.”

The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director Simon Calvert also blamed the council for “promoting exclusion under the banner of inclusivity”.

In response to criticism, Sutton Council emphasised that its language guide “reflects common usage today” and is only guidance, not policy.

‘Trigger warning’

Last year, students at the University of Nottingham were warned that they may find some course material distressing because of its Christian content.

Undergraduates opting for the School of English module ‘Chaucer and his Contemporaries, c.1380-c.1420’ were cautioned that some set texts contained “incidences of violence, mental illness and expressions of Christian faith”.

The Mail on Sunday, which made the discovery through a Freedom of Information request, noted that while Nottingham University viewed “expressions of Christian faith” as potentially ‘triggering’, no such warning was raised about sexually explicit or anti-Semitic content in Chaucer’s writings.