The London School of Economics recently announced it would be removing religious connotations from its academic calendar and replacing them with “more accessible” language. Previously, the calendar included the Michaelmas term, Christmas break, Lent term, and Easter Break. The school announced those would be replaced with autumn term, winter break, winter term, and spring break, respectively. “These new names use more accessible and widely-recognized terminology and better reflect the international nature of our community and our broader global engagement,” the school announced. Toby Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, criticized the change. “If this was an effort to secularise the LSE, I’d be sympathetic. But in reality, it reflects the fact that the LSE, like most British universities, is in thrall to a new cult – the church of woke – that is far more dogmatic than Christianity.” Simon Calvert, Deputy Director of The Christian Institute, stated it was a further sign of the continued marginalization of Christian values in the UK, saying, “We have been warning for years that Christians are being pushed from the public square, yet the problem is getting worse. Christians and those with traditional views often find themselves silenced or bullied.” He also called it “virtue-signaling nonsense.” “So, this ludicrous decision by the LSE to rebrand traditional academic terms by scrapping references to the calendar of the established Church is more virtue-signaling nonsense that creates exclusion in the name of inclusivity,” he said.

The move comes as the UK becomes increasingly less Christian. The 2021 Census showed that less than half of the people in England and Wales identified as Christian (46.2 percent). In 2011, that number had been 59.3 percent. The number of those identifying as “no religion” went up from 25 percent to 37.2 percent, while those identifying as Muslim went up from 4.9 percent to 6.5 percent. Along with the decline in Christianity, there has been increased criticism that the UK has become increasingly intolerant of Christians. The Observatory of Intolerance Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC) reported in 2021 that the UK was one of the most intolerant European countries against Christians. According to the report, anti-Christian hate crimes had risen by 70 percent from 2019 to 2020. The report stated that the uptick was due to secular intolerance and Islamic oppression. Crimes involve Christians losing their jobs for speaking out against issues such as gay marriage, vandalism, and legal repercussions. Many Christians have stated that the lack of a First Amendment has allowed the passage of hate speech laws that entangle Christians in heavy legal battles. Writing over ten years earlier of the warning signs of an increasingly secularized UK, Doug Bandow warned about Christian marginalization in an op-ed for Forbes. “A parliamentary democracy, London has an unwritten constitution, but no equivalent of the First Amendment. Thus, religious liberty increasingly is at risk in a social environment dominated by political correctness,” he warned.