How is it acceptable for someone with a 21st Century disease to be labelled an outcast?

As Christians we are called to advocate for those in need and to uphold the cause of the poor and oppressed. The Bible clearly tell us this.

With a third of the world’s population thought to be suffering from religious persecution, we in Britain are blessed to have religious freedom. Christians are the world’s most persecuted religious group. Yet in Britain the vast majority can walk into church on a Sunday morning (admittedly in Covid-19 free times) without fearing for our safety.

Britain is a country that prides itself in its fairness and tolerance. So how can it be acceptable for our newspaper headlines for the past week to be littered with the word “leper”?

Leper is a label that is outdated, derogatory and stigmatising to the millions of people today affected by leprosy globally. It is associated with fear and being an outcast. It reduces a person to merely a disease and increases the stigma around leprosy, something we work tirelessly to counter.

Yet in the past week the phrase “Leicester leper” has appeared across the front pages of our national newspapers to describe the alienation a person feels when associated with Covid-19.

Coronavirus and leprosy could not be more different. Covid-19 is a highly contagious viral disease while leprosy is a mildly-infectious bacterial disease. Leprosy has been entirely treatable since 1982.

But the government’s lockdown imposed on the city of Leicester, to contain a localised outbreak of Covid-19, has led to the coining of the phrase “Leicester leper”. The unfortunate alliteration tragically has only served to bolster a catchy headline and soundbite.

I understand the centuries-old deep fear of leprosy, I really do. In recent years it has been an immense privilege to meet so many who are on the physical and emotional road to recovery from leprosy. This is after being reached out to by my incredible colleagues overseas. Not only have these people suffered terrible physical disabilities, they are scarred emotionally by being rejected by their friends, family and community.

This is all because of the prejudice surrounding the disease which the word “leper” only goes to perpetuate. Surely our rigorous and free press in Britain should get wise to this hurt and have the humanity to not reinforce age-old stereotypes?

I too have been guilty of falling foul to the myths and stigma surrounding leprosy. I’m ashamed to say that as a young man backpacking through Rajasthan in India back in 1993, I actually crossed the road to avoid a group people with leprosy. How little I knew then and how fortunate for me to be able to compensate now for those actions that were so wrong and misguided.

The Catholic Church has championed many human rights defenders for those living with the effects of leprosy, not least Pope Francis himself. The Pontiff, as well as visiting a leprosy colony, has preached with great passion on reinstating the marginalised using the encounter of Jesus and a man with leprosy as our ultimate example. Last year the late British missionary John Bradburne, who was murdered by Mugabe’s troops for defending a leprosy colony in Zimbabwe, was put on the road to sainthood by the Vatican.

Leprosy patient Munia was found begging at a train station in West Bengal, India, when a kind stranger noticed her disabilities and took her to The Leprosy Mission’s Purulia Hospital.

There might be only a handful of people diagnosed and treated with leprosy in the UK each year that would know the hurt the label ‘leper’ causes. But we are part of a global society where leprosy, although treatable, remains a huge problem.

The UN’s principles and guidelines for the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy, published in 2010, states the use of the word ‘leper’ should be removed from government publications and for the media to portray people affected by leprosy with dignity.

The same year, the BBC’s journalist style guide was amended to include that the word “leper” should not be used in reporting. Yet the pejorative term ceases to be omitted from all BBC content.

Only by fighting to uphold these principles and guidelines by ridding the world of this pejorative term can we begin to rid the world of leprosy. Stigma undoubtedly remains the greatest barrier preventing people from coming forward for treatment.

We are calling on our loyal network of amazing supporters across the UK to ask people not to use the “L-word”. This may mean contacting a newspaper or gently having a quiet word with their church leader after the service should they use the term “leper” when talking about a Bible story.

Peter Waddup is National Director of The Leprosy Mission England and Wales.