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14 January 2010

Equality Bill

Throughout January the House of Lords is considering the Equality Bill. There is much in the Bill that promotes justice, fairness and equality, all hallmarks of a modern society that the Evangelical Alliance enthusiastically supports.  However, it is also important that fundamental liberties, such as freedom of religious belief and expression are maintained.

BigBenThe Bill, as currently drafted, would be detrimental to churches and other faith organisations.  It would be unlawful for churches to refuse to employ staff whose sexual conduct was not in accordance with their doctrine.  The Government have shown some willingness to resolve this issue, but rather than removing the clause and maintain the current arrangement their proposed amendment is very ambiguous. 

The Evangelical Alliance continues to work with Government ministers and other members of the House Lords to ensure that churches retain the freedom to act in accordance with their beliefs.

Please pray that Parliament finds a way to combat discrimination without impinging on the ability of Christian, and other faith groups, to remain authentic to their beliefs.  Please also pray that as Christian groups act in their community they will serve without prejudice and practice the love and kindness of Christ.

Latest comments :
(The views below are the authors', and not necessarily those of the Evangelical Alliance.)

Written by Tim on 25 January 2010 at 14.23
One very important thing that ministers have missed in this is that anybody doing pastoral/representative or clerical work within a religious organisation can have their job description set up in such a way that it simply demands that their beliefs match that of the organisation.

A charity or church for example can say that it has a policy where all staff take part in weekly prayers and that this is a part of their job. Likewise it is good and healthy for any Christian organisation to adopt such a pracitice. Since this is expected of employees then it is clear that there is a perfectly legitimate right to reject employment from those not of that faith.

Though I hope and pray the bill will not pass, I think we should as evangelicals should not get over-occupied with considering the extreme cases but rather show that regardless of what role someone has in a church, their contribution to the Christian activity and ethos of the church simply can't allow them to meet the job requirements if they don't share the belief. There is no unfair discrimination in that point.

Another irony is that this legislation goes against people offering to pray for colleagues in the workplace or saying "God bless you". Clearly this shows where equality of opportunity is flawed. If this law was so, then it is only fair that swearing in the workplace, use of pornography etc. under any circumstances due to the offense it can cause should therefore not be legal. However it is not the case because those with the loudest voice won't allow it to be illegal. Therefore it is not equality of opportunity, but favour to the winners.
Written by norman coe on 25 January 2010 at 06.36
We must maintain our good strong tradition in upholding religoius freedom in this country. Such
Written by Greg Fletcher on 14 January 2010 at 20.08
Having seen the amendments posted last week, I think we need to engage with the Bill in other areas other than employmnet. For example, there are a number of amendments, where the word marriage is to be changed to marital status.

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Date Created: 14 January 2010
Last Modified: 14 January 2010

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