Re-View: The Equality Bill
I guess we don’t normally use this space for ‘politics’, but there is a pressing political issue that we all need to be aware of and respond to.
The Equality Bill received its second reading in the House of Lords on Tuesday 15th December and there is to be a vote in on January 25th. Please note the following:
Schedule 9 of the Bill makes it 'an offence for faith bodies to insist that successful job applicants/existing employees must live in line with church teaching on sexual ethics, unless the role in question is wholly or mainly concerned with leading liturgy or ritual or promoting or explaining doctrine.'
One of the major concerns if this bill becomes statute law is that the suggested definition is so narrow that it won’t cover many church leaders, such as Youth Pastors or Children’s Workers, let alone anyone else. This will make it very difficult for churches like ours, and para-church ministries in the Evangelical tradition, like UCCF, to continue to operate.
What can you do?
- Well you can sign a petition by going to petitions.number10.gov.uk/harryhammond/ and find out more information on the Christian Institute website: www.christian.org.uk.
- You may, in addition, want to write to one of the peers, to your MP or AM. We can also pray for the Lords, the Government in Westminster and the Welsh Assembly Government that they may listen to the voices of people like us. A list of the peers and the address to write to are available on this site.
Finally we must continue to live and proclaim the good news of Jesus in a culture where the agenda appears often to us to marginalise Christian Faith and Biblical Truth, ironically in the name of tolerance! As salt and light we are called by God to engage in society and influence it. So let’s get stuck in and make a difference.
Peter Baker
