Christians Try to Scupper Union Challenge to Job Protection Exemptions

KENILWORTH, 2 DECEMBER 2003 — The Evangelical Alliance, the Christian pressure group which claims a million members, has been given permission to argue its case for “religious autonomy” by intervening in a High Court row between the Government and the unions over new regulations on the rights of gay and lesbian workers.

The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations, which came into effect yesterday, contain exemptions that permit religious organisations to continue discriminating against gay people. These exemptions are being challenged as unlawful by a coalition of unions in a case to be heard by the High Court next February.

At a preliminary hearing in London yesterday, Mr Justice Elias gave the go-ahead for the evangelicals – who believe homosexual practices are contrary to scripture – to put their case, even though they are not parties to the action.

The Alliance – described in court as representing “a multiplicity of Christian organisations” including the Christian Schools Trust – say they have the right to formulate and apply their own policies regarding the employment of gays as clerics and as teachers in faith schools.

Paul Diamond, counsel for the Alliance, said the court’s ruling would also affect other religions, including the Jewish and Islamic faiths.

Terry Sanderson, a spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) said: “This is a desperate bid by these Christian churches to hold on to a wide-ranging opt-out from the regulations, allowing them the right to sack or refuse to employ gay people in certain jobs, particularly in religious schools (which represent a third of all schools in the country). The exemptions have already been criticised as being beyond the scope of the original directive by a parliamentary scrutiny committee. There is no doubt that the Government went too far in permitting religious groups such large-scale exemptions.”

Mr Sanderson said that the Evangelical Alliance were arguing that the exemptions were needed to protect “religious freedom”, but that seemed to mean the freedom to hound people out of their jobs and have special rights that are denied to everybody else. “Freedom to practice religion seems to translate into freedom to persecute other people as far as the Evangelical Alliance is concerned,” he said.