Equality Bill - Request for Prayerful Consideration

First the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, now the Equality Bill - it seems that legislation that limits our freedoms can be identified easily by the title alone. Who could protest against a Bill against "religious hatred"? (But that's not what it's really about.) And now "equality". (But that's not what it's really about.) The Labour Party seems to abide by Lynn and Jay's maxim that you should get rid of the difficult bit in the title, where it does less harm than in the text.

The three main proposals that are of specific concern to Christians are:

• The Bill creates a single Commission for Equality and Human Rights with police-like powers to enforce 'equality' laws on religion and sexual orientation;
• Provisions in the Bill could be manipulated to force public bodies to remove Bibles from public places (such as hospitals) or end the funding of Christian social projects;
• The Bill outlaws religious discrimination in the provision of goods and services. Legal threats could lead to Bibles being removed from Hotel rooms.

The Christian Institute's briefing on the Equality Bill may prove helpful to you. The CI, which is working with Baroness O'Cathain in the House of Lords on this, has asked for prayer:

• That Lady O'Cathain's amendments will be successful, that she would have wise and persuasive words
• That the legislation would not be used to remove Bibles from hospitals and hotels
• That the Government would recognise the need to protect the religious liberty of churches and Christian organisations
• That the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights would not be used as a vehicle for malicious complaints against churches and Christian organisations
• That local authorities would not withdraw from working with Christian organisations in an attempt to be "non-discriminatory" on the grounds of religion.
• That, in the private sector, Christian organisations would be protected from unjust interference in the way they provide goods and services.