Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

God blunts the Government's anti-Gospel sword

31 January 2006 - Whilst Christians in Parliament Square demonstrated their determination to protect our freedom to choose, and to change, our religion, the House of Commons voted by 288 to 278 to accept amendments from the House of Lords which introduce essential safeguards into the Incitement to Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. A second vote, later in the day, also went the same way, by a much narrower margin. (In fact, if Tony Blair had bothered to vote, the second vote would have been lost. But he didn't. Very odd.)

The two defeats for the Government were only the second and third since 1997! They have, of course, seriously undermined Tony Blair's authority, effectively making him a "lame duck" Prime Minister.

This was not just an issue for Christians, but for freedom of speech in general. Tony Wright (Labour, Cannock Chase), formerly a supporter of the unamended Bill, summarised the issue quite well:

"I am a rebel, but a very reluctant rebel. I did not want to oppose the Bill, because the Government are introducing it for the right reasons, but we should be wary about crossing a boundary. Whichever view people take on what we are doing, we are crossing a boundary tonight as we move from believers to beliefs. I do not feel comfortable crossing that boundary. I do not feel comfortable giving protections to belief systems, which is essentially what we are doing. In doing that, we are cutting against what we think is the tradition of an open society.

"The only values that we should seek to protect in law are the values that protect our democracy itself. One of those values-the key value-is the ability to attack other people's belief systems with all the vigour that we can command. In so far as we depart from that and depart from it knowingly, we do damage to the democratic system itself."

INCITEMENT TO RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS HATRED BILL

by Andrea Minichellio Williams, Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, 22nd January 2006

Time AGAIN for positive action!

The Third and (for the moment!) final Reading of the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill in the House of Lords is on 24th January - next Tuesday. It is great news that the government has had to accept that it will not get support for its version of the Bill with its threat to fundamental freedoms of speech and particularly the freedom to preach the Gospel. The Government has given up and accepted that the version of the Bill that the Lords are going to vote on is the version known as the 'Lester amendment'. Although this version does not offer complete protection to Christians preaching the Gospel, it is a significant improvement on the government's version. It is a miracle that the Lester amendment has survived the full might of the government who wanted its version in. I believe this is directly as result of the prayer and action of Christians. Praise God!

However, the government is certainly not giving up - it is saving the fight for the Commons where it has a majority. The Government is determined. It is wasting no time. The Bill will now be back in the House of Commons on the 31st January. The government will seek to use its majority to defeat the Lester amendment version and it is likely the Government will cleverly put its own version of the Bill back in its place with some amendments which the Government say meet all our concerns. The Government is keeping the time frame short so that people will not have time to understand the new version and its inadequacies. It is important to be aware of this tactic and to be ready for it. The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship will be circulating a briefing pointing out the inadequacies shortly.

This is a critical moment in the life of this Bill. We must not give up or grow weary in the Battle. It is for Christians everywhere to point out to the Government the serious dangers of this Bill.

Please make a note of the following dates and encourage your Church congregation and as many other Christians and Church Leaders are informed with this information.

1. Tuesday 31st December 2006 - House of Commons Reading of Incitement to Racial and Religious Hatred Bill (Houses of Parliament). Rally on Tuesday 31st January of Christian believers from 1.00pm to 4.00pm. Believers will meet at OLD PALACE YARD (Opposite the Peer's Gate, which is the House of Lords, where we were last time across the road from the Houses of Parliament).

We are asking that no chanting will take place, only the singing of hymns and worship songs.

2. Sunday 22nd and 29th January - Pray for Freedom of Speech. We are asking Christian churches throughout the UK to take the Sundays preceeding the rally on 31st January to pray as a congregation about the issues relating to the Incitement of Racial and Religious Hatred Bill.

In addition, a special prayer card is available to church members to aid with praying specifically for this cause, copies available at ACEA/EA offices: Whitefield House 186 Kennington Park Road London SE11 4BT Tel 020-7735 7373.

Please continue to write, email and visit your MP's. So far, 425 people have registered on http://www.christianconcernforournation.co.uk/ to say they have visited their MP, and we feel sure that many others have done so without registering. Please register if this is you. We need to keep up the pressure. We want to present this record to the Government and media. If you have not done so now of course is a great time to visit or write to your MP. The Action Pack on the Religious Hatred Bill can be found on the LCF or Christian Concern websites.

RRH Bill passes Third Reading

by Richard Heathfield, 11th July 2005

Soon it will be illegal to read much of the Koran aloud in public. The Government steered the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill through its Third Reading on Monday 11th July, with a majority of 72 for this unnecessary and ill-considered legislation. The independence of mind of our Members of Parliament is truly staggering. (I hope you folks understand irony.) In fact, it seems that the Parliamentary Chamber was almost empty of MPs during the debate; and even those who understood the significance of the Bill (very few!) were unable to vote as their conscience dictated without risking a fight with their party. That leaves the Lords. Keep praying. It isn't over yet.

Westminster - Thousands of Christians demonstrate against RRH Bill

Around three thousand Christians gathered outside Westminster on Monday 11th July to protest against the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. My wife phoned me from the protest, and the background noise level was very high - lots of singing, all sounding very good-natured and positive. Very loud, very cheerful, praising God and fighting oppression. Hallelujah! The public were very supportive, with buses tooting and tourists filming the demonstration. The police indicated that it was the first time they'd ever been sung and danced at; the superb behaviour of the demonstrators was itself a witness to the importance of allowing Christians their freedom of speech - for Christians tend to be models of good behaviour!

At 9am the same morning, a petition signed by over a thousand church ministers, and representing many tens of thousands of Christians, was taken to 10 Downing Street to be delivered to Tony Blair.

Alan Craig and his wife Sally were at the afternoon demo, as were Sid Cordle, Tim Webb, and Stephen Hammond. A great time was had by all, and God was clearly in control of proceedings.

It's hard to understand why a Prime Minister who claims to be Christian is so determined to ignore God's will with regard to freedom of speech, but at least Christians are letting him know that we care about the Gospel, and we'll do whatever we can to retain our right to proclaim it.

Keep praying. It isn't over yet.