Dear Supporter,

Equality Bill

We give thanks to God that last night the House of Lords resoundingly rejected the Government's planned religious harassment law. Peers voted by 216 to 126 for Lord Lester and Lady O'Cathain's amendment deleting religious harassment from the Bill.

Under the Government's plans it would be illegal for a public or state body to 'harass' an individual on the grounds of their religion or belief. Peers from all parties warned the religious harassment law could be used to restrict freedom of speech and religious liberty. Many expressed fears that the law would encourage politically correct officials to stop public expressions of Christianity, such as evangelism or carol services - leading to more cases such as those we have seen in our newspapers in recent days.

The Equality Bill now goes to the House of Commons.

A battle for another day

As expected, earlier in the day the Government accepted Lord Alli's amendment on 'sexual orientation'. The amendment (passed without a vote) obliges the Government to bring forward regulations at some point in the future to ban 'homophobic' discrimination in providing goods or services. We are opposed to this new law in principle and are saddened that it is supported by all three main political parties at Westminster.

Nevertheless, several Peers spoke of the need to include comprehensive protections for churches and religious bodies, to prevent, for example, churches being forced to rent out their halls to 'gay rights' activists.

We also fear that such a law could even mandate the equal promotion of homosexuality and heterosexuality in schools. The Government has promised broad consultation before the regulations are introduced to Parliament. This is a battle for another day.

Prayer points

• Give thanks to God for yesterday's defeat of the religious harassment
  law.
• Give thanks to God for Lady O'Cathain for all her work to defend our
  religious freedom.
• Give thanks to God that many Peers spoke out in defence of religious
  liberty in the debate on religious harassment.
• Please pray that many MPs would now be made aware of the problems with
  the religious harassment law, as the Bill proceeds to the Commons.
• Please pray that the Government would be persuaded of the need to give
  substantial protections for religious liberty and schools in its future
  sexual orientation regulations.
• Please pray for wisdom for Institute staff as they continue to work on
  these issues.

The victory on religious harassment is a fantastic result. Thank you for all your prayers about this issue. Thank you also to the many people who wrote letters to Peers. Those letters helped to persuade Peers that this was an important issue of concern to real people.

Yours sincerely,

Humphrey Dobson
Deputy Director (Policy and Staffing)
The Christian Institute