Bishop issues challenge to Equality Bill
By Adrian Hall, CEN
THE GOVERNMENT’S Equality Bill fails to take sufficient account of religion and instead sees society as “a collection of individuals,” the Bishop of Ripon and
Bishop John Packer said the legislation, which aims to bring together in one place many existing provisions and further address matters such as age discrimination, was underpinned by “inadequate social analysis”.
During a debate on the Queen’s Speech in the House of Lords, he said: “In the Bill there is a dilemma between freedom for individuals to shape their own lives and freedom for groups and communities to define the nature of their common bond. “In a pluralistic society, there must be freedom for communities with particular identities to flourish.
“The Bill is grounded in a view of society as a collection of individuals with rights but fails to take account of the needs of communities to flourish. “That can quickly lead to an authoritarian imposition of an individualistic understanding of difference rather than a celebration of plurality within our society.”
He said the Bill did not “take seriously” the right of communities to order their own life but society is “dependent for its common good” on communities flourishing.
“The Bill allows exemptions to religious groups only on grounds which fail to understand the nature of religion itself, and so it fails to provide an equal freedom to practise a religion according to the beliefs, practices and ethics intrinsic to that faith,” the Bishop added. “That is damaging both to individuals and their practice of faith, and to the contribution which religious groups seek to provide to our plural society, not least in the eradication of child poverty.
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