Permission to Speak

A while back I wrote to my local MP...

On another subject, you'll be aware of increasing concern among Christians about the proposed EU Directive on Equal Treatment, and in particular the 'Harassment Provision'. This legislation if approved would make saying anything of a religious nature that was deemed to be offensive by a third party an offence - further the burden of proof would lie on the 'offender' to prove what they said wasn't offensive to the offended! The legislation is apparently so vague as to make it impossible to anticipate what another person may regard as offensive.

All this is explained by a Professor of Law on video at the following website: http://www.ccfon.org/mediacentre.php?avid=266&avap=1

I would be grateful if you shared these concerns, about what many believe to be an insidious threat not just to religious liberty but to freedom of speech in general, if you were able to communicate them to Harriet Harman who will be discussing these proposals at the Council of Ministers. As ever thanks for your time in this and your work generally, Regards

I'm pleased to say I have now received the following reply....

Further to our previous correspondance, I have now received a reply from the Government Equalities Office regarding your concerns over the European Equal Treatment Directive, in particular the Harassment Clause.

In his reply, the Minister explains that, owing to the evidence collated during the consultation process, a harassment clause has not been included in the Equality Bill. This is because it was felt that harassment protection on the grounds of sexual orientation, religion or belief was covered by other discrimination provisions or not within the scope of discrimination.

It should go without saying that the concern expressed by myself was not that Christians should be free to harass others - the teaching of Jesus is to treat all people with respect and kindness (which is not to say that we need agree with all that they do). Rather that there is a creeping trend of legislation that threatens to criminalise the expression of any views not acceptable to liberal minded secularists. This 'concession' is not likely to reverse that trend in itself - but it removes a certain level of intimidation against the expression of Christian beliefs. It is also an encouragement for us to keep on interacting with our law-makers on such matters.