Daily View: Pope Benedict's attack of the Equality Bill

Clare Spencer|10:04 UK time, Wednesday, 3 February 2010

The Pope's criticism of the Equality Bill has started commentators discussing the merits of religious freedom versus protection against gay discrimination.

Andrew Pierce in the Daily Mail explains why, as a gay man, he agrees with the Pope:

"Quite simply, I believe that the Government's decision to force the Church to abide by its equality legislation could hurt some of the most vulnerable members of our society - those whom I thought ministers had a duty to protect.... First, it needs to be asked loud and clear: why would any gay people hoping to adopt children go to a Catholic agency? They don't need to."

Simon Jenkins in the Guardian calls the Pope's views on homosexuality "odious". Despite this, he is critical of the Equality Bill:

"The avowedly socialist drift of her bill is 'not only to build a new economic order but a new social order', a social order of her [Harriet Harman] own devising. People with such ambition are usually intolerant of others, and often dangerous. Harman's interest is not social equality - which her government has conspicuously ignored - but state control."

David Blackburn in the Spectator criticises the Equality Bill for being "un-British":

"This legislation is the progeny of faith in social engineering, not social mobility; it ignores that toleration and freedom in Britain were derived from the right to religious observance free from state proscriptions."

The Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth Lord Sacks says in the Times that the state is "trampling on individual freedoms":

"When Christians, Jews and others feel that the ideology of human rights is threatening their freedoms of association and religious practice, a tension is set in motion that is not healthy for society, freedom or Britain. Rather than regard the Pope's remarks as an inappropriate intervention, we should use them to launch an honest debate on where to draw the line between our freedom as individuals and our freedom as members of communities of faith"

Against the Pope's stance, gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell says in the New Statesman that the Pope's statement is a "coded attack" on gay people and women:

"His ill-informed claim that our equality laws undermine religious freedom suggests that he supports the right of faith organisations to discriminate in accordance with their religious ethos. He seems to be defending discrimination by religious institutions and demanding that they should be above the law."

Ian Dunt on the politics website politics.co.uk says allowing religious groups exemption from the bill sets an intolerable precedent:

"The principle in this case must be that religions cannot be granted exemptions from the law merely on the basis that they are a religion. After all, no-one else is consistently offered exemption. Why should they? The mere fact religious groups have forsaken rationality should not grant them special favour."

And finally, the Guardian editorial points out that if the Equality Bill is passed it will protect the Pope and his views on his planned visit to the UK:

"He is expected to make controversial statements. Some might like to see him cold-shouldered by the Queen and the government because of his outspoken statements. This won't happen. By then, after all, the Pope is likely to be protected from such religious discrimination by the very equalities legislation he now sees as a threat to justice and the natural order of things."

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