Churches fear Equality Bill

Churches have warned new equality laws could force them to go against their faith when hiring staff.
They say the Equality Bill may force them to employ sexually active gay people and transsexuals when hiring staff other than priests or ministers.
Churches currently have special status allowing them to turn down certain candidates for ministers or priests.
The government says it is not trying to narrow the churches' ability to employ lay people who share their values.
The Equality Bill - which is due to be debated in the House of Lords on Monday - would allow churches to avoid appointing homosexuals to clerical roles.
'Special status'
However, bishops claim that they could lose the right to ensure other important staff - such as key representative and teaching roles - had lifestyles compatible with church beliefs.
Anglican bishops have written to members of the House of Lords, appealing to them to vote against what they see as a weakening of the churches' special status under the Equality Bill.
Churches are allowed to turn down candidates for jobs as ministers or priests if they are actively homosexual or have changed their gender, or especially relevant to the Roman Catholic Church, if they are women.
That exemption currently extends to key staff such as youth workers or the heads of Catholic schools, but the bishops claim that changes proposed by the government would remove it.
The government says it is not trying to narrow the churches' ability to employ lay people who share their values, but bishops have been recruiting allies in the Lords for a protracted battle over the bill. (from BBC)

Typical chuch attitude against gay people...

i can see nothing the churches have to fear any gay peeps iknow are kind ,caring and considerate and the best mates a girl could have.

What hypocritical cant! A bunch of people who think nothing of employing paedophiles (and covering up for them when they are found out) have the nerve to discriminate against gay people - unbelievable bunkum!!!!

As Karma says the Church has managed to employ then cover for paedophiles but being gay is unacceptable.What arrant nonsense.

Karma & Bug, the church does not employ paedophiles knowingly, it does not do it by choice, it is done through poor vetting or by complicit church members. It is like a bank employing a fraudster it does not do it knowingly. Where the church is wrong is in trying to hide criminal activity and that is not because it supports the activity but because it is scared to reveal that activity because of the reputational damage.

I think we should look at the wider picture, you have picked on Gays but what about transexuals and women. This has nothing to do with how nice and caring the people are it has to do with their beliefs and life style. Almost like employing Pharaoh Thutmose I as a Kindergarden helper.

I just wonder how they would know about these things - as Catholic Priests are not supposed to have sex in or out of a relationship - so whose telling?....also how does having sex with children relate to their beliefs????? It is covered up because it is rife....would it not be better for the church to have someone who is honest enough to say 'I was once a man in the wrong body' or 'I dress up in trousers/skirts once I get out of my priests robes' rather than a hetrosexual man who molests children and expects and gets protection.......the children have enough to bear without the church covering up for the person who took their childhood away!

karma wrote:I just wonder how they would know about these things - as Catholic Priests are not supposed to have sex in or out of a relationship - so whose telling?....also how does having sex with children relate to their beliefs????? It is covered up because it is rife....would it not be better for the church to have someone who is honest enough to say 'I was once a man in the wrong body' or 'I dress up in trousers/skirts once I get out of my priests robes' rather than a hetrosexual man who molests children and expects and gets protection.......the children have enough to bear without the church covering up for the person who took their childhood away!

Never said touching up kids relates to any beliefs, it is a criminal activity pure and simple. Priests probably watch tv, read the papers and get told by parishioners and of course they probably on the odd occasion have been known to have a lady hidden away.

Your arguement is they employ paedophiles so why don't they employ transexuals, gays and women. They probably do employ gays and transexuals but don't know about them (or hide them away)they do not employ them intentionally as they do not employ paedophiles intentionally.

Think a bit about what has been written. What we have to get our head around is that the church does not intentionally employ men who touch kids up, they just cover up the deeds (not saying that is right) for reputational reasons. They do not want to openly employ gays, women and transexuals because that is against their religious beliefs and teachings, that is their argument which is totally different to the argument that you are putting across.

Is it not a case of 'Better the Devil you know' ??

Not really, once you have employed, especially an institution like a church, how do you get rid of some undesirable and at the same time keep a low profile. We are now out of the dark ages so they can't just kill them which would probably be the best solution. The church represents everything that is good, again depending on what side of the fence you sit, but for believers it is good personified. So to have a miscreant in the church is really bad for the image, hence the cover ups, not because the church agrees with what is done but because it does not want bad publicity.

Now, how can the church employ people it knows to be gay when it teaches that this is wrong, that would be hypocritical. Hence the objection to the bill, anyway that's the way I interpret it. It has nothing to do with encumbent paedophiles or how nice gays, women or transexuals are.