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Female Bishops in the Church of England and the Equality Act

Female bishop - Courtesy Wikipedia
The vote against female bishops in the House of Laity of the governing General Synod of the Church of England raises many issues and opens up a philosophical can of worms.

Bishops are employees of the Church of England.  Employment Law in the UK states clearly that employers must not discriminate against women (Equality Act 2010).  However, the Equality Act has an explicit exclusion for religious organisations.  It is puzzling that so few people can see anything wrong with this exclusion.  The Law is supposed to be impartial, to apply to the whole population. According to Clause 29 of the Magna Carta:

"....we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right".

Clause 29 is still a part of the Constitution of Britain.  According to Clause 1 of the Magna Carta, also still extant, the Church of England:

"shall have all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable".

So the British Constitution permits the Church of England (but not Moslems or Hindus) to set its own laws and will also not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.  This means that, constitutionally, any British person can demand the same treatment as members of the Church of England.  The Law cannot permit one group of men and women to have one set of Rights and another group to have another set of Rights.  Yet this is precisely what the Equality Act 2010 enacts.

The Equality Act was obviously unjust and badly drafted because it exempted whole sections of the population (religious organisations) from the law simply because they would have the power to resist it.  The Equality Act was rushed through by Harriet Harman at the very end of the previous Labour Government and is unworthy of a modern democracy.

There are two possible ways forward, we can either remove all of the clauses from the Equality Act that would have an impact on Religious Organisations, such as those that relate to discrimination against women (almost all religions) or those that relate to being a member of a particular race (Judaism) or we can repeal the Equality Act, re-enact the anti-discrimination legislation that it replaced and start again.

The Equality Act is not just a rotten piece of legislation because it is unconstitutional, it is also rotten because it turns employers into police and suppresses free speech and free thought in society at large.  Its supporters say that there was a widespread consultation exercise before the Equality Act was introduced but if you look at who was consulted it was largely employment lawyers rubbing their hands with glee at the new business, unions and big corporations who see this type of legislation as a method of destroying small and medium sized enterprises with bureaucracy.

Here is a small selection of recent articles about conflicts within British equalities legislation:

Harriet Harman's law on equality 'is anti-Christian' and unacceptable

Equality legislation creating social tension, say Christian MPs

Christian demoted for gay marriage opposition wins breach of contract case. - if you were not Christian you would have lost this case...

Christian B&B owners punished for not allowing gay couples to sleep together on their property

This is appalling legislation and must be repealed.

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