Bishops have accused the Government of “dangerously” trying to force religion behind closed doors while defending the beliefs of minority groups such as homosexuals.
The senior clerics warned that Harriet Harman’s Equality Bill suggests some rights are considered "more important than others".
They backed calls for a “conscience clause” to be added to the law so that the rights of religious worshippers are not ignored by attempts to protect minorities.
Labour’s flagship equality legislation, currently in committee stage in the House of Lords, seeks to outlaw any form of discrimination against disadvantaged groups in the office or the market place.
However, there are fears that it could undermine the ability of worshippers to express the traditional teachings of their religions, many of which believe that homosexuality is a sin; that only men and women can marry; and that sex outside marriage is wrong.
The Bishop of Chichester, the Rt Rev John Hind, warned that the Government was wrong to make people separate their personal religious beliefs from their behaviour in the workplace.
He said: “The attempt to privatise belief, whether philosophical or religious, is a profoundly dangerous tendency and one that we need to address as we consider not only this but later amendments.”
The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, said that clauses in the bill that attempt to prevent "harassment" could be used to punish Christians who simply offer to pray for someone or tell them: "God bless you."
He said the authorities believe that "one can switch on and switch off one's whole mindset and behaviour". But, in reality, he said "people of faith who are worth their salt - I guess this is true of Jews, Muslims and many others, as well as Christians - are what they are through and through, like the lettering in a stick of rock".
Peers claimed that the Equality Bill should be altered to allow people to act according to their conscience when providing goods and services, in the same way that doctors are allowed to refuse to carry out abortions.
Bishop Scott-Joynt, the fifth most senior cleric in the Church of England, pointed out that similar exemptions had been requested but refused in the case of civil partnerships. A Christian registrar, Lilian Ladele, lost a case for unfair dismissal after she refused to carry out the ceremonies for homosexual couples.
The bishop said in a debate in the House of Lords: “The implication of the [conscience] amendment is that each of us... is bound to work as hard as we can to hold the whole range of different people's rights, because there is a sense around that some rights are better than others."
Lord Mackay of Clashfern, a Lord Chancellor under the former Conservative government who proposed the conscience amendment, said the law as proposed would mean a boarding house keeper who wanted unmarried couples to sleep in separate bedrooms would have to act against his conscience.
Baroness Thornton, for the Government, said: “While the Equality Bill maintains everyone's right to express in a legitimate manner both religious and non-religious beliefs, it is only right that people employed by commercial and publicly funded organisations are not allowed to discriminate on any grounds, no matter what their private belief.”
Meanwhile, Michael Foster, the Equality Minister, has attempted to allay fears that churches would be forced to accept women or homosexuals into the priesthood because of the new law.
He announced that the definition of a “minister of religion” will be changed in the Equality Bill because of concerns that no clergy would qualify for an exemption from the discrimination rules.
This would have meant they could have been sued, like other employers, if they turned down a candidate for the priesthood on the grounds that they were female or homosexual.
Mr Foster said: “The Equality Bill will still allow churches to hire only male clergy and will let faith-based charities continue to recruit people of the same faith where this is a requirement of the job, such as care staff who may also be asked to pray with the people they look after.
“We have been absolutely clear on this throughout the Bill's passage, but as there has been some misunderstanding around our intentions we will amend the Bill to make this clear beyond doubt.”
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