From The Daily Mail-
Churches could be forced to hire homosexuals and transsexuals against the tenets of their faith when employing staff under planned Labour equality laws, it was claimed yesterday.
The new Equality Bill could require them to take on candidates who do not fit in with their religious doctrine when recruiting key staff such as faith school headteachers or youth workers.
At the moment, organised religions have a special status that lets them turn down applicants whose lifestyles conflict with the churches' beliefs, even if they are otherwise well qualified for the job.
But religious leaders are concerned the proposed law will restrict their ability to employ lay people who share their values.
The Bill - introduced by Equality Minister Harriet Harman in the Commons last year - is being debated in the Lords today.
Churches and mosques are allowed to reject candidates for jobs as ministers or priests if they are actively homosexual, if they have changed their sex or are women.
It also extends to key staff who promote the religion such as faith school heads.
But many in the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches fear that new wording proposed by the Government will undermine this right. The Government insists it will not, and merely clarifies the law.
Now three Anglican bishops have issued a statement warning that churches could find themselves vulnerable to legal challenges under the proposals.
The Government had 'produced no convincing case for change,' said the bishops of Winchester, Exeter and Chester. The bishops have written to members of the House of Lords urging them to vote down what they see as a weakening of the churches' special status.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245797/Harriet-Harmans-law-force-churches-hire-gays.html#ixzz0dcfiTk0h
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