Equality & Religious Freedom: What accommodation is reasonable?
on Tuesday, 21 January 2014 at 11.45 am by Simon Sarmiento
categorised as equality legislation
The Cutting Edge Consortium invites you to discuss:
Equality & Religious Freedom: What accommodation is reasonable?
Tuesday 4th February 6.30pm
House of Commons Committee Room 15
With Speakers:
- Karon Monaghan QC, Matrix Chambers
- Carola Towle, National LGBT Officer UNISON
- Frank Cranmer, Honorary Research Fellow Centre for Law & Religion, Cardiff University
This meeting is kindly sponsored by Sadiq Khan MP
Please email Cutting Edge Consortium to register your attendance
Here’s a thought (re “What accommodation is reasonable?”). Believe WHATEVER you want to believe . . . but treat everyone EQUALLY under the law.
[Really, this isn’t a new issue. I mean, which sinner among us wouldn’t behave as dictator towards “the unworthy”, if we could? But we (legally) can’t, so we (hopefully) don’t.]
“Believe WHATEVER you want to believe . . . but treat everyone EQUALLY under the law.” If only it were so simple. For most religious people, belief isn’t just something that can be swept into a private corner. It influences everything we do, every decision we make, every hour of the day (or it should do – few of us, perhaps, really live up to that principle). If we live under laws that are dictated by secular humanist and utilitarian principles, then there will inevitably come to be occasions when we are in conflict with the law. Then there is… Read more »
“What, for instance, would a dedicated ‘equalist’ say about the Christian pacifist commitment to conscientious objection? Should Christians get special treatment merely because of the beliefs they profess to have? Strict equality would suggest not.” I’m afraid I don’t follow. I’m a conscientious objector myself: a Christian pacifist, following the example/instruction of Jesus. But I don’t believe that ONLY Christians should receive C.O. status. If your, um, *conscience* objects to war—even a humanist-formed conscience—then they should receive the same status. As far as conflict w/ “secular humanist and utilitarian principles” goes, I’ve found that REGRETTABLY those principles tend to reflect… Read more »
rjb, the principle is sound. My faith does inform how I live and influence what I do. But it does not give me the right to impose those same rules and principles on others. The question of whether Muslims should have the right to set up their own legal system is one for all citizens of this country to answer through our parliamentary system of making those kinds of decisions that affect Muslims and non-Muslims alike. What we ought not to have is this strange state of affairs we have with regard to Scottish independence, where the outcome of the… Read more »
Anyone going?
I am chairing this event, so yes I am going.