{"id":4151,"date":"2011-07-17T19:59:24","date_gmt":"2011-07-17T23:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=4151"},"modified":"2011-07-17T08:38:21","modified_gmt":"2011-07-17T12:38:21","slug":"british-commission-says-judges-have-been-too-tough-on-uk-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/british-commission-says-judges-have-been-too-tough-on-uk-christians","title":{"rendered":"British commission says judges have been too tough on UK Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><strong>By AL WEBB<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Religion News Service<\/em><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>LONDON\u00a0\u2013 A government-funded watchdog panel said British judges have erred in supporting employers who try to fire Christian workers for wearing crosses or refusing to offer sex counseling to gay couples.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Equality and Human Rights Commission said Monday that employers should ease up, saying current interpretations of the law are \u201cinsufficient to protect freedom of religion or belief.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The commission\u2019s ruling came barely a day after the Church of England\u2019s General Synod called on the British government to give Christians the legal protection to defend themselves against prosecution for faith-based decisions.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In a string of legal cases in recent years, Christians have faced labor and legal disciplinary action for wearing religious symbols such as crucifixes on the job or refusing services to gay couples because of religious beliefs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/07\/commission-says-courts-have-been-too-tough-on-british-christians.html#ixzz1RwFPWHPe\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>CLICK HERE to read more<\/strong> <\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By AL WEBB Religion News Service LONDON\u00a0\u2013 A government-funded watchdog panel said British judges have erred in supporting employers who try to fire Christian workers for wearing crosses or refusing to offer sex counseling to gay couples. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Equality and Human Rights Commission said Monday that employers should ease up, saying current interpretations of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,976,8,966],"tags":[2204,2201,2242,1092],"class_list":["post-4151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-free-speech","category-news","category-persecution","tag-christian","tag-news","tag-persecution","tag-uk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>British commission says judges have been too tough on UK Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/british-commission-says-judges-have-been-too-tough-on-uk-christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"British commission says judges have been too tough on UK Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By AL WEBB Religion News Service LONDON\u00a0\u2013 A government-funded watchdog panel said British judges have erred in supporting employers who try to fire Christian workers for wearing crosses or refusing to offer sex counseling to gay couples. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Equality and Human Rights Commission said Monday that employers should ease up, saying current interpretations of&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta 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Christians","og_description":"By AL WEBB Religion News Service LONDON\u00a0\u2013 A government-funded watchdog panel said British judges have erred in supporting employers who try to fire Christian workers for wearing crosses or refusing to offer sex counseling to gay couples. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Equality and Human Rights Commission said Monday that employers should ease up, saying current interpretations of&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/british-commission-says-judges-have-been-too-tough-on-uk-christians","og_site_name":"Beliefnet 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