The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has criticised the High Court's decision not to allow a sex therapist to discriminate against gay couples.
Gary McFarlane, 48, lost his latest battle with counselling service
Relate yesterday, whom he claims made him a victim of religious discrimination.
Previously, Lord Carey and other church leaders urged senior judges to
stand down from Court of Appeal hearings involving religious
discrimination, claiming they should be replaced with a panel of judges
who have a proven understanding of religious issues.
But yesterday they were defeated when Lord Justice Laws said legislation for the protection of views held purely on religious grounds could not be justified.
As reported in The Guardian, Carey said the judgment "continues a trend on the part of the courts
to downgrade the right of religious believers to manifest their faith
in what has become a deeply unedifying collision of human rights."
"It
heralded a 'secular' state rather than a 'neutral' one. And while with
one hand the ruling seeks to protect the right of religious believers
to hold and express their faith, with the other it takes away those
same rights. It says that the sacking of religious believers in recent
cases was not a denial of their rights even though religious belief
cannot be divided from its expression in every area of the believer's
life.
"Oddly the judge doesn't address the argument that rights
have to be held in balance and he is apparently indifferent to the fact
that religious believers are adversely affected by this judgment and
others."