The Conscience Clause: Jesus Key Message
From one response to our consultation on the DUP’s conscience clause:
I think if people go into a profession where they will be serving the entire community then they must accept that they cannot pick and choose who they provide for.I think the dup should reflect on Jesus’ key message ‘Love one another as I have loved you’.
—Deirdre Agnew
The Conscience Clause: The Scriptural Position
There are two major problems with the DUP’s proposed conscience clause.
- It may harm those who are less well-off
- It doesn’t actually help situations where a Christian’s conscience may tell them to refuse work
The first problem was addressed in yesterday’s article. The second is addressed in this article.
The stimulus for this proposed legislation was the refusal of a “Christian” bakery to decorate a cake that it felt carried an un-Christian message. The consultation document itself refers to a hypothetical Catholic adoption agency and a hypothetical Evangelical photographer. Would this legislation have any effect in these cases?
While a Christian should operate within human laws, it is far more important that Christian behaviour is governed by the laws of God, as found in the Bible. It should come as no surprise that the New Testament already contains a “conscience clause”.
Paul the Apostle gave this advice to the Christians in Corinth.
“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral … But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral… Do not even eat with such people.”
(1 Corinthians 5:9-11)
In Paul’s view, your conscience regarding ‘sexually immoral’ people did not stop you interacting with them as normal. It was only when a fellow Christian was sexually immoral that you were supposed to invoke Paul’s conscience clause:
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?” (verse 12)
Consider an Evangelical photographer. He is free to believe that same-sex relationships are always immoral. Refusing to photograph a civil partnership ceremony for a non-Evangelical couple on grounds of ‘conscience’ is an act of judgement, and an act of judgement for someone outside the photographer’s church. Paul the Apostle says this is wrong.
No Christian would ever exercise the conscience clause this proposal seeks to give, as doing so would go against the clear teaching of Christian Scripture. This proposal is of no benefit to the hypothetical Catholic adoption agency, the hypothetical Evangelical photographer, or even the very real “Christian” bakery. It is quite simply un-Christian to discriminate in the way the conscience clause would allow.
Based on page 14 of Faith and Pride’s response to the consultation on the Northern Ireland Freedom of Conscience Amendment Bill.
The Conscience Clause: Concern for the Less Well Off in Society
There are two major problems with the DUP’s proposed conscience clause.
- It may harm those who are less well-off
- It doesn’t actually help situations where a Christian’s conscience may tell them to refuse work
The first problem is addressed in this article. The second will be addressed tomorrow.
Christians ought to show concern for the less well-off and vulnerable in society. This proposal provides protections for a relatively prosperous sector of society while at best ignoring, and possibly even harming, the less prosperous.
Consider an Evangelical photographer who believes that it would be a violation of their faith identity to take photographs of a civil partnership ceremony. If that photographer is rich enough to own his own business, this proposal will allow him to refuse to take photographs of a civil partnership ceremony. However if the photographer is not rich enough to own his own business and is employed by a photography company, then his employer determines whether or not he should photograph a civil partnership ceremony. If this proposal provides freedom of conscience, then it only provides it to the rich. This discrimination against the poor is abhorrent to Christianity.
It is conceivable that, if this proposal is passed, the employment opportunities for people with a strong faith identity will be harmed. For example, if a photography firm is owned by an Evangelical who refuses to photograph civil partnership ceremonies, then certain sectors of the population will not approach the firm to do business. If another photography firm merely employed an Evangelical, then there is a real risk that the firm will be perceived as being Evangelical and as a result its business will be harmed. This makes Evangelical employees less desirable, making it harder for Evangelical people to find employment. Once again, the proposal protects the prosperous and in this scenario actively harms the less well off.
It is completely impractical to suggest that the conscience clause be extended to all employees. It would make it impossible for firms to recruit staff to do a particular job, because at any point in their employment an employee could invoke the conscience clause to decline to do essential tasks. For example, an Evangelical human resources manager may refuse to do the necessary administration to add an employee’s civil partner to a company’s health insurance plan because it was believed that that was an endorsement of same-sex relationships.
Based on page 15 of Faith and Pride’s response to the consultation on the Northern Ireland Freedom of Conscience Amendment Bill.
Faith and Pride’s Response to the Conscience Clause Consultation
We have submitted our response to the DUP’s consultation on the Northern Ireland Freedom of Conscience Amendment Bill. Our response was based on responses we had to our own consultation.
Overall, based on the responses we have had, and an analysis of the proposed legislation compared to the teaching of the New Testament, Faith and Pride is opposed to the proposed legislation.
Read our response in full here.
The previous version of the response had a number of errors. Please see Conscience Clause response errata.
Christians and the Conscience Clause
Christian consciences have been a concern since the days of the New Testament. A long time ago, a wise man called Paul the Apostle gave advice to the Christians in Corinth about how to handle their consciences.
“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral … But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral… Do not even eat with such people.” (1 Corinthians 5:9-11).
In Paul’s view, your conscience regarding ‘sexually immoral’ people did not stop you interacting with them as normal. It was only when a fellow Christian was sexually immoral that you were supposed to invoke Paul’s conscience clause: “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?” (Verse 12)
Consider an Evangelical photographer. He is free to believe that same-sex relationships are always immoral. Refusing to photograph a civil partnership ceremony for a non-Evangelical couple on grounds of ‘conscience’ is an act of judgement, and an act of judgement for someone outside the photographer’s church. Paul the Apostle says this is wrong.
Much more recently, another man called Paul has come up with a new idea. This Paul, an MLA not an Apostle, suggests that Christians should judge those outside the church, to the extent of refusing to do business with them if their moral standards are found wanting.
However well-meaning Mr Givan and his DUP colleagues are, it strikes me that no Christian would ever exercise the conscience clause he seeks to give them, as doing so would go against the clear teaching of Christian Scripture.
DUP MLA Paul Givan has proposed a Private Member’s Bill for the Northern Ireland Assembly. This bill, which proposes introducing a conscience clause to the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (NI), will allow people to use religious belief to discriminate legally against people based on sexual orientation. Faith and Pride will be responding to the consultation, and is running its own consultation beforehand.
Update 26th December 2014. This article has been published as a letter in the Belfast Telegraph.
Faith and Pride Consultation on the Northern Ireland Freedom of Conscience Amendment Bill
DUP MLA Paul Givan has proposed a Private Member’s Bill for the Northern Ireland Assembly. This bill, which proposes introducing a conscience clause to the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, will allow people to use religious belief to legally discriminate against people based on sexual orientation. The DUP recently launched a consultation on the bill. You can read the proposed bill and consultation paper on the DUP website.
Faith and Pride will be responding to this consultation. We would like to hear about what other people in Northern Ireland (and beyond) think about this bill, and so we are running our own consultation before submitting our response to the DUP. We particularly want to hear from people who would be uncomfortable with contacting the DUP directly.
If you would like to respond to our consultation, please read the DUP’s consultation document and then fill out the form below. All fields are optional. No personally identifying information will be shared with any third party unless your explicit consent is given. Most of the fields below are questions taken from the DUP’s consultation document.
Update Our consultation has now closed. Our response will be submitted to the DUP and published on this website in due course. You can respond directly to the DUP via their website.
Community Carols by Candlelight
The Gathering, the gay men’s spiritual group, is holding its annual Community Christmas Carols by Candlelight on Thursday 11th December 2014, in All Soul’s Church, Elmwood Avenue, Belfast, BT9 at 7:30pm. Refreshments will be served afterwards.
This year the speaker is Pádraig Ó Tuama. He is a the Corrymeela Community leader, a poet, and a theologian.
The collection this year will be for the DEC Ebola appeal.
Equal marriage in Gibraltar
I have had a letter on equal marriage published in the Gibraltar Chronicle.
Although I have only lived in Gibraltar for a short time, I have been much struck by the diversity and tolerance shown here. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Bahá’í, people of other faiths, and people of no faith all live together in mutual respect. Gibraltar enjoys religious freedom to an extent that most of the world can only dream about.
This freedom does not come freely, and everyone who lives here must protect and promote this freedom that we all share. Supporting religious freedom means that we should support same-sex marriage. People from all parts of the religious spectrum support same-sex marriage, and there are churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples that would gladly perform same-sex weddings.
When we say that the law only recognises opposite-sex marriage, we are saying that the religious views of people like M. Bear (Letters, 21st November 2014) are more important than the religious views of people like me. This is a limitation to religious freedom that I believe is shocking to the so-called ‘silent majority’. If you support freedom of religion, you must support same-sex marriage.
Andrew McFarland Campbell
Faith and Pride
The Biblical view on being gay and a Christian
And another letter published in the Belfast Telegraph.
I take the Bible just as seriously as any other Christian from Northern Ireland. If there were really a single sound-bite verse that could prove that you cannot be gay and Christian, as Good News Messenger seems to think (Writeback, November 17), then I would listen to what it said, and close my organisation Faith and Pride.
As proof that you can’t be gay and Christian, Good News Messenger quoted the 2011 NIV translation of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. On the face of it, that translation does seem to be convincing, but only on the face of it. There are two Greek words (malakos and arsenokoites) that are translated together to become “men who have sex with men”. In other translations they become things like “effeminate”, “self-indulgent”, and “sexual perverts”. It seems that translators are not in agreement about what is meant.
People in the 1st Century Graeco-Roman world often wrote about all sorts of sexual relationships between men, in both positive and negative terms. Malakos and arsenokoites are not used in those discussions. This is a very strong indication that in the 1st century those words did not mean “men who have sex with men”. The arguments for that translation are based on a mixture of modern prejudice and a misunderstanding of how etymology is related to meaning.
It is perhaps foolish to depend on one translation of one verse for guidance. It is far better to look at what Christ himself said about the topic, in a passage where there is no significant dispute about the meaning: Matthew 25:31-46.
ANDREW McFARLAND CAMPBELL
Faith and Pride
Remember, some of us are both gay and Christian
I have had another letter on same-sex marriage published in the Belfast Telegraph.
IT seems that much of the coverage of the gay marriage cake affair has portrayed it as Christians on one side and gay people on the other. It is too easy for people to forget that some of us are both.
There are gay people who are Christians and there are Christians who support same-sex marriage. Indeed, there is a long Christian tradition of fully supporting same-sex relationships.
While this tradition has, arguably, always been in the minority, being in the minority does not mean that you are not Christian.
I am lucky enough to know the “gay activist” who ordered the cake in question. I am perplexed by that label. I think he is better described as a “community worker”. He is a man who goes out of his way to help people, particularly those at the edges of our society.
While I don’t want to judge anyone in this case, it seems to me that kindness, particularly kindness to those at the edges of our society, is a key Christian virtue; after all, Christ himself said loving your neighbour is like unto loving God (Matthew 22: 36-40).
ANDREW McFARLAND CAMPBELL
Faith and Pride
Faith and Pride 