Christians feel that they are being forced to hide their religion because of “silly” interpretations of equality laws, a senior MP has said. Sir Alan Beith, chair of the Commons Justice Select Committee, has likened the misunderstandings to those surrounding health and safety regulation, where the rules can be over zealously applied for the wrong reasons. Referring to recent high profile cases involving people being told not to wear religious symbols in the workplace, Sir Alan said that many Christians feel that they have to keep their faith “under wraps”. But rather than being an issue of the law, the 70-year-old MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed said that an ill-informed sense of what it means for the state to be secular often led officials to try and hide anything relating to religious views while in “civil society”. “You get silly things happening, which were not the intention of any legislative change.”

Pray: for a clearer understanding of the law and of the freedoms of speech and religious faith by all quarters of our society. (Jn.14:27)

More: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/christians-forced-to-hide-their-faith-by-equality-laws-says-senior-liberal-democrat-mp-8817694.html