Let's fight the church on equality  Christian conservatives have
won a victory for discrimination in the Lords. Secularists
should make their voices heard     • theguardian.com,     • Jump
to comments ()  Last night's parliamentary debate on the
equality bill was one of the poorest and most ill-informed I
have ever heard in the House of Lords.  Despite Lord Lester's
eloquent explanation of the bill, and its duty to conform to the
European framework directive from which it sprang, there seemed
to be a determination among the Christian peers and bishops (of
which there was a surfeit) to ignore our obligations to the EU
as a member state. Indeed, Lord Tebbit put it most baldly when
he said: "We have a choice tonight – whether we walk in fear of
the law of the Lord or the law of Brussels. I know which way I
am going."  "Religious freedom" seems to give these Christians
an absolute right to ignore the law if they dislike it. The
bishops were particularly culpable on this. As they argued for
the removal of the need