New law poses threat to Christian preachers
Date: Jan 27

A “CHILLING CULTURE of intimidation and investigation” could be the result of the Government’s religious hatred law, according to leading opponents after the Bill passed its final reading in the House of Lords this week. Don Horrocks of the Evangelical Alliance criticised the Church of England for “too readily accepting the Government’s line”.

Mr Horrocks said that although the Bill had been amended by the House of Lords with the so-called ‘Lester amendment’, whose key purpose was to ensure that ‘intent’ to incite religious hatred was put on the face of the Bill, the Government had added ‘recklessness’. He said he, and lawyers the EA had consulted, believed that it would be very difficult to defend against such a vague charge like recklessness. “This is a recipe for extremists and martyrs. We already know we have extremists in the Christian community, they are certainly there in the Muslim faith and perhaps other faiths as well,” he said. the rest