An open letter to Members of European Parliament and Council

An open letter to Members of European Parliament and Council

Dear Members of European Parliament and Council,

We would like to share with you our serious concern about the proposal of Directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.

This proposal contains clauses which if accepted would seriously interfere with the basic human rights and freedoms, such as freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

This proposal prohibits any behaviour creating an environment that would offense other person for their religious belief or sexual orientation. The prohibition of such behaviour pertains to public and also private sector in areas of social security, including social welfare and health care, social benefits, education, access to goods and services, which are accessible to the public, including lodging.

On the basis of this legislation Christians would be forbidden to advocate in many areas of social life the important aspects of Biblical teaching, such as immorality of homosexual behaviour (see the letter to the Romans, Chapter 1.) An individual would face serious financial sanctions/penalties for breaching this prohibition. We are also alarmed because the proposal presupposes a partial transfer of the burden of proof to the person charged with „behaviour causing offensive environment“. “Feeling offended” is a very relative notion, which remains unclear in its definition, on which the law cannot abide according to the European Court on Human Rights judgement in case of Hashman and Harrup v. United Kingdom of 25th Nov 1999.

We are greatly concerned that approval of this proposal would mean limitation of freedom of speech and religious affiliation, as well as a beginning of persecutions of Christians in Europe. It would surely extent also to believers of Judaism and Islam.

The directive aims at redefinition of what religion and belief means. Upholding Biblical views by European citizens in professional, social, public and business sector would be not allowed. Faith itself would be suppressed and tolerated only as a private opinion. This was our experience during Communism, whose ideology denied public manifestation of faith to its citizens.

In Great Britain similar legislation has been implemented for some time now. The consequences of this legislation in the Great Britain support our concerns. For example, Catholic adoption agencies were forced to close down their activities, as the Catholic faith does not allow them to facilitate adoption of children to homosexual couples. Furthermore, in 2008 a bishop of the Church of England was convicted for refusing to employ a practicing homosexual as a youth worker. Similarly, a British Christian Charity association was charged for not giving a promotion to an atheist employee.

Dear Members of the European Parliament, dear Council, for all these reasons we urge you to disapprove the Proposal for a Directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation and therefore support the protection of freedom of speech and the freedom of religion in Europe.

Respectfully,

Mgr. Marek Nikolov, President of the civil association Pastor Bonus

Mgr. Marcel Podolinský, Vice-president of the civil association Pastor Bonus

Legislation proposal link