The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is wrong to treat
every belief as equal and identical, according to the Bishop of
Portsmouth.In a letter to the watchdog, Bishop Philip Egan claimed its recent guidance on religion and belief in the workplace failed to distinguish between major world religions, and lifestyles or moral convictions such as vegetarianism or environmentalism.
He said that treating every religion or belief as equal and identical rather than respecting them as essentially different and complementary was "a totalitarian or absolutist concept of ‘equality'".
This meant minority religions such as Druidism would be treated disproportionately, Bishop Egan said, diluting the influence of Christianity - which he described as the religion of the majority - in any policy-making and in the process subvert the core of Britain's national culture.