I'm very pleased to see that the Catholic adoption charity Catholic Care has failed in its attempt to be granted an exemption from equality laws as the BBC reports. It wanted to be able to refuse to place a child with gay couples on the basis of its religious beliefs.
I would have been pretty outraged if the ruling had gone the other way - it's not for organisations to pick and choose which laws apply to it. The state has no right to regulate religious belief - but when religious organisations are offering services, or acting as employers, then they should have to abide by the same laws as everyone else.
Imagine if the owners of a supermarket or pub chain decided they were followers of a new religion, let's call it the Church of Mammon, and said that its beliefs conflicted with the need to pay their workers the minimum wage, or give them paid holiday, or maternity leave. They would never get away with it. Catholic Care's move amounted to the same sort of thing.
It's nice when common sense prevails.....
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