The Human Rights lobby think a Christian is like a Druid

I should say at the outset that I was turned down by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for a post they advertised. I'd never have dared apply had it not been for Trevor Phillips, who headed it at the time. "Why don't you have a Christian on board?" I had asked him. "Why don't you apply?" he'd graciously replied. Alas, he was leaving the Commission when he said it. But when I saw his replacement – Baroness O'Neill – I wasn't upset about my failed application: the philosopher is, at least on paper, Christian. She'd look after the interests of the majority of Britons who feel they belong to that faith.

I was wrong to relax, though. Today I read that the EHRC has made one of those "recommendations" that make my blood boil: employers must allow Druids vegans and greens to express their "beliefs" in the workplace, or risk legal action. In other words, the tenets of Druids, vegans and greens are on a par with those of Christianity and the world religions. No one distinguishes between dietary rules and Christian values, or between God and Gaia. I've written here before about how the BBC will invite so-called witches on religious programmes and expect everyone to take them as seriously as rabbis or vicars. The reverence with which a book as fatuous as "Eat, Pray, Love" was treated by millions shows that spirituality still means something.

The problem is that, whether Druid or vegan, the religious spirit of our age (and the EHRC is nothing if not of the moment) is big on the supernatural but light on the discipline that underpins faith. Saying no (to lying, adultery, promiscuity) is difficult and above all implies a distinction between right and wrong. Druids, vegans and greens are preachy about "ethical" lifestyles but that's the problem: it's more lifestyle than faith. This nuance is lost on the EHRC, which will now be obliged to extend its special pleading to Jedi warriors and other joke "religions". What a nightmare for employers this will turn out to be.

(2013-04-09/telegraph)