Emily Graves spoke with Don Horricks, Head of Public Affairs at the Evangelical Alliance, about the results of the public consultation about the day-to-day experience of believers in Britain today.

What we have been saying is that if you are going to run the country effectively by equality and diversity legislation, the tests of whether it's working or not is when rights conflict and that there are genuinely fair outcomes for everybody. However, if what you are finding is that one particular group of protected rights consistently is getting trumped by others, then equality is not working properly. In other words some are more equal than others. What you can find, and we are worried about, is that equality legislation can end up being used as something oppressive and something that is being used as a very blunt weapon to silence those that you disagree with. Therefore there needs to be a much more enlightened approached.

There were some positives from the survey, it wasn't all negative, and we do commend the Commission that eventually, after lots of persuasion, they are taking Religion and Beliefs seriously and focusing on the concerns. We are also conscious that out of the survey came some positive results, for example, from some employers who adopted a much more enlightened and broadminded approach to their employees and the diversity of their workforces by adopting a positive and accommodating approach to them, rather than a confrontational and coercive approach, which we would argue is counter-productive.

Emily: So in moving forward, how do we encourage religion and beliefs to continue to be taken seriously, but not in a way that is condemning and forcing it on others?

Don: I think a lot of education needs to take place for those in public life like the Equality Commission and Government and Civil Service where there is a lot of ignorance about religion.

Religious illiteracy is very high today and there is a large number of people who, for example, would not be able to tell you what Easter is about. Similarly in public life people don't understand what Evangelical Christians mean by freedom of conscience, which means for many Christians it is not a question of peripheral rights like the provision of a prayer room, or freedom to wear a cross round your neck, so much as not being coerced to be morally complicit in activity in expressions verbal or otherwise that are totally against ones deepest faith.

We need to give encouragement to the Commission and Government to understand faith better, but so far as Christians are concerned Christians need to perhaps get a bit wiser. The scripture says that we are to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. I think it is important for Christians to understand two things, firstly that they are free to speak about Christ and to preach the Gospel and they must not be silenced in any way; the law still allows freedom of speech in our country, but at the same time, don't use your freedom to be a stick with which to beat other people. Some Christians have gone too far and ended up being perceived to be forcing their faith down the throats of others who just don't want it, and that's getting into the realm of harassment and threatened intimidation. People who aren't Christians are much more sensitive nowadays to these sorts of things and therefore Christians need to be wise in how they say things and not use their freedom to force other people into awkward and difficult situations.

Emily: How can we find out more about this?

Don: There is plenty on the Evangelical Alliance website. There are articles on there and this has been written about in great detail. It's also been well covered in the media and you can go to the Evangelical Alliance webpage at www.eauk.org, as well as looking up the Equality and Human Rights Commission webpage and they have got a full report of this as well.

It will be an ongoing enquiry because the Commission are going to be issuing further guidance about the outcome of this survey. We will be working with them over that, so look out for announcements on that in the future. Also, probably in the summer, the Evangelic Alliance will be publishing a guide to Churches on what you can say and what you can't say and how to go about maintaining your freedom and liberties of speech in this country, so again, look out for news of that.