The Seventh-day Adventist Church in England this month released guidelines to help church members there better understand their legal rights and obligations under the country’s new Sexual Orientation Regulations 2007 (SORS) passed by the British Parliament in March.

While the regulations protect homosexuals against those who might deny them goods or services based solely on sexual orientation, they exempt churches from liability, said Eric C. Lowe, secretary for the Adventist Church in England. However, that immunity is not extended to individual church members, he said.

Drafted based on information from the Christian Lawyers Fellowship, the Adventist Church’s guidelines also reiterate the world church’s statement on sexual orientation, calling for Adventists to “affirm the dignity of all human beings” but not condone a homosexual lifestyle.

Under the regulations, a church can refuse to baptize a practicing homosexual or perform a gay civil union service, Lowe said, but a Christian bookseller cannot snub shelving pro-gay literature. Any such discrimination charges would have to be proved in court. Lowe reports that no such legal wrangling has ensued since the regulations’ passage except one Catholic teacher who claimed he was denied an interview on the basis of his sexual orientation. 

Another regulation stipulation overrides the exemption if a church receives governmental funding. However, because Parliament hastily passed the regulations, Lowe said the law’s wording leaves legal latitude.

Adventists joined other Christians in England early this year to petition parliamentary representatives not to pass regulations, which they worried would force churches to unduly condone and even promote a homosexual lifestyle or face discrimination charges.

“While obviously we are concerned for church members who in their everyday life and work are not protected from discrimination charges, we are of course thankful that [the regulations] do enable churches to benefit from exemption,” Lowe said.