LONDON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Religious groups that run adoption agencies are obliged to follow British law, the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said.
Trevor Phillips, in a debate on the role of religion in society, defended court rulings that require adoption agencies to place children with gay couples, The Daily Telegraph reported. All Roman Catholic agencies in the country have been closed since the decision.
"Once you start to provide public services that have to be run under public rules, for example child protection, then it has to go with public law," he said in remarks reported in The Tablet, a Catholic newspaper. "Institutions have to make a decision whether they want to do that or they don't want to do that."
In a country where Queen Elizabeth II is the nominal head of the established Church of England, the relationship between religious groups and society is currently a subject of debate. A recent court ruling banned prayers at local council meetings.
Sayeeda Warsi, who sits in the House of Lords as Baroness Warsi, is the first Muslim to serve as a chair of the Conservative Party. Last week, she decried "militant secularism."
George Carey, a former archbishop of Canterbury, said lawmakers must respect the country's "Catholic and Anglican heritage."
