The Bishop of Rochester has suggested that marriage and family and therefore society as a whole are currently under threat because of recent government legislation.

Speaking to a panel of religious experts, MPs and journalists at the recent Faith Under Fire symposium, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali said, "If Christians are upset about some pieces of recent legislation, it's because those vital, basic institutions [marriage and family] are under threat, therefore society as a whole is under threat.

"Safety from harm is not just about individuals, it is about the safety from harm of vital social institutions and marriage and family are certainly some of them. Let us not underestimate the seriousness of this. The law, the institutions, the values and the customs of this country are rooted in the Judao-Christian tradition."

Joined by a panel of guests including MP Stephen Webb, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenburg and host, Peter Kerridge, the Bishop of Rochester spoke passionately about the importance of values.

He said, "When 9/11 or 7/7 happened, politicians immediately come up with values, they come up with tolerance, they come up with the rule of law, they come up with democracy.

"Yet when you examine what these values mean for them, they're rather thin values. They don't actually tell you what to do. It is in fact, in the daily business of living, even in parliament, that you come up against the so-called thick values. Values that we actually work by, live by and think by."