The religion is also waning in popularity with a rapid increase in people describing themselves as ‘non-Christian’ since the same poll was conducted in 1996.

Surveying 440 Christians and the same amount of non-believers, nine out of ten non-Christians found Christians too “anti-homosexual.”

Almost the same amount viewed it as “hypocritical” and “judgmental.” Seventy-five percent thought Christianity was “too involved in politics.”

Of believers, 80% identified “anti-homosexual” as a negative adjective describing Christianity today.

One of the most frequent criticisms of young Christians, according to the Barna Group report “was that they believe the church has made homosexuality a “bigger sin” than anything else.

Moreover, they claim that the church has not helped them apply the biblical teaching on homosexuality to their friendships with gays and lesbians.

Hypocrisy was also a main concern with 52% of Christians aged 16-29 agreeing with 85% of non-believers that Christianity is “hypocritical – saying one thing doing another.”

Fifty percent identified their faith as “too involved in politics.” Forty-four percent found it “confusing.”

Overall, the Barna found that the younger generation is much more sceptical and critical of Christianity today, whether they are or are not believers.

Christianity’s ‘image problem’, as Time magazine describes it, is in need of a major overhaul.

This is the third time a Waters book has been turned into television following Tipping The Velvet (2002) and Fingersmith, (2005) both for the BBC.

Affinity is a gothic ghost story of a Victorian girl who finds herself attracted to a female inmate at Millbank, one of London’s harshest prisons.

It will be made into a single film for ITV1 starring Zoe Tapper, Anna Madeley, Anna Massey, Anne Reid and Amanda Plummer.

ITV drama controller Sally Haynes said:

“Both Andrew Davies and Sarah Waters are renowned and well-loved for their bold, atmospheric, unique period pieces.

“The combination of supernatural mystery, Sapphic romance and a disturbing twist to the tale give this an entirely different flavour to the typical costume drama, one we’re proud to have on our slate.”

Sarah Waters, talking about Tipping The Velvet, has emphasised how she wants her adapted novels to be more than just titillation for the tabloids.

“If it only appealed to middle-aged men or boys I would have been very disappointed but to me it seemed to have a very wide appeal – lesbians liked it, my mum liked it and The Sun liked it too and I thought that was great,” she said of the first and most acclaimed of her adapted works.

Davies is Britain’s best-known adaptor of novels for television, with a long list of credits including Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House and Doctor Zhivago.

ITV are planning to broadcast in spring 2008

And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell is based of the true story of Roy and Silo, who formed a couple in New York’s Central Park Zoo.

They attempted to hatch a rock, which was replaced by a rejected egg from a mixed gender couple by zookeepers.

They then adopted the baby penguin Tango as their own.

The book is accused of promoting homosexuality and being ‘anti-family’ as well as unsuitable for its age group.

It has attracted great controversy in US states with parents in Illinois and Missouri requesting the book be placed in a restricted or non-fiction section of the library.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, a superintendent of certain schools ordered the book removed completely from school libraries.

The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association has produced a list of books that have attracted written complaints or ‘challenges’ from library users in 2006.

The list of 546 consists of books that libraries have been asked to remove from the shelves.

Three other books in the top ten listed ‘homosexuality’ as a reason for their withdrawal requests.

These were:

- the Gossip Girls series by Cecily Von Ziegesar for homosexuality, sexual content, drugs, unsuited to age group, and offensive language;

- Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher for homosexuality and offensive language;

- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky for homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuited to age group.

But the report, published yesterday by the Joint Standing Committee, which influences policy within the Anglican communion, has proved unsatisfactory to both sides by avoiding condoning or condemning gays.

The report was marked by the absence of the signature of Archbishop Mouneer Anis, Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East, who was part of the drafting committee.

He was reported as saying he was ‘disappointed and grieved’ and that any changes within the church since the 2003 ordination of Bishop of New Hampshire Gene Robinson, who is gay, were merely ‘a superficial shift’.

“The Communion seems to be converging around a position which says that while it is inappropriate to proceed to public rites of blessing of same-sex unions and to the consecration of bishops who are living in sexual relationships outside of Christian marriage, we need to take seriously our ministry to gay and lesbian people inside the Church and the ending of discrimination, persecution and violence against them,” the committee said.

Although the report claims to have all the ‘necessary assurances’ by archbishops, it does not provide any new thinking on the issue and replicates many of the assurances given at the conference of senior church representative in Tanzania in February this year.

During this it was also said the American church was complying with instructions not to install any more gay bishops.

In June 2006, the US Anglican (Episcopal) church agreed on a watered-down version of a proposal which would have banned the appointment of gay clergy.

The denomination’s General Convention instead agreed to “exercise restraint” in ordaining gay bishops, as part of an effort to amend rifts within the Anglican Church after the appointment of Bishop Robinson.

The African Anglican Church expressed dismay last year at the decision which ignored most of the recommendations of the Windsor Report, aimed at mending rifts between the church over the gay issue.

PinkNews.co.uk reported that senior African bishops claimed that the Church of England was “evil” to allow the ordination of gay clergy.

The “Global South”, a group of ultra-right wing, anti-gay bishops led by the Nigerian archbishop, Dr Peter Akinola in letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, urged him to reconsider his personal views on homosexuality: “we urge you to rethink your personal view and embrace the Church’s consensus and to act on it, based as it is on the clear witness of Scripture.”

There is also no mention in the report of an idea reported last year to divide the church into ‘associated’ and ‘covenant’ congregations, which Dr Williams called ‘nonsense’ in his address to the Church of England’s national assembly, the General Synod.

They shone their torches from their engine into bushes catching men engaged in outdoor sex.

One of the men caught by the torch light then filed a complaint under advice from HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust.

After a three month investigation, during which the unidentified firefighters were on paid suspension, two were fined £1000, one was demoted and one received a written warning.

They will all now attend an equality course called ‘Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender Equality in the Fire Service – an absolute taboo?’

The complainant is said to be ‘happy’ with the outcome.

Simon Nelson, of Terrence Higgins Trust, told the Daily Mail:

“We don’t support or condone sex in public places.

“The member of the public simply wanted to know why the fire service was on the Downs at that time of day.

“We work very closely with the police, but in this case the complainant asked us not to report this incident to the police.”

The cruisers have not faced any legal action.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police said: “It is an offence to commit an act which is lewd, obscene or disgusting in a public place which is capable of outraging public decency.

“If any complaint is made in relation to such an incident it would be investigated thoroughly and, where appropriate, action would be taken to arrest any offender.”

However, in this case he confirmed that no such incident had been reported.

The firefighters had been en route from Temple Fire Station to Avonmouth Fire Station at 10:30pm on June 27 when they came across the men.

They were found by the disciplinary hearing of bringing the service into disrepute and misuse of fire equipment.

Kevin Pearson, Chief Fire Officer with Avon Fire and Rescue Service, said: “There was no justifiable reason for that appliance to be in that location at that time. They should not have been there and there was no operational justification for their actions.”

He emphasised that any allegation of racism or homophobia was taken seriously and that the crew was in breach of internal policies.

However, one of the firefighter’s colleagues told the Daily Mail that they were not happy with the punishment.

“This is a complete farce. All four officers have been let down by their senior officers when they needed their support the most,” he said.

“They have been treated as the criminals in this case and it has been completely forgotten that they witnessed criminal activity occurring in a public place.

“There are a lot of firefighters in Avon who feel that the four involved have been treated very unfairly so the service can be seen as being politically correct.” he added.

The money from the fines is to be donated to a gay-rights charity and the four firefighters have been transferred to other stations.