A Christian Church in the UK denied charitible status on the basis that it does not provide a “public benefit” is set to appeal the ruling in court.

More than 50 MPs from all the main parties signed a Commons motion in November calling on the charity regulator to think again, amid fears that hundreds of religious groups could be stripped of their tax-exempt status, threatening their very existence.

They accuse the Charity Commission of ‘politically correct bias’ against faith groups.

MPs say the ruling is ‘outrageous’ because it ignored the way the group, which has enjoyed charitable status for 50 years, runs soup kitchens for the poor and hospital visits for the sick.

The UK’s Charity Commission ruled last year that the Preston Down Trust, a part of the Plymouth Brethren community, does not contribute to the community at large because of what it called the Brethern’s supposed “separatist tendencies”.  

Now the trust is to appeal the matter to the courts, the Guardian reports.

The Charity Commission has said that its refusal of the application for charitable status by the Preston Down Trust, a Plymouth Brethren congregation in Devon, was based on the Church’s ‘doctrine of separation from the rest of society’ and on “insufficient evidence of meaningful access to public worship”.

Tory MP Robert Halfon said: ‘There is something rotten in the Charity Commission. I cannot understand why the Brethren, good people who do so much in their communities, have been singled out.

The Commission claimed that the group’s exclusivity disqualifies it for the significant tax exemptions available to charities.  

However the Church’s website says that the group helps with soup kitchens, supports soldiers, and provides disaster relief for floods and earthquakes.  

Brethren-owned businesses hire those outside the community, and the Sunday gatherings are open to everyone, with only the communion closed to non-members.

The Catholic Church also denies communion to non-members.

Although Churches once received charity status automatically, the Charities Act of 2006 removed the assumption that “advancement of religion” offered a public benefit to the community.

The Plymouth Brethren, also known as the Exclusive Brethren, started in the early 19th century in opposition to the Anglican church.  

The Brethren work in small businesses owned and operated by others in the fellowship.  

“It’s a feeling of puzzlement and great sorrow to us that we’re having to go through this battle,” Rod Buckley, a member of the Preston Down congregation, told The Guardian. “I don’t quite understand it. We do a lot in the community and people that know us, know that.”

After hearing the testimony of Brethren elders, Charlie Elphicke, a member of parliament investigating the Charity Commission’s work, said the regulator was “committed to the suppression of religion”.

The case has caused an uproar, especially after the Druid Network—a loosely connected neo-pagan organization—gained charitable status in 2010. The Charity Commission said the group qualified while the Brethren did not because its events are not “exclusive” and it engages in inter-faith activities.

Stephanie Biden, a senior associate at charity law firm Bates Wells & Braithwaite worries that the case may cause concern for other religious charities. “It does potentially impact on other organizations, particularly where they restrict access to participation in religious services, meetings or activities, or where there’s an emphasis on an enclosed community,” she told The Guardian.