The Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury is to say Britain is at a "crossroads" over whether to accept guidance on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion from politicians or from religious leaders.
In tomorrow's Easter homily the Right Reverend Mark Davies will attack abortion and gay marriage legislation saying it has has "misused" science in "seeking to re-define the value of human life or to re-make marriage."
He also will warn "if the Christian roots of our society are finally severed, what will be left to uphold human dignity, to protect human rights and the value of human life itself?"
Bishop Davies will say at Shropshire Cathedral: "Commentators have been puzzled that the Church and Pope Francis' concern for the poorest is combined with an uncompromising defence of marriage as the union of man and woman; of the family as the vital unit of society; of the unborn routinely destroyed, frozen, manipulated for our purposes; and of the dignity of the aged, threatened in many societies by a killing which calls itself 'mercy'.
"It makes the question of what a human life is worth the most urgent question of our time."
Bishop Davies will add: "It is not Christianity which stands at a crossroads.
"No, it is surely our country which stands at the crossroads in deciding on what the future of our life and laws will be based, what lights will guide the uncertain paths ahead, what roots will sustain the flourishing of generations to come?"
In his Christmas message the Bishop of Shrewsbury compared coalition plans to legalise same-sex marriage with the ideologies of Nazism and Communism, which threatened "Christian civilisation" in the name of "progress".
He said that supporters of same-sex marriage are using the notion of "progress" to help pave the way for legalisation of gay marriage and that the legislation "cast a shadow" over the country.