The Reverend Doug Gay says he was left no choice but to quit his monthly Credo column after receiving a caustic rebuke from a Times editor for his opinions.

He says he was told not to "bite the hand that feeds him" or "criticise the man who pays your wages".

Mr Gay, a minister of the United Reformed Church, stepped out of line by speaking out against the "monopolistic workings" of Mr Murdoch's media empire, in a comment on the proliferation of multi-channel television.

He says he was "outraged" at the response to his opinions from the editor of the section in which Credo appears.

Rupert Murdoch: Accused of meddling with editorial issues

He e-mailed a blistering resignation to the paper, saying: "God's is the hand that feeds me (and you) and the hand we must seek not to bite."

Mr Gay, minister of Clapton Park in east London, went on to say the decision to cut his criticism was "a badge of dishonour". He insisted that an amended version of his article should not be used.

Click here to read the article, which BBC News Online is publishing for the first time.

A spokesman for the Times insisted there was no policy on mentioning Mr Murdoch in the paper. But the row once again raises the issue of editorial independence among those working for Mr Murdoch's giant News Corporation empire.

Previous accusations

The Australian-turned-American media mogul has at times been accused of meddling with the editorial content of his papers, to reflect personal opinions and promote his other business interests.

The issue came to a head in March when the Murdoch-owned publishing house, HarperCollins, drew back from publishing the memoirs of former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten.

Mr Patten was critical of the Chinese regime, which Mr Murdoch had been courting to expand his satellite television interests.

Taking a stand

Mr Gay admitted his protest was "small fry" compared to the Patten incident, but insisted he could not be complicit in The Times's "self censorship".

"I was reticent about whether to write for the paper in the first place," he says, because of his objections to Mr Murdoch's "dominance in British media". As well as The Times, Mr Murdoch's News International stable owns The Sunday Times, The Sun, and the News of the World, and is a major shareholder in BSkyB.

"But you don't pass up the chance of a column like this without thinking about it," said Mr Gay, 35.

Alternative view

"I thought a voice like mine, being left-of-centre and coming from a hard-up urban area, was one not often heard in The Times," he said. He shared the column in four-week rotation with three other religious commentators.

"It wasn't much of a surprise on the one hand," he says of the paper's reaction to his article.

The Times: "A once great paper"

"But on the other I think people should be surprised. If you cannot write honestly about Murdoch in a Murdoch paper then what have we come to? It's a sad indictment on a once-great paper."

Now Mr Gay is urging the other Credo names to re-think their role.

But one of them, Roman Catholic John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy at St Andrews University, said he hoped to stay with the paper for the time being.

"I do not think controversy is appropriate in this column. It seems to me this is a place for spiritual reflections and would not, for example, be somewhere to launch an attack on abortion."

But The Times issued a rigorous defence against Mr Gay's criticisms.

Regretful matter

Managing editor George Brock described the resignation as a "matter of some regret" but insisted the paper maintained an independent stance.

"Any reader of the paper can see almost any week, or even day of the year people debating television, radio and newspapers," said Mr Brock.

"There are reports of Mr Murdoch and his companies which quite definitely take his name in vain. There's no policy as regards mentions of him of any kind.