After winning his appeal this week, Rev Bernard Randall says his ongoing fight for freedom of speech and religious belief is not exclusive to him, but has major implications for all Christians
It is not unusual in science fictions stories involving time travel for the protagonist to be stuck in a time loop – personal history repeating itself over and over, with no obvious way out. Usually, however, the main character gets out, is able to resume a normal life and often leaves the villain inside the loop, never to trouble the “real” universe again.
I wonder if I am going to be stuck in such a loop.
This week a judge ruled that the previous employment tribunal decision which upheld my sacking is ‘unsafe’ due to revelations of anti-Christian bias on the presiding panel. Now, there must be a full retrial.
That means my clock has just been reset to 2021. Back then, I was facing exactly the same circumstances I face now, awaiting a date for my case to be heard.
How did I get here?
It all began when I was working as a chaplain at a Church of England school, Trent College near Nottingham. A pupil had posed the question, “How come we’re told we have to accept all this LGBT stuff in a Christian school?” The answer, of course, was that members of the school community didn’t have to. Make up your own mind. Respect those with whom you disagree. And if you want, accept the Church of England’s position on marriage (the traditional view as the actual teaching of the Church).
This is what I said in a sermon I delivered. (Read it for yourself here)
As a result, I was accused of gross misconduct, I was reported under the Prevent anti-terrorism duty, and to every safeguarding authority going. And I lost my job.
The reason for the pupil’s question was the infiltration of a particularly intolerant LGBT agenda into every aspect of the curriculum, under the guidance of the charity Educate and Celebrate (E&C). E&C aimed to “embed gender, gender identity and sexual orientation” into the life of the school, and to “smash heteronormativity” – that is destroy any society built around the male-female pair-bond.
This is Queer Theory in action. To me, not a Christian project (Deuteronomy 5:16). And yet our schools, and even our churches have taken up these ideas as if they are entirely normal. I remain barred from ministry in the Church of England because I noticed that Christian teaching and Queer Theory are incompatible, and dared to say so.
Fortunately, E&C closed last year – not helped by the fact that one its patrons stripped naked on Channel 4 television and played the piano with “her” – ahem – membrum virile. Another patron, Stephen Ireland, has been charged with child sex crimes dating back to 2022, including rape and conspiracy to kidnap a child (he denies the charges). Queer Theory seems ripe for exploitation by such safeguarding nightmares.
Battling bias
With support from Christian Concern, I took legal action against the school for discrimination, harassment and unfair dismissal. The judgement finally came in February 2023, and it was a shock. I had lost, but it was clear that the Tribunal really hadn’t engaged with the issues properly. The sermon itself, the thing at the centre of the whole case, was barely discussed. Only about 30 words were quoted. It took exception to “persuasive” language like “you may think”, I kid you not.
So of course, an appeal was lodged. The judgment looked wrong on all sorts of legal points, but it also looked as if there was bias involved. It took until February 2024 for a permission hearing to see whether it would be allowed to proceed, but because of the need to wait for the Court of Appeal to decide a related case (Kristie Higgs, another Christian Concern case), that hearing was put back until this week.
In the meantime, in another Christian Concern case in Nottingham, it was found that one of the Tribunal panel members, Jed Purkis, had been posting some quite floridly anti-Christian material on social media. The whole panel of three had to recuse itself, and a new hearing ordered. Mr Purkis sat on my case – so the source of the bias against me was revealed. In this light, the possibility of bias was a very real one, and so I won my appeal on the spot this week.
Right to a fair trial
The February 2023 judgment was overturned, as if it never happened. Now, we go back to a new, different, Employment Tribunal. The appeal judge ordered that “the Employment Tribunal is requested to expedite the matter if possible.”
I’m hoping that we can avoid yet another wait of a year or more. Otherwise, it could be over seven years between the sermon that invoked my life falling apart and getting justice. And that’s not even considering further appeals.
And yet I wonder, is justice, in this world, even going to be possible in a case like this?
There have now been repeated instances of Tribunal panel members being recused because of the very real possibility of bias – my case, the cases of Kristie Higgs, Felix Ngole, the case of a currently unnamed Christian teacher, who was sacked for raising safeguarding concerns about an 8-year-old child transitioning under Stonewall’s guidance, suing Nottinghamshire County Council for whistleblowing retaliation, unfair dismissal, and discrimination.
The common factor is Christians speaking against the way questions around sexual orientation and so-called “gender identity” have been politicised, so that it is not enough simply not to discriminate. Instead all must bow the knee, and celebrate, worship even, when the music sounds and the pride flag is flown. The fate of those who do not is to be cast into the burning fiery furnace – both of job losses and the legal system. For the legal system seems to have taken to these ideas just as much as schools and too many churches. Mr Purkis got a slap on the wrist for his social media posts. If it had been race, not religion, he would have been sacked.
This needs to change. We need Queer Theory to be left behind in that time loop. Only then can Christians resume a normal life.
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