by Tony Rucinski, Coalition for Marriage
This month, the Church of England’s own reviewer found the safeguarding allegation against Bernard Randall “unsubstantiated”. Randall was the Trent College chaplain who holds to Canon B30, his Church’s own law – marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. He told pupils nobody should be made to accept an ideology about sex and marriage, and for that the school reported him to Prevent, the Government’s counter-terrorism programme. The officer who assessed it found no counter-terrorism risk. The Teaching Regulation Agency found no case to answer, and he was cleared by the Disclosure and Barring Service. Trent College was ordered to pay £20,000 in costs, then settled out of court. “Seven years have been taken from me,” Randall says, “for doing my duty as a CofE chaplain”.
Redefining marriage in 2013 continued the trend of undermining the distinction between men and women. Nurses at County Durham and Darlington National Health Service Foundation Trust objected to sharing a changing room with a male colleague, and were told they were the problem. In January, an employment tribunal found the trust had created a “hostile, humiliating and degrading environment” for them. In June, it paid seven of them £187,000 and apologised to each in writing. Yet four are still under investigation by their own regulator.
In October, Felix Ngole began his hearing at the court of appeal, more than ten years after Sheffield University removed him from a social work course for posting on Facebook that homosexuality and same-sex marriage are sinful. He lost in the High Court. Then in 2019, the Court of Appeal held that expressing a theological view, even that “homosexuality is a sin”, does not by itself mean the person will discriminate. A charity later withdrew a job offer on finding the coverage, and it is that case he will take on – and hopefully win.
Seven years. Ten years. Suspensions. The delay is no accident. It is aimed at you and me, to make us conclude quietly that it is easier to say nothing. Has it worked?