Social worker denied ‘dream job’ after Christian beliefs discovered
from Christian Concern:
This week, a Leeds employment tribunal will hear the case of a Christian social worker who was given a choice by a Stonewall backed NHS provider to ‘embrace and promote LGBTQ+ rights’ or have a job offer withdrawn.
In May 2022, Mr Felix Ngole, 46, had been offered his ‘dream job’ as a Mental Health Support via Touchstone Support Leeds, who recruit on behalf of the NHS, until it was discovered he had once won a landmark legal case over his right to freedom of speech.
In 2015, Mr Ngole was thrown off his social worker training course at Sheffield University following a debate on Facebook which quoted passages from the Bible about same-sex marriage.
But in a major victory for Christian freedoms, the Court of Appeal ruled in 2019 that Mr Ngole would ‘never discriminate against anyone’ because of his Christian beliefs and therefore he was he was allowed to return to his training and subsequently qualified as a social worker.
Nonetheless, Mr Ngole despite being offered a job with Touchstone, he was invited back for a ‘second interview’ in which he was interrogated about his beliefs. He was told by Touchstone bosses that unless he could demonstrate how he would ‘embrace and promote homosexual rights’, the job offer would be withdrawn.
They said that his beliefs did not ‘align’ with Touchstone’s ethos as an ‘inclusive employer’ and that he posed a risk to the organisations’ reputation.