LifeSiteNews has been permanently banned on YouTube. Click HERE to sign up to receive emails when we add to our video library.
May 10, 2021 (Christian Legal Centre) — A Christian chaplain has launched legal action after being reported to the government’s terrorist watchdog and losing his job for delivering a sermon in a school chapel that encouraged respect and debate on “identity ideologies.”
Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Rev. Dr Bernard Randall, 48, who is ordained in the Church of England and is a former chaplain of Christ’s College, Cambridge, is taking Trent College to court for discrimination, harassment, victimization and unfair dismissal.
An employment tribunal hearing is expected to be heard at East Midlands Employment Tribunal from 14 June 2021.
Staff chant ‘smash heteronormativity’
In June 2018, the independent school, which has a “protestant and evangelical” Church of England ethos, invited the leader of Educate and Celebrate, Elly Barnes, into the school to train staff.
The aim was to teach staff on how they could “embed gender, gender identity and sexual orientation into the fabric of your school.”
Ms Barnes openly declares that the ethos of Educate and Celebrate is to “completely smash heteronormativity, that’s what we want to do.”
Dr. Randall, whose job description declared his role to “be the particular voice and embodiment of…Christian values which are at the heart of Trent’s ethos,” was alarmed when during the training Ms Barnes instructed staff to chant “smash heteronormativity.”
Furthermore, Ms Barnes wrongly informed staff that “gender identity” is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, and therefore must be legally recognized as a statutory requirement at the school.
Dr. Randall raised concerns, but was assured by the head teacher, that he would be involved in any decision-making process on whether the school would implement Educate and Celebrate’s program because of potential clashes with Christian beliefs and values.
In January 2019, at the next staff training day, Dr. Randall was stunned to find out that the school had decided to adopt their year-long ‘gold standard’ program. This would see an identity politics ‘LGBT inclusive curriculum’ implemented, even for the nursery provision at the school.
When Dr. Randall asked why he had not been included in discussions, he was told that it was because he “might disagree.”
The sermon
After asking students what subjects they would like to hear in his sermons during the summer term Christian chapel services, Dr. Randall was approached by a student who asked him whether he would address “How come we are told we have to accept all this LGBT stuff in a Christian school.”
He had also been approached by pupils who had said that they were confused and upset by the issues involved in the new LGBT teaching.
Delivering the sermon in the school’s chapel entitled “Competing ideologies,” Dr. Randall moderately and carefully presented the Christian viewpoint on identity questions, encouraged debate and stressed that no protected characteristic is more protected than another.
He explained that for Christians, where there is disagreement, it is vital to love their neighbor, leaving no room for personal attack or abusive language towards anyone.
Presenting the Church of England’s biblical position on marriage and human nature, he emphasized that children at the school were not compelled to “accept an ideology they disagree with.”
He encouraged the students, aged from 11-17, to debate and make up their own minds on the issue.
The sermon was part of a service which also included hymns, prayers and a bible reading.
PETITION UPDATE (5/5/2021) - BREAKING: Facebook permanently removes LifeSiteNews’ page
Facebook has just permanently banned LifeSiteNews’ Facebook page. This apparently is not a temporary measure: It is gone for good.
"Much like when LifeSite was removed from YouTube, this comes with little surprise,” noted LifeSiteNews Marketing Director Rebekah Roberts.
"Facebook has been silencing any voice that goes against their beliefs and agenda," continued Roberts. "Our LifeSiteNews Facebook page has been removed simply because we have shared reports of doctors, nurses, expert researchers, and even the former Pfizer VP speaking out against the COVID shots. We’ve also been tagged for the numerous articles we have shared making the connection between the COVID shots, and really all vaccines, and aborted baby cell lines."
"This all comes down to another case of Big Tech silencing free speech on their platform," she added.
"At this time, I encourage those of you who are still on Facebook, Twitter, and other Big Tech platforms to continue sharing LifeSiteNews articles with your friends and family, please!” urged Roberts. “I also encourage you to follow us on these alternative platforms:"
Telegram: https://t.me/lifesitetelegram
Gab: https://gab.com/LifeSiteNews
MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/lifesitenewscom1
Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNews
Brighteon: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/lifesitenews
The absolute best way to connect with LifeSiteNews is to subscribe to our daily news emails, click here.
Thank you for SIGNING and SHARING this petition, vital to our freedom of speech.
_____________________________________________________
PETITION UPDATE (2/23/21) -
LifeSite has signed on to a Media Research Center (MRC) letter to all 50 state Attorneys General, calling for an investigation into Big Tech.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have monopolized the industry, and are using their influence to collect user data, suppress content, and silence those who voice ideas and beliefs counter to their own.
As we urged prior, action must be taken to combat these efforts, and that is why we’ve joined the MRC in this fight.
Please take a couple of minutes to READ this LifeSiteNews article about MRC's initiative: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/lifesite-joins-effort-asking-state-attorneys-general-to-investigate-big-tech-for-deceptive-trade-practices
Then, please SIGN and STOP using Twitter, Facebook, Google (YouTube) and Amazon to take back your privacy and freedom of speech!
________________________________________________________
PETITION UPDATE (2/9/21) -
YouTube just completely removed the LifeSiteNews YouTube channel. This isn’t a ban, every single one of our videos is completely gone. Being completely removed from YouTube means we’ve lost access to 300,000+ followers.
This is the latest and appalling affront to free speech which is happening to many conservative and Christian organizations.
Please SIGN this petition and STOP using YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google (owner of YouTube) and Amazon to take back your privacy and freedom of speech!
We are not going to take this lying down!
Thankfully, we have backups of all our videos:
You can watch our current videos on Rumble, here: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNews
Or on our LifeSiteNews Catholic Rumble channel, here: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNewsCatholic
You can also sign-up to receive email alerts about our recent videos here: https://bit.ly/LifeSiteVideoSub
Please help us build Rumble and our other alternative platforms by donating through our secure link: https://give.lifesitenews.com/
After you SIGN this petition, please also see our 'Goodbye Google' resources to find out how to quit Big Tech and learn more about good alternatives!
____________________________________________________________________________
PETITION UPDATE (1/26/20) -
Twitter has again locked LifeSiteNews out of two of our accounts on the platform for displaying a message noting that President Joe Biden’s newly named Assistant Secretary of Health “Rachel” Levine is a man.
Both accounts displayed a simple message which read: “Biden names transgender ‘woman’ as Assistant Secretary of Health. ‘Rachel’ Levine is a father of two who divorced his wife in 2013 after 30 years of marriage.” The tweets also included a link to LifeSite’s article Biden names transgender ‘woman’ as Assistant Secretary of Health, and contained part of the opening sentence of that article, “Joe Biden has announced his intention to appoint a gender-confused man” as Assistant Secretary of Health.
For stating biological or Biblical truths, Twitter and Big Tech are trying to shut down conservative voices.
Therefore, it is now more important than ever to consider dumping Twitter, Google (who own YouTube) and Facebook. To be clear: LifeSite is still using Twitter and Big Tech to encourage others to migrate away from these illiberal platforms.
This is not the first time that LifeSiteNews has been censored by Twitter. In December 2019, Twitter indefinitely suspended our account for a tweet that linked to an article on transgender activist Jonathan “Jessica” Yaniv.
At the time, Twitter gave LifeSite the option to delete the tweet and reactivate our account right away. LifeSite remained steadfast that the tweet did not violate any of the company’s “rules and policies,” and sought several appeals with Twitter, while looking into legal action against the company.
And, while LifeSite's account was eventually restored, we must now consider what course of action we will pursue in this case, over and above appealing the ban.
Meanwhile, since taking office on Wednesday last week, Joe Biden has already signed an executive order which will force women’s athletic programs, restrooms, and locker rooms to be open to men. He has also turned back the Trump administration’s policy protecting women’s sports programs in schools.
Last week, LifeSite was banned for two weeks from our YouTube channel, after the site determined that one of our videos about vaccines violated YouTube’s “community guidelines.” We are also in the middle of appealing this ban.
Please considering SIGNING and SHARING this petition. Thank you!
__________________________________________________________________________
Twitter just deplatformed President Trump premanently! And, other conservatives, including General Flynn and Sidney Powell, were also summarily deplatformed.
Conservatives, Christians and freedom-loving Americans of all political persuasions must now take a decision to preserve their free speech AND their ability to peaceably assemble by dumping Twitter and Big Tech, and by finding other good alternatives to communicate with each other and share their opinions.
Please SIGN our petition-pledge to Dump Twitter and Big Tech, and take back your freedom of speech and privacy. [CLICK HERE for our "Goodbye Google" resources page to find good alternatives to Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Google!]
When you use Twitter or Facebook to communicate, and, or, Google and Amazon to search for something online, these companies can stifle your ability to share your thoughts and opinions and manipulate your search results, threatening your privacy, your freedom of speech, and even our democracy.
Evidence suggests that Twitter and Facebook's 'community guidelines' are selectively enforced against conservatives and Christians, while Google rigs their search algorithms to direct traffic away from conservative and Christian websites, effectively choking traffic to those sites.
Simply put, Twitter, Facebook, Google (who owns YouTube) and Amazon appear to be actively suppressing access to pro-freedom, pro-family and pro-life news and opinion.
Don't contribute to this assault on democracy: Stop using Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon as your default social media platforms and search engine! [CLICK HERE to find a good alternative to Google.]
To repeat: a few liberal and completely unaccountable computer programmers in Silicon Valley are dictating what we do and do not see in our Twitter and Facebook feeds, and in our Google searches.
We, here, at LifeSite, also recently had our Twitter account suspended by the company over "misgendering" a man who claims to be a woman.
LifeSite has also experienced a fall-off in Google search-related traffic since the company updated its search algorithms at the beginning of May.
And, since the November election, Twitter and Big Tech appear to have dramatically INCREASED their censorship of conservatives and Christians as the President Trump disputed the results of the election and when evidence of election fraud began to mount.
Now, it seems likely that they are trying to cut-off conservative leaders (like President Trump) from conservatives on the ground, and effectively exclude us from the national conversation.
But, this tactic will not work. Because Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon are not the only game in town! There are a good number of excellent alternatives which we list in our 'Goodbye Google' Resources page.
The great irony is that, while Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon executives talk a lot about maintaining freedom of speech and diversity, in fact, these hypocrites are ATTACKING free speech point-blank!
This kind of manipulation poses a lethal threat to our democracy, but as we see so clearly now, Twitter and Big Tech have shown no hesitation in excluding conservatives and Christians from the public square.
So, at this point, the only way to stop Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon is to quit using their platform.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition to pledge to stop using Twitter and Big Tech. Then, please CLICK HERE to find alternative search engines and social media platforms. Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Follow LifeSiteNews on these alternative channels:
Telegram: https://t.me/lifesitetelegram
Gab: https://gab.com/LifeSiteNews
MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/lifesitenewscom1
Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNews
Parler: parler.com/profile/lifesitenews (currently down due to Amazon removing their web hosting)
Ready to say "Goodbye Google"? Find alternatives for search engines, browsers, email, and more: https://lifefacts.lifesitenews.com/goodbye-google/resources/
'BREAKING: Twitter permanently bans President Trump from platform' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-twitter-permanently-bans-president-trump-from-platform
WATCH LifeSite's exclusive series - 'Big Tech vs Free Speech' - of interviews with experts on how Big Tech censorship is killing free speech: https://www.lifesitenews.com/bigtech/
From YouTube to social media and beyond, online censorship is rampant. Read the latest articles covering this ongoing struggle: https://lifefacts.lifesitenews.com/goodbye-google/censorship/
Suspended and investigated
The following week, he was pulled into a meeting with the Deputy Head and the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL).
In a hostile interrogation, Dr. Randall was told that his beliefs were not relevant and did not matter, and that the sermon had hurt some people’s feelings and undermined the School’s LGBT agenda.
He was also told it was “offensive” to describe Elly Barnes as an “LGBT activist,” despite her describing herself as a “DIVA Activist of the Year” on her website.
During the interrogation, Dr. Randall was asked what the sources of Church teachings were. For the beliefs on marriage, sexuality and gender, he pointed to the Church of England’s public liturgy, especially the Book of Common Prayer, and Canon law.
Nonetheless, Dr. Randall was immediately suspended pending an investigation.
Reported to terrorist watchdog
Disclosed emails reveal that after this meeting, the DSL began the process of reporting Dr. Randall, without his knowledge, to the government’s counter-terrorism watchdog, Prevent, as a potentially violent religious extremist.
The DSL also reported him to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) as a danger to children, which is the same point of contact for reporting concerns over pedophilia.
On 1 July 2019, a Derbyshire police officer, Richard Barker, responded to the report to Prevent saying that the sermon posed no counter-terrorism risk. However, documents reveal that according to the DSL, he gave his personal opinion that the sermon “was wholly inappropriate for a school, and society in general.”
Dr. Randall then discovered by accident that he had been reported to Prevent and was only casually told that it would not be taken any further.
Following an investigation and disciplinary hearing, Dr. Randall received a letter on the 30 August 2019 stating that the Head Master had concluded that his actions had amounted to gross misconduct and that he would be dismissed.
On appeal, his sacking was overturned by the school’s governors, but he was given a final warning instead.
Open censorship
Open censorship of his sermons followed. Dr. Randall was provided with 20 conditions that he had to comply with regarding any future sermons. This included banning him from broaching:
“Any topic or express any opinion (in Chapel or more generally around School) that is likely to cause offence or distress to members of the school body.”
It also stated that: “You will not publicly express personal beliefs in ways which exploit our pupils’ vulnerability.”
He was told that every theme and piece of sermon content had to be approved by school leadership in advance and that a staff member would observe to ensure each stipulation was met.
When the country went into lockdown in March 2020, Dr. Randall was immediately furloughed. As restrictions eased, the school refused to reinstate his timetable, planned to reduce his full-time hours to seven hours per-week, and eventually the Head Teacher made him redundant on 31 December 2020.
‘I don’t think Church of England is extremist’
Commenting on his reaction when he found out he had been reported to Prevent without his knowledge, Dr. Randall said:
I was terrified. I did not sleep. What was I supposed to tell my family? Being reported as a potential terrorist, extremist and a danger to children are arguably the worst crimes you could be accused of.
When I found out that they had reported me without telling me, my mind was blown trying to comprehend it. I had gone to such lengths in the sermon to stress that we must respect one another no matter what, even people we disagree with. I am not ashamed to say that I cried with relief when I was told that the report to Prevent was not going to be taken further.
Yet I ended up being told that I had to support everybody else’s beliefs, no matter what, while my Christian beliefs, the Church of England’s beliefs, were blatantly censored.
During the disciplinary hearing, I was never asked what I thought, they just assumed that I had extreme religious views. I don’t think the Church of England is an extremist organization.
I was doing the job I was employed to do. I wasn’t saying anything that I should not have been able to say in any liberal secular institution. Everyone should be free to accept or reject an ideology. Isn’t that what liberal democracy means?
My story sends a message to other Christians that you are not free to talk about your faith. It seems it is no longer enough to just ‘tolerate’ LGBT ideology. You must accept it without question and no debate is allowed without serious consequences. Someone else will decide what is and what isn’t acceptable, and suddenly you can become an outcast, possibly for the rest of your life.
I 100% see what has happened to me in Orwellian terms. Truth matters, but increasingly powerful groups in our society do not care about the truth.
My career and life are in tatters. I believe that if this is the Cross that I have to carry to help prevent others from experiencing the same as me, I have no choice but to pursue justice.
‘Who are the extremists here?’
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said:
When an ordained Church of England minister can’t give a simple sermon in a Church of England school without being reported as an extremist and hounded out of his job then who is safe?
For many years Bernard Randall has worked in education motivated by his love for God and others.
When someone like him is pursued and punished it’s an attack on us all. It’s time to stand up and speak up for these freedoms.
Is this the kind of behavior we expect from those with the care and protection of our children?
Now is the time for ordinary people to wake up and contend for vital freedoms.
All those that said it couldn’t happen – punishing and criminalizing a Christian minister for preaching from the bible – need to take a long, hard look at the story of Bernard Randall.
Who are the extremists in this story? The moderate school chaplain with an intelligent, mild mannered and thoughtful sermon or Educate and Celebrate encouraging staff to smash heteronormativity?”