Dr. Bernard Randall had told students at the Christian school that they did not have to “accept an (LGBT) ideology they disagree with.”
A Church of England school chaplain has been fired from his post at Trent College, Nottingham having been previously reported to the UK’s terrorist watchdog for delivering a sermon in the chapel that allegedly undermined the school’s LGBT programme.
Randall (48) was alarmed when staff were instructed to chant “smash heteronormativity” during a training day for the programme.
He is now taking the school to court however for discrimination, victimisation, harassment, and unfair dismissal after his 2019 sermon, entitled “Competing Ideologies”, informed a group of students that whilst Christians must love all people, they were not obliged to “accept an ideology they disagree with” and could make up their own minds about what was being taught in the new LGBT programme.
The chaplain was summoned to a meeting with the Deputy Head and Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) after the sermon, in which he was told he had hurt some people’s feelings, undermined the school’s LGBT programme, and that his beliefs did not matter and were not relevant.
Randall was suspended and then reported by the DSL to the government’s terrorist watchdog agency, “Prevent”, as a potentially violent religious extremist.
He was also reported to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), who usually deals with paedophilia concerns, as a danger to children.
Derbyshire police confirmed that Randall posed no terrorist threat however.
The school’s governors had reinstated Randall to his position after an appeal against his dismissal, but the chaplain was heavily censored in his role and banned from discussing “any topic or express(ing) any opinion (in Chapel or more generally around School) that is likely to cause offence or distress to members of the school body.”
“You will not publicly express personal beliefs in ways which exploit our pupils’ vulnerability,” read one condition of his return.
Randall was then made redundant on 31 December 2020, having been furloughed during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The Church of England chaplain only found out by accident that he had been reported to Prevent, explaining afterwards that “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,” he told Christian Concern.
“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 organisation.
“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.”
The case is expected to be heard East Midlands Employment Tribunal from 14 June 2021.