Christians facing trouble for airing public views

A councillor who was suspended by the Tory party and ‘cancelled’ by other organisations on the basis of one tweet is to take legal action.

King Lawal, a North Northamptonshire councillor and businessman, tweeted: ‘Pride is not a virtue but a sin’. He was promptly suspended for 21 days and is reportedly being investigated by Conservative headquarters. Afterwards, he said: ‘What I said was Biblically sound and a protected expression of the Christian faith’.

The full tweet said: ‘When did Pride become a thing to celebrate! Because of Pride, Satan fell as an arch Angel [sic]. Pride is not a virtue but a Sin. Those who have Pride should Repent of their sins and turn to Jesus Christ. He can save you #PrideMonth #Pride23 #PrideParade.’

According to Christian Concern, which is supporting Lawal, he was also cancelled by seven organisations, warned of potential police investigation, and was told by the local authority that a substantial business contract could be scrapped unless he resigned from his family business.

Thanking supporters from across the world on Twitter, he said: ‘It appears the multitude not only agree with what I said, but my right to say it.’

Andrea Williams of Christian Legal Centre said: ‘What has happened to Councillor Lawal has been brutal and is a clear case of viewpoint discrimination against a standard expression of Christian belief.

‘Institutions and even the government have been captured to such an extent by this ideology that if you speak against it, within a week you can become a “non-person”.

‘The pace at which Councillor Lawal has been essentially removed from public life for expressing his beliefs is disturbing, as he has been democratically elected and undemocratically cancelled.’

A withdrawn job offer

Meanwhile, an employment tribunal has adjourned Felix Ngole’s case against Leeds health-care provider Touchstone Support. He brought proceedings after Touchstone Support withdrew a job offer after it found out about his Christian beliefs on marriage and human sexuality. Ngole had previously been excluded from a social worker course for Facebook comments about homosexuality.

The tribunal agreed to adjourn the trial until next year so that expert evidence on ‘minority stress theory’ can be secured. Minority stress theory relates to the health of minorities being predicated on their social environment.

A misconstrued message

In Belfast, police are reportedly treating two linked incidents as hate crimes – a street preacher’s comments ahead of the start of a Pride Parade; and a Bible allegedly ripped up in front of him.

While preaching in the open air, Ryan Williamson allegedly suggested gay people were rapists and child abusers. His comments were filmed and criticised by LGBT campaigners, but Williamson later said in an interview on The Nolan Show: ‘Of course I don’t believe that homosexuals rape kids. They took an 18-second clip of a message I had been sharing and misconstrued it – they might have caught some words, but they didn’t catch the heart of the message.’

He clarified that he meant ‘our kids are being indoctrinated by a militant homosexual agenda. It’s the rape of their identity’. Williamson said there was a ‘pretext to vilify Christians and preachers’.

He also said he was assaulted, spat on and had Bibles ripped up in front of him, and has given a statement to the police.