UK Christian expelled over pro-marriage Facebook posts will appeal to courts
SHEFFIELD, United Kingdom, – A Christian father of four who has served as a teacher and care worker since
coming to Great Britain as a refugee in 2003 has lost the appeal of his expulsion
from the Sheffield University Masters of Social Work program for expressing his
views on homosexuality.
Francis Ngole, 39, would
take the university to court with the help of the Christian Legal Centre, a
pro-bono advocacy organization that defends Christian freedom of religion and
freedom of expression. “I feel and my legal team feels that the decision
reached was strongly discriminatory. But I’m clearly not fighting for myself. I
am fighting for other Christians. Christianity is being driven underground.”
Ngole’s offense was to participate in an
online discussion last September about the jailing of Kentucky country clerk
Kim Davis for refusing to sign same-sex “marriage” licences. Ngole quoted the
passage from Leviticus 20:13 describing homosexual intercourse as an
“abomination” and prescribing the death penalty.
"I’m clearly not fighting
for myself. I am fighting for other Christians. Christianity is being driven
underground."
A fellow student complained and two months
later he was summoned before the social work faculty disciplinary body to
explain himself. He offered to be more cautious in the future but did not
apologize. In March came the ruling: he was unfit to be a social worker and a
student in the MSW program.
“Members of the committee expressed serious
concerns about the level of insight you had demonstrated with regards to the
comments you posted on Facebook,” the university told Ngole. The problem was
not with his opinions of homosexuality per se but with “your act of publicly
posting those views such that it will have an effect on your ability to carry
out a role as a social worker. … This action was an extremely poor judgement on
your part and had transgressed boundaries which are not deemed appropriate for
someone entering the social work profession.”
Ngole appealed, and according to Ade Amooba of
the Christian Legal Centre, who supported him at the second hearing, “They
seemed to be sympathetic and I thought it went favourably.” But when the day
for releasing the decision was postponed, Amooba began to think the appeal body
had been pressured from above. In the event, they supported Ngole’s expulsion.
Andrea Williams, the founder and director of
the Christian Legal Centre, said “inappropriate
and disproportionate response to private statements.” She added, “Universities
are supposed to be places of free expression where big ideas about life are
debated in freedom.
Ngole, a refugee from Cameroon who has earned
a teaching degree and a BSW since arriving in Britain, said, “I have been a
teacher and a care worker and I have worked with [homosexuals] and I have never
treated them differently. Nobody has ever complained about me.”
“God doesn’t have a problem with the people in
same sex marriage, he has a problem with sin. And I don’t have a problem with
the people either. God loves them. God created us all,” he said.
But if Ngole can’t work as a social worker he
doesn’t know what he will do. “God has put it into my heart to help people. I
thought I could do that best as a social worker.” He believes it will be
“incredibly hard to find a job” anywhere in Britain because of this case. “But
I’m confident God will look after me.”
Williams said Ngole’s legal team had not
decided on what legal strategy to follow but noted that because Sheffield U was
a public university its decisions were subject to judicial review.
She said Ngole’s case was similar to that of
the Exeter University Christian Union’s successful fight with the same school’s
student society in 2007 that led to the creation of the Christian Legal Centre.
The student union had refused to recognize the club because it denied
membership to non-believers, a position supported by an adjudicator. But when
the Christian group took the case to court, the student union backed down and
made special rules for all religious clubs.
Another relevant case that reached the
country’s top court was that of Adrian Smith, a public housing official in
Manchester demoted in 2012 after expressing opposition to same-sex “marriage”
on Facebook. The High Court ruled that Smith’s employer had committed a
“serious and repudiatory breach of trust” and that there was no right in
Britain to not be offended.
