Christian Charity Worker Suspended For Saying He Did Not Believe In Same-Sex Marriage
Last updated at 10:40 AM on 12th April 2009
Daily Mail Reporter
A charity worker was suspended after telling a colleague about his Christian beliefs against homosexuality, it has emerged today.
David Booker, 44, was chatting about his faith with co-worker Fiona Vardy during a late shift at the hostel in Southampton, Hants on March 26.
He told her he was opposed to same-sex marriages and to homosexual clergy but denied being homophobic and said that he had homosexual friends.
The next evening, Mr Booker was suspended from his ‚ £19,000-a-year post as a hostel support worker with Society of St James where he has worked for the last four years.
His employers told him the action was taken for ‘events that happened last night’.
On March 30 he received a formal suspension notice which alleged that he ‘seriously breached’ the charity’s code of conduct ‘by promoting your religious views which contained discriminatory comments regarding a person’s sexual orientation…
‘The action has been taken to safeguard both residents and staff” at the Southampton Street hostel.
Mr Booker, 44, a born-again Christian from Southampton, turned to the Christian Legal Centre (CLC) which instructed human rights lawyer Paul Diamond to represent him.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, barrister and director of CLC, said: ‘Mr Booker has been suspended since March 27 for two weeks pending investigation.
‘No date has been set for the investigation and disciplinary hearing.
‘This case shows that in today’s politically correct, increasingly secularised society, even consenting reasonable discussion on religion between two employees is being twisted by employers to discriminate and silence the Christian voice and freedom of expression.’
He said the charity English Churches House Group, which was recently taken over by Society of St James, was largely funded by churches throughout Hampshire whose followers would be ‘shocked at the attitude and action taken by a Christian organisation towards a Christian employee’.
He added: ‘The Archbishop of Canterbury, as patron, has confirmed the Church’s teaching on marriage, same-sex relationships and homosexuality and that is in the public domain.
‘We are interested to know whether his patronage is now under threat under the charity’s Culture and Diversity Code of Conduct.’
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond “fair use”, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
