10/24/2024 The West (International Christian Concern) – Over the last year I’ve been involved in an employment tribunal against the evangelical Bible college that fired me after seven years. My violation was a Tweet where I’d said, “homosexuality is invading the Church” and why it matters, because “if sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Savior.”
Legal action does not come naturally to me. As I reflected after the tribunal, litigation may seem at odds with evangelical Christianity, like some mean-spirited departure from the gospel. I believe it was the right thing to do here precisely because of the gospel.
The Hearing
It was strange stepping into court and sitting a few feet away from Cliff College’s leaders, whom I had not seen since the dismissal almost 18 months earlier. Even though I was the one technically bringing action against them, much of the time it felt like I was the one on trial. Throughout the week-long hearing — with national press watching on — it was often my tweet, my writings, my beliefs, which were the primary topic of discussion and examination.
During the day and a half when I was on the stand, I was not allowed to speak about the case to anyone, not even my own legal team. During break times I had to sit in a separate room by myself. It was disorientating, not least with a nasty cold that added to the general exhaustion. I was ever reminded of my dependency on God alone. In that solitary room, Psalm 119 became my legal counsel:
“Your testimonies are my delight;
they are my counsellors.”
(Psalm 119:24)
The words of that glorious psalm helped me pray through my time on the stand, reflecting on the potential significance of the case itself.
“Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord,
your salvation according to your promise;
then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me,
for I trust in your word.”
(Psalm 119:41-42)
To my mind, the entire tribunal is ultimately about standing on God’s Word before those who stand against you for doing so. I have often found that times of trial open our eyes and ears to our need for God’s Word and Spirit. Such verses became for me like cupfuls of fresh water in the desert.
Contradictions
I believe the hearing went well from our perspective. The Christian Legal Centre did a wonderful job in supporting me, and our barrister really went to town exposing the flagrant contradictions in the college’s approach to their policies and stated beliefs.
For example, when he asked the college principal which part of the social media policy I had apparently violated, the principal first asked to re-read the policy, before — after some consideration — pointing to the section about staff members not “posting something defamatory, or that spreads … extremist religious or political views.”
This principal — whose written statement had described my Tweet as “abhorrent, indefensible, and an appalling way to describe the LGBTQ+ community” — knew he could not get away with calling my view “extremist,” but instead pointed to the word defamatory.” When asked whom I had defamed in my Tweet, he said, “homosexuality,” showing he clearly did not even understand the term that was apparently used to dismiss me.
In contrast, we pointed to over a decade’s worth of evidence — lectures, seminars, podcasts, blogs, emails, peer-reviewed articles, even sermons at the college chape — which showed my Tweet was a reasonable expression of my considered Christian convictions. These convictions relate not only to what evangelical Christians believe about homosexuality but also how one ought to talk about such issues publicly as a result of those beliefs, not least when unbiblical ideologies threaten to undermine them from within.
The Judgment
I was thus surprised when a couple of months later (not long after the conclusion of Pride Month, incidentally) the delayed verdict came through entirely in favor of Cliff College.
Many people told me they were praying for me to win, for which I was grateful. But I have often wondered if such decisions serve providentially to show the depths of the problem we face as Christians in modern Western society. It is no surprise that some have observed a demonstrative “anti-Christian bias” within the British Employment Tribunal system, with several recent cases of tribunal panel members being taken off cases due to the exposure of their explicit anti-Christian sentiments elsewhere.
Although I cannot know whether this affected my own case, our judge was not Biblically literate, and said he was unfamiliar with the several Bible verses that were cited as examples of other offensive-sounding Christian beliefs. There was once a time when Biblical literacy was not only an expectation for a judge, but a requirement. Not so anymore.
The judgment report reads more like a terse summary of the college’s defense than an explication of how my arguments and evidence were counteracted in the decision. One part said, “The claimant refused to remove the Tweet despite the uproar and offense it was causing.” Hundreds of pages of written evidence and dozens of hours in the courtroom were expended to explain why I believed I ought to stand by what I said; yet all such nuances about expressed Christian belief were essentially boiled down to mere stubbornness.
Implications
If proclaiming the truth causes “uproar and offense,” should a Christian who is called to train preachers shrink back from proclaiming it? Did not the early church cause uproar and offense? Did not some say that Christians were “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17:6)? Too often, modern western Christians stay silent at just the time they ought to speak. They fear what might happen if Christian truth really did turn the world upside down as it’s meant to!
I believe the judgment shows just how far our society has moved away from Christian norms. LGBTQ+ ideology is now so entrenched within the worldview of the legal system that even when someone challenges it on religious grounds, judges will find it increasingly inconvenient to rule in their favor.
If this judgment is upheld, it will have significant negative implications for Christian free speech in future. If Christian leaders and academics cannot stand up for basic Christian beliefs, what chance does everyone else have? We will appeal. Christians must be free to stand against the ideologies of this age which trample so brazenly upon the Christian convictions upon that Western civilization was built.
To read Cliff College’s response, click here.
About the Author
Aaron P. Edwards, Ph.D, is a theologian, writer, and speaker. After completing his Ph.D. in 2014, he became a teaching fellow in Divinity at the University of Aberdeen, lecturing on religion, politics, and cultural crisis.
Following this, for seven years he was the lecturer in Theology, Preaching, and Mission at Cliff College, where he was also the postgraduate taught programme lead. In 2023, he was notoriously dismissed from this role due to his robust public stance on Biblical sexuality.
He is widely published in theology, philosophy, and missiology, with a background in English literature, and a specialism in the theology of Søren Kierkegaard. He has also been an editorial assistant for the acclaimed poet, Micheal O’Siadhail.
For several years, he has co-hosted the popular podcast “Pod of the Gaps” with Dr. Andy Bannister, addressing key issues at the intersections of Church and western culture. He writes a Substack “That Good Fight,” and co-hosts an additional podcast called “That Good Fight: A Reformation for Gentlemen.”
His church background is Reformed charismatic, where he has served local churches in various pastoral, theological, and evangelistic roles for 20 years. He lives near Sheffield, U.K., with his wife Molly and their six homeschooled children.
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The post Free to Stand: My Tribunal and Its Implications appeared first on International Christian Concern.
