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Christian student kicked off university course over gay marriage views wins court of appeal fight
BBC ^ | 3 July 2019 | Gabriella Swerling

Posted on 07/06/2019 3:56:34 PM PDT by daniel1212

A Christian student kicked off a university course over his views on gay marriage has celebrated his latest legal battle as “great news" for anyone who cares about free speech.

Felix Ngole, 41, said that he was expressing a traditional religious view when he was accused of posting derogatory comments about homosexuals and bisexuals on Facebook.

Mr Ngole posted comments in 2015 when taking part in a debate on a Facebook page about Kim Davis, a state official in the US state of Kentucky, who refused to register same-sex marriages, judges heard

He had said Mrs Davis's position was based on the "Biblical view of same-sex marriage as a sin", said he was making a "genuine contribution" to an important public debate, and he was "entitled to express his religious views".

As a result of was thrown off the Sheffield University course where he was completing a postgraduate degree in social work. University bosses said Mr Ngole showed "no insight" and the decision to remove him from the course was fair.

They said he had been studying for a professional qualification and they had to consider his fitness to practise.

University bosses said that he had posted comments on a publicly accessible Facebook page which were "derogatory of gay men and bisexuals" and Judge Collins Rice ruled that university bosses acted within the law, however appeal judges said the university's disciplinary proceedings were flawed.

The three judges said that university bosses adopted an untenable position - thinking that any expression of disapproval of same-sex relations, however "mildly expressed", on a public social media platform was a breach of profession guidelines and that a university fitness to practise committee should stage another hearing and reconsider Mr Ngole's case.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: antichristianbigotry; censorship; education; facism; freespeech; gaystapo; homofascism; homosexualagenda; indoctrination; judiciary; lgbt
Note that the "derogatory comments about homosexuals and bisexuals on Facebook" was that of stating the Biblical the position, and thus the Uni[di]versity censored God.

https://www.christianconcern.com/our-issues/freedom/felix-ngole-wins-appeal-in-victory-for-christian-freedoms reports,

During his Fitness to Practice hearing, the University had told him that the expression of his Christian views was unacceptable and was effectively told either to renounce his faith or stay silent on pain of losing his career. Yet Felix says he felt he could not surrender his faith.

In some shocking exchanges from the High Court hearing, the University of Sheffield implied that Felix was not allowed to express the Christian viewpoint on same-sex marriage or homosexuality on any public forum, including in a church.

Here is some of the some of the exchange in the High Court hearing .The three judges presiding over the case are Lord Justice Irwin, Lord Justice Haddon-Cave and Sir Jack Beatson. Ms Hannett is counsel for the University of Sheffield.

On the freedom to say in church or in a bible study group that homosexual practice is a sin

MS HANNETT: Well, I think I have to accept, my Lord, that there is not a discussion of how that might be done in a public way. Because, in my submission, making those views publicly as a professional is likely always to be problematic.

LORD JUSTICE IRWIN: However expressed?

MS HANNETT: However expressed, my Lord. Well, the views as they -- on the very specific facts that you have before you, where there is an expression about both same-sex marriage and the morality of same-sex practice, my Lord, I say that is problematic for a social worker. My Lord, there are two points being made: not just that same-sex marriage is problematic, but that the same-sex sexual practice, and therefore by implication being in a same-sex relationship, is problematic, sinful, etc.

LORD JUSTICE HADDON-CAVE: So a social worker cannot express, let us call it, traditional Christian morality about homosexuality?

MS HANNETT: In public, my Lord, yes. Because, my Lord, as I have indicated, social work has a particular context. It has particular requirements to work with vulnerable service users. It is particularly important in social work that there is neither in fact discrimination on the grounds of protected characteristics, but there is perceived to be discrimination because of, for example, sexual orientation. Now, that does not say anything about what you might do in private in the context of a church, in the context of----

LORD JUSTICE HADDON-CAVE: Well, a church is public.

MS HANNETT: My Lord, I am so sorry, I meant -- I did not mean -- I meant on Facebook in a public forum which is effectively searchable by anybody at any time. So if I am, for example, a service user who comes along, Mr Ngole is assigned as my service user, if I Google his name, those are the views that come up.

LORD JUSTICE IRWIN: Well, I was thinking overnight about what you submitted on that and it does bear on my Lord's question. It is clear that somebody here searched the internet deliberately, found these postings and passed them anonymously to the university, or anonymously as far as the appellant is concerned. Now, that is a much more remote and obscure way of determining what Mr Ngole said than if he preached in his local church, once he was qualified, in a small city or a large town. He would much more readily and immediately be identified if he did preach on Leviticus and on this issue, even in a church.

1 posted on 07/06/2019 3:56:34 PM PDT by daniel1212
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To: daniel1212

There is no freedom of speech in the USA.


2 posted on 07/06/2019 4:01:53 PM PDT by I want the USA back (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Orwell.)
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To: I want the USA back
There is no freedom of speech in the USA.

Forgot to mention this is in the UK. But which tends to be followed here.

3 posted on 07/06/2019 4:04:10 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: I want the USA back
There is no freedom of speech in the USA.

You are wrong. The only freedom of speech is for leftist/statist views. Anything else is prohibited.

There will be a reckoning one way or another one day. It will be ugly as history proves and Mark Levin always, as the Paul Revere of our time, warns us.

4 posted on 07/06/2019 4:10:25 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: daniel1212

Interesting this is the UK where the rights to the KJV are vested in the Crown.


5 posted on 07/06/2019 4:10:27 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: shanover
And while the failure to affirm homosexual agenda is treated as moral sin by the Left, their is a movement to not prosecute actual crimes, such as MA Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollin proposes:

Charges for which the Default is to Decline Prosecuting (unless supervisor permission is obtained).

Instead of prosecuting, these cases should be (1) outright dismissed prior to arraignment or (2) where appropriate, diverted and treated as a civil infraction for which community service is satisfactory, restitution is satisfactory or engagement with appropriate community-based no-cost programming, job training or schooling is satisfactory. In the exceptional circumstances where prosecution of one of these charges is warranted, the line DA must first seek permission from his or her supervisor. If necessary, arraignment will be continued to allow for consultation with supervisor. Thus, there will be an avenue for prosecuting these misdemeanors when necessary but it will be appropriately overseen by experienced prosecutors. 0 https://rollins4da.com/policy/charges-to-be-declin


6 posted on 07/06/2019 4:22:56 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: shanover

Ugly without mercy


7 posted on 07/06/2019 4:49:28 PM PDT by mrmeyer (You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him. Robert Heinlein)
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To: daniel1212

Sounds like the road paved to anarchy to me!
So if I just “shoot, shovel, shut up” it should be perfectly OK.


8 posted on 07/06/2019 5:32:58 PM PDT by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: daniel1212

good post. thx.

thank you again to Kim Davis who courageously chose to serve God, not the naysayers, powers and principalities of this world. may God continue to bless and protect those like Mr. Ngole who follow God’s lead.

it’s always good to follow God over man, to quote a great American: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”


9 posted on 07/06/2019 7:03:58 PM PDT by dadfly
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To: I want the USA back
There is no freedom of speech in the USA.

And yet, here you are expressing yourself without prior approval.

10 posted on 07/06/2019 8:08:05 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: dadfly

The proxy servants of the devil essentially require all to salute the flag of Sodom, by which the devil gets glory. What is past is prologue.

Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up: And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. (Daniel 3:4-7)


11 posted on 07/07/2019 4:11:56 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: daniel1212

This attack on this student is EXACTLY the harm marriage defenders predicted with the push for “same-sex marriage.” Now the nihilists are pretending they never disclaimed the harm that would come.


12 posted on 07/07/2019 5:51:55 AM PDT by fwdude
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