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Refusing to officiate at the celebration of gay civil partnerships may cost a British woman her job.
Lillian Ladele, a Nigerian-born British
registrar, has a conscience which does not permit her to officiate at the
registration of “civil partnerships” for same-sex couples. Her employer, the Islington
Borough in North London, says that she can
keep her conscience, but not her £31,000 job. Now Ms Ladele has taken her
employers to court for discriminating against her religious beliefs.
Islington is Britain’s third most popular borough for civil partnerships and more than 600 gay couples have had ceremonies there since the new form of relationship was legalised in December 2005. But Ladele holds the orthodox Christian view that “marriage is the union of one man and one woman for life to the exclusion of others and that this is the God-ordained place for sexual relations.” This constitutes, according to her employers, “discriminating against the homosexual community.” Ms Ladele insists that she has never actually discriminated against anyone, as she has been swapping shifts with her colleagues to avoid tying the knot for same-sex couples.
So basically Lillian Ladele is being threatened with punishment for the thought crime of regarding same-sex marriage as sinful. In fact the punishment began when she voiced misgivings about the new arrangements in August 2004 with her boss, Helen Mendez-Childs. Ms Mendez-Childs ridiculed her and told her that her views were like denying marriage to a black couple. Later on she was denied opportunities to preside over lucrative weddings staged at special premises. She says that her colleagues began to act in a “different, hostile way towards me.” Finally, the borough launched an investigation last year into whether she was guilty of “gross misconduct”.
Writing from Nigeria, I find it amazing that objecting to same-sex marriage constitutes gross misconduct and same-sex marriage doesn’t. It is astonishing that the country which for centuries has regarded itself as the beacon of human freedom should have sunk so low as to punish a woman for following her conscience. And not about a trivial matter, either, but about the nature of the most fundamental of human relationships. I would hazard a guess that 90 percent of the world would agree with Ms Ladele. She does not represent an unhinged minority.
No, it’s probably closer to 98 percent. In fact, the lunacy of gay marriage threatens to split the Anglican Church. Nigerian’s Jasper Akionla, Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, and other African Bishops have stated time and again that it goes against the Gospel, which paradoxically came to us through European missionaries. Akionla is not a lone voice in this regard. The former Nigerian government of Olusegun Obasanjo insisted that it goes against our value system as Africans.
I sometimes wonder if Mother England’s insistence on democratic freedoms is not sheer hypocrisy. On the one hand, we hear her politicians pontificating about Robert Mugabe’s tyranny and abuse of democratic process in Zimbabwe. Yet when a woman asserts her natural right to behave in accordance with a rational conscience, she is bullied, ostracised and threatened with the loss of her job. Ladele’s case shows that “democracy” can also become a monster. Why should your livelihood be threatened because you hold contrary views? Or is freedom of religion dependent on a majority opinion?
What I found excruciatingly offensive was the suggestion that Lillian Ladele’s views were analogous to racism. In fact, I suspect that a subtle new 21st Century racism underlies the harshness with which she is being treated. Even though she represents a traditional moral view, even though it violates her religious views, even though 98 percent of the world agrees, she is not being taken seriously. I suspect that Islington Borough’s argument ultimately is that opposition to same-sex marriage is a primitive way of thinking fit for uncultured people. It is tantamount to racism.
I applaud my sister, Ladele, because no sane Yoruba will acquiescence in such absurdity. What will she tell her relatives? That she has been officiating at gay weddings? Tufiakwa, God forbid! “To most of us mere mortals,” Olukayode Thomas of one of Nigeria’s largest newspapers, The Guardian, writes, “a job that pays about N7 million a year plus other fringe benefits, a dream car, mortgage on a nice house in a good neighbourhood and other goodies of life in a society that works like five fingers, is the ideal job. Many who place material things above their souls will give their arms and legs to keep it.” Well done, Lillian, for daring to swim against the tide!
Nwachukwu Egbunike is a book editor in Ibadan, Nigeria.
Good news about the Ladele case for those who believe in freedom of conscience over ethical issues (even if they disagree with the position taken):
The Central London Employment Tribunal ruled on 10 July that Islington council “rightly considered the importance of the right of the gay community not to be discriminated against but did not consider the right of Miss Ladele as a member of a religious group...In so acting, Islington council took no notice of the rights of Miss Ladele by virtue of her orthodox Christian beliefs.” The Tribunal added that the council’s failure was “ a violation of Miss Ladele’s dignity and created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.” And it upheld her claims of discrimination, harrassment and victimisation on the grounds of religion or beliefs.
This is a victory for conscience, common sense and old-fashioned liberalism.
Mal, my sources are the National Center for Policy Analysis and the Associated Press. There does seem to be a connection between Catholicism and the lower divorce rate in the Northeast.
Good on you Lilian. Happiness only comes from doing the right thing.
Dave, a limited internet search does not necessarily give us a true picture of the world scene. We would not even know if non-Chritians or nominal Christians make up the greater percentage of marriage breakups in the ‘bible belt’. But, whatever the case,(I have read reports that tell me different things from yours) the sad fact is that marriages are breaking up. Unfortunately, if the guilty ones in a Christian marriage allow pride, selfishness, lust, an unforgiving nature etc. to be a part of the equation then failure is on the cards. Not only do they damage the marriage but also their fellowship with the Lord. It is not ‘easy’ being a Christian, and it is true that some have greater challenges than others. However, those who are able to overcome their personal problems or impediments - be they physical, spiritual, mental, sexual, emotional or whatever - will save their marriages (if married) and also receive the eternal, joyful reward our Lord promised. And this applies to the people in the bible belt as well.
Re: marriages and divorce, G.K.Chesterton wrote in 1920 in an article on divorce that “The obvious effect of frivolous divorce will be frivolous marriage.”
And how true. It is that way round. If divorce is easy, so will marriage be, as those undertaking it will figure out that marriage need not be for life and can be “got out of” by divorce laws.
I think this will be true of gay couples as well as straight.
It’s symptomatic of these times of sexual license.And how prophetic of GKC!
Mal and Francis, in my limited internet searches there does seem to be a higher divorce rate in the area we call ‘the bible belt’. I’m not drawing conclusions, I’m just stating what I’ve found.
David asks why so many Christian marriages fail. Good question. The obvious answer is human frailty/selfishness. The not so obvious answer is the Government makes it too easy to divorce. If it were legally harder, if there was a stigma attached, if there were penalties once children were born, couples might think twice, or even three times. It is easier (in the UK) to get married than to obtain a driving licence.
Most people aren’t married to sociopaths, but to ordinary people who they fall out of love with. Hollywood has told them than marriage is about ‘being in love’, so when this happy period ends, so sadly does the marriage in many cases.
When you say to people that it is worth staying with a marriage that is going through a bad patch, even a long one, they look horrified.
Still, Christian marriages should last the course better than secular ones. I don’t know the statistics on this.
David, this is a good question regarding Christian marriages. Sadly, it is true that many of them do fail. In my previous post I had made it clear why and when this happens. Reading through the New Testament we find that there are three critical elements in a Christian marriage, namely husband, wife and true love - respect, care and concern for each other and, of course, for God and His laws. If anyone or anything is allowed to interefer, disrupt or corrupt this scenario it will cause the relationship to falter and, if no remedial action is taken, to fail. This is why we need to constantly pray for our brothers and sisters.
Hello again David Page, When i said there is no “gay” or “straight” communities, surely you must know we`re dealing in semantics, hence the quotation marks.
You cannot compare “gay” to black or Catholic. “gay” has no biological, societal or historical basis. It`s an organized sexual abberation. A real comparison would be a “sado-masochist” community or even the “hip-hop” community.
Mal, why do so many Christian marriages fail?
Andrew Byrne, all relationships, including marital ones, have their problems. Attitudes and actions that are against God’s ways do have their consequences. Pride, selfishness, sexual promiscuity and other unhealthy lifestyles definitely have a negative impact. So, as far as relationships are concerned, greater the disobedience against the Lord’s teachings greater will be the chances of breakdown
Darren, I don’t understand your point. Of course there is a gay community. I was in a Pride march last week and I can attest to it. Ever since Stonewall there has been an openly gay community. It exists for self defense. In more liberal, more secure, areas it seems to be becoming less cohesive. Hopefully, one day, there will no longer be a need for self defense. But to say there is no gay community is like saying there is no black community or no Catholic community. It doesn’t make sense.
Hello David Page,yes, let me explain. First off; there is,in actuality, no “gay” or “straight” community. There is the human race which is divide into two sexes, male and female.
The standard to which you hold my arguments does not exist, I believe that`s what`s known as a “straw man”.
Take a peek at my previous post and you`ll see what I mean.
Hmmm, I seem to have struck a nerve. You existence is that of a human being, male or female. “gay” is not a legitimate identity. It`s a socio-political, pseudo-scientific, sub-cultural construct.
“You”, as individuals may have much to offer society, but to give your relationships any more recognition than that as friends, not only offers nothing to society but detracts from society.
I don`t believe marriage will change “gays”, but rather “gays” will, as most people fear, change marriage for the worse. And yes, Dave Rowe, it has been the “straight”
people, via the so-called “sexual revolution”, who began the cheapening of marriage. The “gay rights movement” is merely a part of this disaster.
I find it most enlightening that many of the same people who
scoffed at marriage and cried"sexual freedom” in the 60’s,
are now the same group who uphold marriage and monogamy…
as long as it`s aimed at breaking down moral standards. It`s a perpetually adolescent mindset.
As for the young “lgbt” people “settling down”, they`re speaking only in defiance of the “anti-gay folks” and are just kidding themselves.
Dave Rowe, all Darren does is talk about the worst aspects of the gay community and the best aspects of the straight community. Why he does that, he would have to explain.
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