Nurses take legal action over 'horrifying' trans changing room issue
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 19 Jul 2024
Eight female nurses who had to share a hospital changing room with a pre-operative trans-identified biologically male nurse are taking legal action against the NHS Trust.
The nurses are part of a group of 26 nurses who wrote to County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust with their complaints in March. They originally raised concerns last summer but the nurses said they were told by HR to ‘broaden their mindset’ and be more ‘inclusive’.
Civil servants sued for saying sex is binary
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 18 Nov 2024
Two civil servants for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are facing legal action over allegations of discrimination against transgender people.
A colleague of Andreas Meuller and Elspeth Drummer-Wrigley, who currently remains anonymous, thinks the pair should be reprimanded for their view that transgender people can’t change their sex, The Telegraph reported. Mueller and Drummer-Wrigley are co-chairs of the Sex Equality and Equity Network (SEEN), a department of Defra the claimant is now calling to be shut down.
Want to help young people follow Jesus? Talk about sexuality and gender
Andrew Bunt
Date posted: 6 Nov 2024
A young woman visited a local church one Sunday morning. As she met members of the church, reflected on the words of the songs, and listened to the preacher, she encountered God and decided she wanted to become a follower of Jesus.
After the service, she approached a friend of mine who was one of the leaders of the church. As the young woman started talking, she broke down and began to sob. When she had managed to compose herself a little, she explained her tears: ‘I want to become a Christian, but you’re going to hate me because I’m a lesbian.’
Relief as new transgender guidance released for schools
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Feb 2024
The draft transgender guidance for schools has been published, clarifying that schools are not required to accept a child’s request to socially transition; and parents will generally have a right to know if their child has made a request.
Minister for women and equalities, Kemi Badenoch, said the guidance is intended to give schools ‘greater confidence when dealing with an issue that has been hijacked by activists misrepresenting the law’.
Trans woman wins 'landmark' discrimination case against app
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 21 Oct 2024
A transgender woman (a biological male who identifies as female) from Australia has won a discrimination case against a women-only social media app, after she was denied access for being male.
The Federal Court found that although Roxanne Tickle had not been directly discriminated against, she was a victim of indirect discrimination, when a decision disadvantages a person with a particular attribute. It ordered the app to pay her the equivalent of £5,100 plus costs. The case is both a landmark ruling about gender identity and addresses the increasingly contentious question: what is a woman?
Sutcliffe appeal lost
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 27 Aug 2024
Maths teacher Joshua Sutcliffe has lost his appeal against a ruling banning him indefinitely from teaching.
Sutcliffe was dismissed after deliberately failing to use a pupil’s preferred pronouns in the classroom and on TV. He had also shared with pupils his views about gay marriage and homosexuality.
news in brief
The Goodness of God
The songs Goodness of God, 10,000 Reasons and In Christ Alone have topped a new list of favourite contemporary worship songs.
CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International), has published a roundup of the latest favourites among UK churches who are licensed with the organisation. The top ten also includes How Great Is Our God (4), What a Beautiful Name (5), O Praise The Name (Anástasis) (6), Here I Am To Worship (7) and Cornerstone (8). Other favourites making the list include How Deep The Father’s Love For Us at number 20, Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) (22), The Servant King (37), There Is A Redeemer (46), Come People Of the Risen King (50) and The Power Of The Cross (94). The list does not include classic Christian hymns as they are already in the public domain and not within CCLI’s remit.
Preparing for the next frontier in sexual ethics: polyamory and more
Andrew Bunt
Date posted: 20 Jul 2024
The first same-sex marriages in the UK took place in 2014. A decade later, many of us Christians feel we are still playing catchup: we are trying to get our heads around same-sex sexuality and how to hold on to our Biblical conviction that marriage is the lifelong union of a man and a woman while simultaneously loving well those who are attracted to people of the same sex. We are wrestling with how both to love God and love our neighbour in relation to same-sex sexuality.
But while Christians have been playing catch-up, wider society has been continuing to develop its sexual ethic. Same-sex relationships aren’t really a point of debate for most people in modern Western society. In fact, to many, it seems obvious that two people of the same sex should be able to marry.
Trans review welcome
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 May 2024
The Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) says it is ‘hugely encouraged’ by The Cass Review into gender identity services for under-18s.
Author and renowned paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass writes in the review that children have been let down by a lack of research and ‘remarkably weak’ evidence on medical interventions in gender care.
news in brief
Felix Ngole
Felix Ngole is taking legal action against a health and wellbeing charity after claiming his job offer as a mental health support worker was withdrawn after discovering his Christian beliefs on marriage.
With the support of the Christian Legal Centre, Ngole is suing Touchstone Support Leeds for religious discrimination. The case was being heard at an employment tribunal in Leeds at the start of April. A ruling has yet to be handed down. In 2019, the Court of Appeal allowed Ngole’s appeal against a ruling that his removal from a university social work course was lawful, after comments made on social media in support of traditional Biblical teaching on marriage.
Move over Equality, Equity is the new kid in town: Here’s what it means
Tom Underhill
Date posted: 1 May 2024
Over the past few years, corporate HR departments and public bodies have quietly been wielding their Tipp-Ex in a bulk deletion of the letters ‘a’ and ‘l’. ‘Equality’ has been changed to ‘equity’ in a mass rebranding of EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) departments and initiatives.
Or maybe it wasn’t quiet: perhaps in your experience it was heralded with great fanfare. Either way, this deletion represents a significant extension of the EDI mission, now almost synonymous with the one term, Equity. So what is Equity, what does this change imply, and how should we think Christianly about these matters?
‘Disastrously bad’ messaging, but Christians are protected
Luke Randall
Date posted: 1 May 2024
Messaging from the Scottish Government and Police Scotland concerning the recently implemented Hate Crime and Public Order Act has been ‘disastrously bad,’ but Christian views are protected, according to Christian Institute Deputy Director Simon Calvert.
He stressed that while there are problems with the law, such as the inclusion of ‘stirring up hatred’ offences covering contested areas such as religion and sexuality, Christian views are protected.
news in brief
Church bill 147x higher
Castleton Baptist Church, near Newport, was charged almost £44,000 by SSE for energy usage, despite normally paying around £300 a month. The church had not seen a letter confirming the bill, because the building has no letterbox to receive post.
Church treasurer, Nathan Evans saw that the massive direct debit had been taken when he examined the church accounts, and upon recalculation, SSE admitted the church should have been charged just £304. SSE have apologised for the mistake, and offered £500 compensation.
news in brief
Hope Church Blackwood and Kirkmuirhill celebrates tenth anniversary
Hope Church (Blackwood and Kirkmuirhill) recently celebrated their tenth anniversary as a Free Church of Scotland congregation. Original members of the congregation, along with minister Rev. Ian Watson, had left the Church of Scotland in 2014.
The church’s anniversary weekend featured a meal and ceilidh on the Saturday and a service focused on the anniversary on the Sunday, which included Communion. Rev. Watson said: ‘as we review the past decade the verse that keeps coming back to us is Psalm 118:23: ‘The Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes.’’
Now This
Going to the wedding
Bill James
Date posted: 1 Apr 2024
As summer approaches, many of us will receive wedding invitations.
We may be clear that Biblical marriage is between one man and woman, and that sexual intimacy is only appropriate within that context. But how do we respond when a friend or a family member invites us to their gay or transgender wedding? Do we prioritise friendly relationships and accept, or decide on principle that we cannot go?
Bernard Randall: 'The culture war is far from over'
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Mar 2024
Dr Bernard Randall, the Christian teacher who was sacked and reported to terrorist watchdog Prevent by his school for preaching a moderate sermon on identity politics, has responded to the Charity Commission’s decision to permit the dissolution of Educate and Celebrate (E & C).
E & C was the scandal-hit charity whose extreme gender identity teaching at Trent College, Nottingham led to Dr Randall's dismissal. He has not given a sermon or been able to work in Christian ministry since, a situation he continues to challenge.
Teachers 'won't be forced' to use child's chosen pronoun
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Jan 2024
Transgender guidance for schools, published this December, does not require teachers or pupils to address a child, who wants to change gender, by their preferred pronoun.
As the guidance was being drafted, The Times said children would be able to socially transition with parental consent, but only in limited circumstances; and teachers would not be forced to use a child’s chosen pronoun if they have a ‘good faith’ exception.
Worried about having 'unsound' opinions?
Throughout my Christian life, I have experienced acceptance and belonging in church by publicly identifying as (what some would call) a ‘card-carrying’ evangelical.
On reflection, I must confess that, among fellow evangelicals, the experience that I have most enjoyed has had little to do with being perceived as sacrificially loving, or exceptionally forbearing. To be brutally honest, neither of those virtues is my strong suit. Instead, as an evangelical, I’ve been choosing the far easier task of focusing on being what I call ‘confessionally sound’.
When considered in isolation, few would object to that focus. After all, for persecuted Christians, such as Martin Luther, Deitrich Bonhoeffer and even 21st century martyrs, confessional soundness has been one of the most conspicuous and admirable hallmarks of Reformed belief.
Nevertheless, there is danger in the pursuit of apparent confessional soundness at the expense of all other virtues, such love and forbearance. For example, it can result in a total lack of remorse over directing sarcastic ad hominem remarks and put-downs towards those people whom most evangelicals no longer consider to be confessionally 'sound.'