A leading evangelical church in London has responded to claims made as part of a new campaign against non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in Christian contexts.
All Souls Langham Place responded after it was cited in an online article on a new website www.ndafree.org. NDAfree describes itself as ‘a global movement with a vision to see individuals, Christian organisations and local churches free from the misuse of non-disclosure agreements.’
The initiative is spearheaded by a number of figures from different countries including abuse survivor Lee Furney. He said that although NDAs might appear reasonable in some contexts, ‘there’s no transparency, no accountability. You can’t track them or how they’re used. And they’re binding the conscience for the future, saying I can’t change my mind, regardless of the situation…’
US magazine Christianity Today news editor Daniel Silliman reported how the campaigners fear that NDAs – ‘legal tools that were designed to protect tech industry trade secrets’ – are now being ‘misused to conceal abuse, preserve secrets, and protect powerful reputations without regard for the human cost’ in Christian contexts.
Silliman added: ‘NDAs make it possible to resolve disputes with settlements that allow both parties to move on. As a legal tool, they are now standard practice almost everywhere.’ Writing on the NDAfree website, one former member of staff of All Souls Langham Place set out what they alleged were issues arising from their recruitment to a role there – claims, they said, ‘which All Souls offered me money not to make. I’m free to do that because I chose not to sign any NDA.’
An All Souls spokesperson told en: ‘All Souls has on very rare occasions used confidentiality clauses in employment settlement agreements, and not to prevent the disclosure of abuse. We condemn any action, including the use of NDAs, intended to silence survivors.’
