A judge in England on Tuesday (March 4) ruled a school chaplain’s firing for challenging LGBT+ teaching was “unsafe” due to anti-Christian bias of a member of the employment tribunal that had dismissed his appeal, according to an advocacy group.
Trent College in Long Eaton, Derbyshire in June 2019 fired the Rev. Bernard Randall for a sermon in which he told students it was reasonable to both question and debate LGBT+ teaching. The message came after the college invited gender identity group Educate and Celebrate (E&C) to “smash heteronormativity,” according to a press statement by rights group Christian Concern.
At the Employment Appeal Tribunal on Tuesday (March 4) in Fetter Lane, London, Judge James Tayler ruled that Randall’s case be remitted back to the original Employment Tribunal for a full retrial and ordered Trent College to pay £20,000 ($24,457 USD) in court costs to Randall.
“We now start from the beginning, which gives the opportunity to bring new evidence, especially on Educate and Celebrate,” Randall said in a statement Tuesday (March 4). “Nevertheless, the continuing long wait for justice is painful and holding back my life.”
Randall pointed out that he would “not be where I am now” if E&C had not been invited into Trent College in the first place.
“As an ordained Church of England minister working as a chaplain in a school with a Church of England ethos, it was my duty to encourage debate and help children who were confused by the LGBT+ teaching to know that there are alternative views and beliefs on these contentious issues,” he said. “Queer Theory, which E&C promoted, aims to ‘deconstruct [or smash] binaries’ including the clear distinctions between adult and child and right and wrong. As such it leaves the door wide open for malignant persons to indulge some of the most wicked behavior imaginable.”
Randall said that such a process was “wholly inappropriate” in a school and also wider society. He claimed that the injustice of his treatment because of his opposition to the introduction of a Queer Theory agenda in a school “should by now be obvious to all.”
“I am only sorry it takes the clear disclosure of such heinous crimes to reveal the dangers of the ‘smash heteronormativity’ agenda,” he said. “It is well past time for the Church of England to recognize how badly they have got this wrong and give me my life back.”
He also said it was very concerning that a group like E&C has been funded by the government and given so much access and influence.
“They are not the only ones who promote Queer Theory. Indeed, I saw the sticky fingerprints of such activism all over the judgment which has now been set aside,” he said. “I will keep pressing on for full justice and am thankful to everyone for their continued support and prayers.”
Randall, supported by the Christian Legal Centre, had taken legal action against Trent College following his dismissal, but the initial employment tribunal dismissed his first appeal at Nottingham Justice Centre in September 2022.
Judge Victoria Butler had led the presiding panel of three at that tribunal, which included Jed Purkis, who had posted anti-Christian vitriol on social media both before and after the original appeal by Randall, reported Christian Concern.
Purkis had posted, “Only atheists should be allowed to run for office,” and, “Damn right, you won’t catch us killing in the name of our non-god,” according to Christian Concern. He also said of Christians, “If they’re that f***ing super how come there’s so much sh*t going on in the world?” and “I need no ‘higher power’ to tell me the right way to treat people and behave…”
The posts were discovered during another case supported by the Christian Legal Centre at the same Nottingham Tribunal in March 2024 involving a Christian teacher identified only as Hannah.
Both Butler and Purkis presided in this case too, which involved Hannah taking legal action after a primary school sacked her for raising concern about an 8-year-old child “transitioning” gender under the guidance of extremist LGBT+ campaign group Stonewall. That hearing uncovered the anti-Christian posts by Purkis and a recusal application to withdraw the judge and panel because of a possible conflict of interest for “apparent bias,” according to Christian Concern.
“In a rare move, Judge Victoria Butler was forced to recuse the whole panel, including herself, and the hearing collapsed,” Christian Concern stated. “The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, supported by the senior president of tribunals and the Lord Chancellor, subsequently said that Mr. Jed Purkis’ comments amounted to misconduct, and he was given a formal rebuke.”
Randall’s lawyers were then able to add a “bias” ground to his own appeal and “argued in court today that there could be no sensible objection or delay to Dr. Randall’s appeal proceeding on the bias ground alone,” added Christian Concern.
By coincidence, Christian Concern stated that Hannah’s case was being reheard at Nottingham Employment Tribunal this week involving a differently constituted panel, as member Chris Tansley, ex-president of trade union UNISON, was already recused because of “actual bias.”
Randall’s appeal had been delayed pending the outcome of a case involving Kristie Higgs. The school counselling assistant successfully appealed her sacking by a school after she expressed concern on Facebook about LGBTQ+ materials being taught to primary school children.
“Facing repeated delays in his pursuit of full justice, Dr. Randall’s appeal was ‘stayed’ last year pending the outcome of the landmark Kristie Higgs case at the Court of Appeal,” stated Christian Concern. “Judge James Tayler justified the stay due to the precedent the Higgs ruling would set in a higher court for Dr. Randall’s appeal.”
Both cases involve issues of principle about the freedom for Christians to express their beliefs and opposition to harmful transgender ideology, sex education and extreme gender identity beliefs without fear of losing their jobs, the group stated.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, referring to the six years taken so far for justice to be served to Randall after his school sermon, stated, “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
“We welcome the decision to overturn the original ruling and the recognition of serious concerns regarding anti-Christian bias,” said Williams, adding that the case had wider effects on freedom of speech and religious belief rights in schools. “If Bernard is not vindicated, it sends a troubling message that teachers, chaplains, and parents who uphold Christian teaching or question radical ideological agendas will come under intense scrutiny and may face losing their jobs.”
The Christian Legal Centre remains committed to seeing justice done and will continue to support Randall until that is achieved, she said.
Randall has already been vindicated by several authorities contacted by the college about his sermon. Prevent (the government assessors of extremist and terrorist threat), the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) have all said that he has no case to answer.
The gender identity group whose ideology Randall challenged, E&C, “equips and empowers school communities to tackle and reduce homophobia, biphobia and transphobia,” according to an original listing by the Charity Commission. “We train staff, leadership teams and students in schools and organisations in language, policy updating, interrogating the curriculum, increasing visibility in the environment and engaging with the community.”
The Charity Commission has since closed E&C after scandals including one of its patrons, Stephen Ireland, being charged in August with multiple accounts of sex abuse against children, including rape and conspiracy to kidnap, stated Christian Concern.
Another E&C patron, Jordan Grey, lost his position in the gender identity group for “stripping naked on Channel Four and playing the piano with his genitalia,” added the Christian legal rights group.
“Gray had suggested that he went into schools to ‘talk about gender’ on behalf of E&C, adding that ‘toddlers kind of get it straight away.’”
