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(LifeSiteNews) — Rev. Dr. Bernard Randall, a Christian chaplain at a U.K. school, began an employment tribunal on Wednesday after his termination for preaching against the LGBT agenda to students.

After a series of complaints and investigations, Randall was ultimately fired from his position at Trent College in 2021. The tribunal is to hear the chaplain’s objections to some of the school’s proposed initiatives based on the LGBT-focused Educate and Celebrate organization. The hearing is expected to last up to three weeks.

“Educate and Celebrate went beyond a neutral stance of inclusivity into the implantation of ideas I consider to be identity politics,” Randall said Wednesday, according to BBC. He added that the programs were “based on a Marxist and atheist reading of the universe that I think is wrong.”

Randall recounted his concerns over the school’s shift to pro-LGBT actions, including the forming of a “Youth Pride” student group and belittling heterosexuality through a staff chant of “smash heteronormativity,” led the founder of Educate and Celebrate, Elly Barnes. The chaplain would not participate in the chant and later informed the school’s senior staff of his concerns.

According to Randall’s account on Wednesday, he was “excluded from discussions about the implementation of the Educate and Celebrate programme in the school ‘because he might disagree with it.’”

Prior to his dismissal, the school investigated the chaplain after a 2019 sermon in which he preached the teachings of the Church of England on gender and sexuality as well as reminding students that English law enables them the freedom to believe the LGBT narrative as they choose.

Randall was promptly reported to the police and told by the deputy head and designated safeguarding lead (DSL) of the school “that his beliefs were irrelevant and that his sermon had hurt some people’s feelings,” according to Fox News.

“I never thought that giving a sermon would lead to me being dismissed and reported,” Randall said in an interview with Christian Concern. “I was thinking ‘I’m never going to work again,’ because I’ve been accused of being a terrorist.”

According to another interview, Randall stated that during the investigation with Prevent, the counter-terrorism arm of U.K. police, he was determined to be a potential threat to children and that the Church of England is “a safeguarding risk.” Randall also spoke to the lack of action on the part of the Church, sharing that the safeguarding team offered Randall’s bishop the opportunity to vouch for the chaplain, citing that his concerns were based on a “theological matter” rather than safeguarding. This would have released Randall from investigations into his conduct as a potential threat to students. However, the bishop declined this opportunity and said to “do the safeguarding” protocol.

In addition to the employment tribunal process, Randall has “initiated legal action against the bishop and the diocese.”

RELATED:

UK school chaplain: I was accused of being a terorist and fired for giving a homily on LGBT ideology

Preaching a gracious sermon on sexuality in a Christian school considered terrorism and a danger to children

 

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