Charity Commission to bar pastors who preach real marriage?
The Government is writing new rules that could bar pastors from leading their churches, over what they preach on the Biblical model for marriage. And since Monday, councils and the police can ask a court for a Respect Order against any adult, street preachers included, whose conduct (including preaching about marriage and sexuality) is likely to cause “harassment, alarm or distress to any person”. Put the two side by side and they make a quiet pincer movement on preaching about real marriage, inside our churches and out on our streets.
Most churches are charities, regulated by the Charity Commission. The proposed rules would let it bar a person from leading a church over views it perceives to “promote or encourage violence or racial or religious hatred”. Its evidence could include “transcripts of sermons”, and views count from before the rules existed.
Out on the street, a Respect Order can ban “anything described in the order”, and breaking one carries up to two years in prison. Conduct likely to distress a single passer-by counts as anti-social behaviour, and nothing in the new law protects preaching on marriage and sexuality. Read that again: if a single passer-by says they feel distressed. And neither jaw of this pincer needs the equally egregious draft conversion practices Bill to pass.
We know what the Government’s own officials make of real marriage beliefs. Last Thursday, journalist Steven Edginton revealed a leaked Home Office counter-terror report listing “Nostalgia for traditionalism” among the features of “Christian Extremism”. It says such Christians believe “Socially ‘liberal’ sections of society” are “undermining ‘traditional’ values relating to sexuality and gender roles”. Those values are what marriage rests on – one man and one woman, immutable sex recorded at birth, and a mother and a father for every child. Officials now file these beliefs under extremism. Chaplain Bernard Randall was even reported to Prevent, the counter-terror programme, over a 2019 sermon telling pupils “You do not have to accept the ideas of LGBT activists”.
When Parliament redefined marriage in 2013, the Government promised MPs that belief in marriage as one man and one woman was “mainstream, legitimate and lawful”, and that “the Government will protect the right to express it”. Parliament also wrote into the Public Order Act that year that criticism of marriage “which concerns the sex of the parties” is not of itself “threatening or intended to stir up hatred”. The Government’s new rules carry no such protection – a broken promise that must be put right.
The consultation on the rules says they are “not intended... to prevent legitimate debates or speakers”. But the actual rules themselves say no such thing. Coalition for Marriage is demanding that the 2013 Government’s promises be written into the rules.
The consultation closes on 23 December. The rules can’t take effect unless both Houses of Parliament vote for them, so your MP has a say. C4M will issue a consultation guide on responding nearer the time.
Meanwhile, please write to your MP today, and demand two things:
- Vote against the Charity Commission’s new extremism rules unless Parliament’s own protection for what we say about marriage is written into them.
- Press the Home Secretary to publish the leaked counter-terror report, and to tell officials in writing that believing marriage is the voluntary, exclusive, lifelong union of one man and one woman isn’t extremism.
Write in your own words to avoid automatic rejection. The free WriteToThem website will find your MP from your postcode.
Teaching and preaching real marriage isn’t hatred. Parliament agreed in 2013, and it must agree again when these rules come to a vote. It is vital we stand against Government measures clearly aimed at silencing support for real marriage and gagging criticism of its alternatives. Your support takes that stand to every MP.