Disciplined for preaching official doctrine

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 2nd.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Holding fast to first principles.

Religious liberty. Free speech. The rule of law. Those ideas helped build the West and protect human dignity. Together, they form what we call classical liberalism.

EICHER: But over time, modern liberalism began to distort those bedrock ideas. Cracks began to appear in the foundation.

And now, even some conservatives are asking whether classical liberalism is still worth defending.

WORLD’s Jenny Lind Schmitt brings us the story of one man who says yes, and shows why those basic freedoms are more vital, and more vulnerable, than ever.

JENNY LIND SCHMITT: In 2019, Bernard Randall preached what he thought was a fairly straightforward sermon for a Church of England priest.

RANDALL: No one should be told they must accept an ideology. Love the person even when you profoundly dislike the ideas. Don’t denigrate a person simply for having opinions and beliefs that you don't share. …

At the time, Randall was serving as a chaplain at Trent College, a Church of England K-12 school near Nottingham. A few months earlier, school administrators had invited an LGBT group to implement an “inclusivity curriculum” at the school. Its lessons were more about revolution than inclusion. At a staff-day training, group leaders encouraged school staff to join in a chant to “smash heteronormativity.”

A student asked Randall if he could preach a sermon about whether students must accept pro-LGBT teaching in a Christian school.

RANDALL: So I thought that was a really good question. So I gave a sermon in the chapel basically saying you don't have to, you make up your own mind on ideologies, on belief systems. … Loving your neighbours as yourself doesn't mean you agree, but it does mean you respect their sincerity and so on. And there's no excuse for personal attacks or anything like that.

Randall explained that while not everyone agrees, the Church of England teaches that marriage is between one man and one woman. In other words, he was a Church of England chaplain in a Church of England school explaining the teaching of the Church of England.

RANDALL: You should be no more told you have to accept LGBT ideology than you should be told you must be in favor of Brexit or you must be Muslim. To both of which I’m sure you’d quite rightly object….

It was a moderate sermon. But Trent College didn’t think so. The school put him on indefinite leave. And without informing him, school administrators reported Randall to the U.K. government’s terrorist watchdog agency for “religious extremism.” The school also reported him to the U.K. equivalent of Child Protective Services as a safety risk.

Both agencies investigated and determined there was no case against Randall.

But the school would not apologize. And the hearings related to the case revealed part of the reason why.

RANDALL: And at the tribunal, interestingly, amongst various staff, the head teacher said it had never occurred to him until all this happened to think what it means to be head of a Christian school. He just had no concept of it being a Christian school in any meaningful way.

School administrators finally agreed to let Randall return under certain conditions … including the review and possible censor of his sermons.

But the church’s reaction was much worse.

RANDALL: My bishop apologised to the school for my behaviour before she even knew what I'd said…Pretty disappointing, I mean absolutely no support from the church at all.

The Church of England got its own local safeguarding office involved. They interrogated Randall and eventually concluded his Biblical teaching on marriage and his expression of his own beliefs was a safety risk. When he refused to back down, Bishop Libby Lane stripped Randall of the power to officiate church services. When Randall filed an official complaint about the bishop’s decision, then-Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby blocked it.

Randall decided enough was enough.

RANDALL: It's mind-blowing. Not only am I suing the Christian school for anti-Christian discrimination, I'm actually suing my bishop for anti-Christian discrimination, which shouldn't be possible, but that's where it's come to.

Randall’s case has now dragged on for over six years. Church officials have never explained their “safeguarding” concern, despite repeated requests.

Until the Church reinstates him, Randall cannot work as a chaplain. While he waits, he’s had to find other work. And the legal process has taken a toll.

RANDALL: Jesus said this thing about taking up your cross daily and following him. He didn't say, it's going to be a walk in the park, everybody.

At first as he told his story at events around England, Randall encountered disbelief. But people in the U.K. are slowly realizing their freedoms are eroding before their eyes.

RANDALL: So in response to a sermon saying respect people you disagree with,,...the message they all got was, well, if the chaplain whose job it is to talk about these things isn't allowed to talk about it, you'd better not.

Randall fears his case is an example of what could happen to others down the road. And that points to an even bigger question of whether a society can remain free without freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

RANDALL: And it's the religious people who tend to get cancelled first, because religion will tend to have people say...This is how I view the world. .. I'm not going to bow to the secular authority. … And religious people will do that as a matter of eternal consequence.. So you're more likely to find religious people saying, I cannot cross this line.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Lind Schmitt in London.

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