| Christian Legal Centre | |
| Abbreviation: | CLC |
| Formation: | December 2007 |
| Headquarters: | 70 Wimpole Street, London |
| Region: | United Kingdom |
| Leader Title: | Director |
| Leader Name: | Andrea Williams |
The Christian Legal Centre (CLC) is a private company which was set up in December 2007[1] which acts in a number of high-profile cases on behalf of Evangelical Christians in the United Kingdom. It has won most of its legal cases. Observers believe the centre has adopted tactics from wealthy evangelical groups in the US, notably the powerful Alliance Defense Fund, and raised questions about its funding.[2] [3] They are linked to the Christian Concern campaigning organisation.[4] It opposes homosexuality, same-sex marriage, pre-marital sex, and pornography.[5]
Since its inception, the CLC has involved itself in a number of high-profile cases in the UK.
In 2008, the CLC represented Emily Mapfuwa, a Christian who launched a private prosecution against the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead for exhibiting a statue by Terence Koh depicting Jesus with an erection.[6] In a BBC Essex radio interview, Michael Phillips (a solicitor working for CLC who is also a member of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship) admitted that Mapfuwa had never actually visited the exhibition: in fact, she lives over 250miles away in Brentwood, Essex.[7] [8] The case was eventually discontinued by the Crown Prosecution Service.[9]
The CLC and Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE) were refused permission to apply for a judicial review to overturn the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's decision to allow laboratory testing of hybrid embryos. Justice Dobbs at the High Court in London ruled that the application was totally without merit, and ordered the CLC to pay costs amounting to about £20,000.[10]
Graham Cogman, a police constable from Norfolk, was fired for sending emails to colleagues in which he quoted Bible passages condemning homosexuality and forwarded details of a group that offered to "cure" homosexuals. Supported by the CLC, Cogman launched a complaint at an employment tribunal, claiming harassment on the grounds of his religious beliefs. He lost his case and was dismissed.[11]
See main article: McFarlane v Relate Avon Ltd. Gary McFarlane, a counselor for Relate (a relationship support charity), was fired after raising a possible conscientious objection to assisting same-sex couples with sexual issues. Relate admitted wrongful dismissal, conceding that McFarlane should have been given notice instead of being summarily dismissed for 'gross misconduct'. Further complaints of unfair dismissal and discrimination on the grounds of religion were dismissed.[12] An appeal against this ruling was dismissed by the High Court in April 2010.[13] A subsequent application to the European Court of Human Rights also ended in failure.[14]
Shirley Chaplin, a nurse who was supported by the CLC, made an unsuccessful bid to sue the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust for discrimination because it had moved her to a desk job after she refused to remove a cross necklace when asked to do so on health and safety grounds (hospital dress code prohibits front-line staff from wearing any type of necklace in case patients try to grab them).[15] The hospital had offered Chaplin a compromise of wearing her cross pinned inside a lapel or pocket. An employment tribunal ruled they acted reasonably in April 2010, rejecting Chaplin's case.[16] Chaplin eventually tried unsuccessfully to obtain a ruling against the UK government at the European Court of Human Rights.
Duke Amachree, a homelessness officer, was fired by Wandsworth Council for subjecting a client to a "30-minute barrage" of evangelism when he was supposed to be offering her housing advice. The client complained to the council, leading to an investigation. The council complained that Amachree revealed "sensitive personal information" about the client to the media, namely in an interview with the Daily Mail after the CLC had become involved.[17] The CLC supported Amachree in an unsuccessful legal claim for unfair dismissal, religious discrimination, and breach of contract.[18]
A Christian couple, Eunice and Owen Johns applied to become foster parents with Derby City Council. They withdrew their application after a social worker expressed concerns when they said they could not tell a child a homosexual lifestyle was acceptable. The two parties jointly agreed to take the case to the High Court, for clarification of the law. The court decided in favour of the city council, stating that laws protecting people from discrimination, because of their sexual orientation, "should take precedence" over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds.[19] [20]
Victoria Wasteney, a senior occupational therapist and the head of forensic therapy at the John Howard Centre, a mental health unit of the East London NHS Foundation Trust, was suspended for nine months for "harassing and bullying" a junior Muslim colleague, and after an investigation was given a written warning.[21] She had previously been given an informal warning for arranging services by her church at the unit, at which other staff felt pressurised to sing and dance, and to donate to the church. The CLC supported an appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, where Judge Eady QC found that Wasteney's treatment was not because of her Christian beliefs, but because of her inappropriate behaviour and that it had nothing to do with her freedom to manifest her religious belief.[22]
See main article: Alfie Evans case. The CLC became involved in the latter stages of the Alfie Evans case. Their involvement was unsuccessful and was criticised by the judge.[23]
In 2018, a High Court judge expressed serious concerns over the conduct of CLC consultant Pavel Stroilov during the Alfie Evans case. Mr. Justice Hayden described Stroilov as a "fanatical and deluded young man" whose "malign hand" was "inconsistent with the real interests of the parents' case."[24] [25] [26] The judge also accused CLC activists of doing the parents "far more harm than it does them good" and said submissions were "littered with vituperation and bile". The CLC's submissions declared that "Alfie's best interests are irrelevant" when compared to the parents' wishes and this was described as a "startling proposition" by Justice Hayden. The CLC described the judges' comments as "unfair."[27] Mary Holmes, former solicitor for the parents of Alfie Evans, accused the CLC of exploiting the case for their own benefit.
Three court of appeal judges said a letter from Stroilov to the parents of Alfie Evans was "misleading to the extent of giving the father false advice". The letter in question advised Evans' father that it would be lawful to remove Alfie from Alder Hey Hospital. The court heard that this led to a confrontation at the hospital, in which Alfie was involved, and police were called. A court of appeal judge said that the letter was "disseminated on social media (presumably with the knowledge of Mr Stroilov)".[28]
Felix Ngole, a student social care worker was removed from a course at the University of Sheffield in 2016 after engaging in a Facebook debate where he stated that homosexuality was a sin. His comments were deemed homophobic.In 2017, the High Court upheld the decision of the university.[29] However, a 2019 ruling from the Court of Appeal found that "the mere expression of religious views about sin does not necessarily connote discrimination."[30] [31]
Kristie Higgs, 47, was dismissed for gross misconduct by Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, in 2019 after sharing Facebook posts criticising plans to teach LGBT+ relationships in primary schools. She has won the right for her appeal against her dismissal to be heard by senior judges.[32]
Joshua Sutcliffe, a teacher, was fired from two schools for misgendering a transgender boy and for comments he made about Islam in a YouTube video. He blamed the loss of his jobs on the "LGBT+ mafia" and the "Islamic mafia".[33]
Christian parents Nigel and Sally Rowe took legal action after their son saw another boy wearing a dress and was "confused".[34] [35] They settled with £22,000 legal costs.[36]
Richard Page, a magistrate, was fired for objecting to an adoption application by a same-sex couple. Page was also suspended from his role at the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust. Following an unsuccessful Court of Appeal challenge against his dismissal (supported by the CLC), he was told by Lord Justice Underhill that he had shown himself "incapable of honouring his undertaking" as an unbiased magistrate.[37]
A nurse, Mary Onuoha, was victimised for wearing a small cross while on duty. She refused to remove the cross, citing the widespread wearing of jewellery and other religious apparel by other members of staff. The Employment Tribunal ruled that she had been directly discriminated against and harassed, saying "There was no proper explanation as to why those items were permitted but a cross-necklace was not".[38]
See main article: Archie Battersbee case. Archie Battersbee, a 12-year-old boy, was diagnosed as brain dead by The Royal London Hospital. His parents were assisted by the CLC in arguing unsuccessfully that his life support treatment should continue.[39]
Bernard Randall, a school chaplain at the Trent College independent boarding school, objected to the school partnering with an LGBT+ charity, refused to engage in training activities involving the charity, and was dismissed in 2019 after being referred to an anti-terrorism programme over the contents of a sermon in which he told students that it was okay to not accept "LGBT ideology". An employment tribunal judge ruled that safeguarding concerns and a requirement to comply with standards regulations outweighed Randall's right to express his beliefs inside of a school environment.[40]
In 2010 the Christian Legal Centre, Christian Concern and the Alliance Defending Freedom launched the Wilberforce Academy, a Christian residential programme. The one-week conference trains students and young professionals to apply the Christian faith to their vocations. Some of its delegates go on to work for the Christian Legal Centre and Christian Concern.[41] [42] The programme has often been held at Oxbridge colleges, prompting complaints from students.[43] In 2022, Worcester College, Oxford acknowledged to having misled students in an email that suggested attendees had acted improperly.[44]
In 2011, The Guardian raised questions over how the CLC is funded and noted structural similarities to the Alliance Defense Fund, an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group.[42] Speaking with The Guardian, Keith Porteous Wood of the National Secular Society said of the CLC, "they don't seem so keen to support religious liberty for Muslims or atheists".[42]
The CLC was the subject of a November 2018 BBC Radio documentary, A Tale of Belief and the Courts, written and presented by Joshua Rozenberg.[45]
In 2020, the pseudonymous "The Secret Barrister" criticised the CLC and other fundamentalist groups in their book titled Fake Law. The Secret Barrister accused these parties of "casting a fog over the facts and drilling into our deepest and most primal fears" while "pushing their own agendas".[46] A consultant for the CLC, Pavel Stroilov, called this "an elitist rant".[47]
Evangelical activist and barrister Andrea Minichiello Williams is chief executive of the CLC and Christian Concern.[48] She began public policy work with the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship (LCF) in the 1990s in opposition to liberalising the laws around the status of embryos and to civil partnerships. As a member of the General Synod of the Church of England, Williams called gay Christians to "repent" and for the expulsion of gay priests from the Church of England, saying that gay people were the "children of the devil".[49] Williams has publicly opposed the Church of England's decision to support civil partnerships.[50] [51]
Williams is reported as stating that the Human Fertilisation Bill was "the work of the devil", that homosexuality is sinful, that abortion should be illegal, and that the world is around 4,000 years old.[52] [53] Williams refers to abortion as a "silent holocaust". She sees abortion laws as "the work of satan."
The Channel 4 Dispatches documentary "In God's Name", which first aired on 19 May 2008, featured Williams and documented her lobbying the British Government on issues such as abortion, gay rights and the enforcing of laws relating to blasphemy. The programme included footage of Williams' meetings with Conservative politicians Norman Tebbit and Nadine Dorries, both of whom have worked with the LCF to influence policy on matters where they had a common agenda. When director David Modell asked Williams if she believes Islam is the 'work of the devil' Williams replied "I believe that Islam is a false religion yes." In the documentary, Williams addresses the LCF's track record of losing cases by saying "it's vital that these issues are aired and won in the court room." David Modell concludes that, "perhaps one of the problems is that she relies on evidence that has no apparent basis in reality." Williams also discussed her involvement in the Andrew McClintock case - a magistrate who opposed gay adoption cases and who received support from LCF.[54] Williams stated:
it's not about the oppression of the homosexual community but the evidence shows that children raised in those households are more likely to be gender confused, more likely to be drug dependent, more likely to not finish school.
Williams had a close working relationship with British Conservative politician Nadine Dorries.[55] Williams was a team member of Dorries' campaign to reduce the upper limit on abortion to 20 weeks – a campaign that was partly funded by Christian Concern.[55] Williams who wrote the anti-abortion amendments for Dorries. In the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, "In God's Name", Dorries was asked how closely she worked with Williams and replied, "Closely? We've been stuck to the hip. Very closely." In reference to her campaign, Dorries also said:
What goes on in here would have no structure whatsover, no sense of achievement if it wasn't for people like Andrea on the outside. You know, the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, the on this particular issue are absolutely vital because they give us the informationIn the same documentary, Dorries claimed she had not discussed Williams' views on Islam. Williams, who was sat next to her, proceeded to say "I believe that Islam is a false religion" and switched off her microphone.
Stroilov is a consultant for the CLC.[56] Stroilov says he is an exiled Russian dissident who smuggled top secret Kremlin files into Britain after stealing them from the Gorbachev Foundation's archive. During his work on the Alfie Evans case a judge described his behaviour as “profoundly depressing to say the least". Stroilov previously worked as an aide for former leader of UKIP Gerard Batten when Batten was an MEP. Batten and Stroilov co-authored a book titled "The Inglorious Revolution." Stroilov advised the parents of Alfie Evans to pursue a private prosecution for conspiracy murder against doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.[57]
The CLC works closely with Italian lawyer Bruno Quintavalle. Quintavalle is a former leader of the anti-abortion political party ProLife Alliance.[58] [59] Cases he worked on via the CLC include that of Alfie Evans and Archie Battersbee.[59] Quintavalle campaigned to repeal the Human Fertilisation Bill.[60]