Christian Magistrate Sacked
Following a BBC interview on “Freedom of Religion and Marginalisation of Christians”, Richard Page, a Kent Family Court magistrate, has been dismissed. He is accused of bringing “the magistracy into disrepute” because he stated Christian views on same-sex couples adopting children.
In 2014, the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice reprimanded Mr Page after accusing him of bias when it was reported that “during a Family Court hearing he had allowed himself to be influenced by his religious beliefs and
not by the evidence”. He was then ordered to undertake “re-education training”, which he agreed to do. His apparent “crime” was his not agreeing with colleagues over an adoption case, as he claimed that “it would not be in the child’s best interests to be placed in the care of a same-sex couple”.
Now, after the magistrate re-iterated his position on BBC TV and was reported for the second time, Michael Gove, the Lord Chancellor, who professes to be a Christian, has removed the 59-year-old magistrate from his post. Government officials claimed that “Mr Page’s comments on national television would have caused a reasonable person to conclude he was biased and prejudiced against single-sex adopters”. They considered this to be serious misconduct.
In the BBC interview, with journalist Caroline Wyatt, Mr Page said, “My responsibility as a magistrate, as I saw it, was to do what I considered best for the child, and my feeling was therefore that it would be better if it was a man and a woman who were the adoptive parents”. He continued, “I have made judgements on thousands of cases and in each case have come to my decision based on the evidence . . . that is the oath I took when I became a Justice of the Peace”. He added, “Quite simply I believe there is not sufficient evidence to convince me that placing the child in the care of a same-sex couple can be as holistically beneficial to a child as placing them with a mum and dad as God and nature intended”. For this balanced Christian statement he lost his position.
A Christian Legal Centre spokesperson warned, “This unmasks the face of the new political orthodoxy. It is unkind. It tries to silence opposing views and, if it fails, it crushes and punishes the person who holds those views . . . it is modern-day madness. . . . Richard had a lifetime of public service [and] expertise in mental health. He is motivated by his Christian faith and a deep compassion for people”. Richard Page himself concludes, “I am surprised that the Lord Chancellor should seemingly pander to . . . what amounts to a social experimentation on the lives of the most vulnerable children in our communities. I cannot believe that the establishment is trying to silence someone like me who has served it wholeheartedly all of my working life.”
Such is now the political correctness of our nation and the intolerance of the UK government that what “a reasonable person concludes” (whatever that may mean) can determine whether or not an issue is right or wrong. The Word of God is apparently no longer to be considered the absolute standard of morality. Prior to 1968, homosexual relations of any nature were illegal and were punished as acts of gross indecency. It would have been unthinkable even to consider this type of adoption, far less to have a magistrate sacked for judging as Mr Page did. Our moral decline has been steep. The
Bible warns: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Is 5:20). KHM
Political Leaders of Scotland
It has recently been made public that Kezia Dugdale, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, is a lesbian. This is in addition to Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, who is lesbian, Patrick Harvie, leader of the Scottish Green Party, who is described as “bisexual”, and David Coburn, leader of UKIP Scotland, who is homosexual. At the same time, in a recent poll, more than half the people in Scotland (52%) classify themselves as “not religious”. God has given the people of Scotland the political leaders that they deserve. DWBS