UK Childcare Worker Fired After Explaining Biblical Position on Homosexuality to Co-Worker
LONDON –
A childcare worker has been fired for ‘gross misconduct’ after she
explained the biblical position on homosexuality to her co-worker.According to reports, Sarah Mbuyi, 30, was repeatedly asked about her beliefs over a period of several months at Newpark Childcare in Highbury after her lesbian co-worker discovered that she is a Christian. The latest discussion occurred in January, when her co-worker remarked that she was unhappy that she could not ‘marry’ her partner because of the Church’s beliefs, and stated that she thought God had nothing against homosexual behavior.
When Mbuyi replied by explaining the biblical position on the matter, she was reported to her boss.
“When I said ‘No, God does not condone the practice of homosexuality, but does love you and says you should come to Him as you are’, she became emotional and went off to report me to my manager,” Mbuyi stated in a press release.
“I never ever condemned her, or accused her, but when she asked me directly what I believed, I was open about sharing the Bible’s teaching that homosexual sex (not the people) is wrong,” she continued. “It’s clear that this offended her and she was determined to get me sacked, simply because I expressed traditional Christian beliefs.”
Mbuyi was then asked to attend a disciplinary hearing where she was confronted with her co-worker’s accusations. However, she said that some of the claims were false, such as that it was Mbuyi who had initiated discussions about homosexuality with her co-worker.
“My disciplinary hearing was hopelessly one-sided because they put my accuser’s claims to me as fact, without any forewarning and so I wasn’t prepared,” Mbuyi stated. “It seemed to me they had already made up their minds to justify sacking me, before hearing my side of the story.”
She was immediately fired for gross misconduct.
Now, Mbuyi is filing a complaint against her employer, charging religious discrimination and an unfair dismissal. The Christian Legal Centre is providing assistance in representing Mbyui.
“Sharing Biblical truths out of genuine love and concern for colleagues is being outlawed in the workplace by a dominating cultural correctness,” stated CEO Andrea Williams. “There is a culture of fear which closes down freedom of speech and the manifestation of faith. This culture brands the liberating good news of the gospel as oppressive and regressive.”
“Sarah’s case demonstrates the confusion we’re experiencing in current times,” she added. “David Cameron has given public recognition of the enormous positive impact that Jesus Christ has had on our nation but he wants to mold Christianity to his political agenda [by expressing support for homosexual 'marriage']. … If he is serious in his support for Christianity, he will intervene in Sarah’s case and ensure that those who believe in marriage, as defined in the Bbible, between one man and one woman, will not lose their jobs but be wholly and properly protected by the law.”
Some Honest Questions for Professing 'Gay Christians'
http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/in-the-line-of-fire/43556-some-honest-questions-for-professing-gay-christians?showall=&limitstart=
8:00AM EDT 4/21/2014 Michael
Brown
Today, however, more and more men and women who identify as LGBT are professing to be devoted Christians, believing that the church has wrongly interpreted the Scriptures through the centuries and claiming that committed, monogamous same-sex relationships can be blessed by God.
It is for those of you who identify as both gay and Christian that I’d like to ask some honest questions. You may take them as adversarial, but in reality, I ask these questions in the love of God and the fear of God, being jealous for your well-being in the Lord.
And while it’s easy for some people to throw around the hate word, you will not find a syllable of hate in these words, because there’s not an ounce of hate in my heart.
1. Are
you 100 percent sure that your interpretation of Scripture regarding
homosexuality is correct?
I’m sure that many of you went through terrible struggles trying to reconcile your sexual and romantic attractions with the Scriptures, and it must have been an incredible relief to you when you heard of a different reading of the Word, one which told you that you could pursue a God-blessed relationship with someone of the same sex.
But are you 100 percent sure before God that your interpretation is correct? Are you willing to risk your soul in giving yourself to something that may truly be displeasing in His sight?
I once heard a gay pastor give a talk about these issues at a local gay and lesbian center, and to my surprise, he was not dogmatic in his presentation, saying that he thought his interpretation was correct, but he was anything but sure and definite. I asked myself: Then how can he doing what he’s doing?
A few years after that, I participated in a forum at a local college together with a lesbian pastor and some others, and again, to my surprise, the lesbian pastor was not dogmatic either, encouraging everyone there to seek the Lord and study the Word for themselves.
Of course, it’s good for us to be humble when approaching God and His Word, and none of us can claim to be right about every single doctrinal issue. But there are some hills that we must be sure enough to die on, and before you enter into a sexual relationship with someone, you had better be 100 percent sure that the union is holy in God's sight and that the marriage is a real marriage.
Paul wrote that whatever is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23), and so this is one mistake you really can’t afford to make.
Again I ask: Are you 100 percent sure that God blesses committed, monogamous same-sex relationships? If you say that you are, I can only pray for you. If you admit that you are not, then please, step back and reconsider.
From the many stories I have read about professing “gay Christians” (by which I’m referring to those who claim to follow Jesus and practice homosexuality at the same time), a common theme was that they struggled to understand the Word, feeling that the Scriptures were not as clear on these issues as they had once felt. But they were sure about their “sexual orientation,” and that became their primary point of reference. (I put “sexual orientation” in quotes because it is actually a relatively recent concept and one that is subject to different understandings.)
This means that there is a real possibility that you have interpreted the Word in light of your deeply rooted same-sex desires and attractions rather than starting with the Word and letting the Word interpret you. (I get into this in more detail in Can You Be Gay and Christian?)
3. What do you say to those people who are genuinely ex-gay or to those who are still same-sex attracted but have chosen to separate themselves to the Lord unless He changes them?
A close relative of mine was truly and genuinely ex-gay, surrendering his whole life, including his sexuality, to the Lord when he got saved and then discovering to his surprise some years later that he was now attracted to women. (Surely all believers in Jesus must acknowledge that He has the power to do things like this.)
Other ex-gays have told me in detail about how God changed their desires, either through extensive discipleship or through a dramatic encounter with the Lord or through counseling and prayer, and I have no reason to doubt their stories. In fact, I find it to be the height of intolerance to doubt them or, worse still, to mock them.
I also have met many others who say that their same-sex attractions have lessened but not changed dramatically or who tell me that those attractions remain the same as before but that they love the Lord, they know that homosexual practice is sin, and they are living overflowing lives in Jesus, totally content to be single.
As a heterosexual man, happily married for more than 38 years, I certainly don’t understand the challenges you face, but these friends I have just mentioned certainly do. What do you say to them? And what do you say to heterosexual Christians who, through no choice of their own, have remained single their entire lives and yet have served God faithfully and lived holy lives?
4. If you were convinced that God opposed all forms of homosexual practice, would you follow Him anyway?
In my book, I quote the words of a pastor in England who remains same-sex attracted but who renounces those attractions and lives a celibate life. He said that Jesus requires the same thing from all of us—namely, everything—and that He Himself is enough for us. This man's witness speaks volumes to all of us.
Would you reject the One who died for you if you came to the conclusion that He did not approve of same-sex relationships? Would your homosexuality come first and Jesus come second?
I know these are terribly weighty issues, and I don’t write things lightly. In fact, as God Himself knows, it is love that compels me to write, and I do so with pain in my heart.
Will you take these things prayerfully before the Lord? We are praying and interceding for you!
Michael Brown is author of Can
You Be Gay and Christian? Responding With Love and Truth to Questions About
Homosexuality and host of the nationally syndicated talk radio
show The Line of Fire on the Salem Radio Network. He is also president of FIRE School
of Ministry and director of the Coalition of Conscience. Follow him
at AskDrBrown on
Facebook or at @drmichaellbrown on
Twitter.
