Another Christianist, Another Council
Another Christian zealot is taking legal action against her local council employers, after they sacked her for homophobic behaviour:
Denise Haye, 25, worked at Lewisham Council’s legal services department.
Last September, she used her work email address to send an email to Rev Sharon Ferguson, head of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.
She wrote that Rev Ferguson should be “ashamed” of herself and that homosexuality was “not normal” and a sin. Citing the importance of repenting in the “last days”, Haye added, in capitals, “the wages of sin is death”.
Speaking to The Voice, Haye admitted she had used her work email address but said she did not realise her name would be visible and claimed she had sent the message out of working hours.
She added: “It wasn’t with any malicious intent and it wasn’t with any hatred, it was out of sheer concern.”
I think we’ve had enough instances such as this to know she doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Sending emails from her work account during work hours, with homophobic and threatening content should be more than enough to get anyone sacked, regardless of their religious affiliations. There are other zealots posting around the Internet in her defence, claiming religious persecution, but their arguments don’t stand up either – you simply can’t morally relativise hatred, and defend it as ‘sheer concern’. I may not be a religious man, but I’m fully aware this is not what Christianity is supposed to be about, and fortunately Rev Ferguson understands this as well. Andrea Minichello Williams, founder of the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting Ms Haye, has a different view:
“It is wholly disproportionate to end someone’s working career for the mere expression of orthodox Christian beliefs.”
What utter nonsense. We’re governed by the rule of law – it’s entirely appropriate.
(photo source – The Voice)
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How would you compare this to the Civil Servant who was sacked for criticising Hazel Blears via her work email address?
Great question.
Lisa Greenwood and Denise Haye were clearly both guilty of gross misconduct – they both breached their employers’ internet usage policies, and both sent highly inappropriate (in Haye’s case possibly illegal) content regardless of their actual intents. They should of course both be allowed their freedom to hold whatever beliefs they like, whether it be that homosexuality is a mortal sin, or that Hazel Blears is a disgrace. How then to balance out freedom of speech (which is always relative)?
I’ll start with Haye – should she have to change her personal beliefs to be an suitable employee in the public sector? Some say yes – BNP supporters or members for example shouldn’t be allowed to be teachers, police officers, you name it. I can understand where that comes from, but I don’t agree. What matters is behaviour on the job. Lillian Ladele deserved to lose her job because she was prepared to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation, in the mistaken opinion that her right to hold a devout religious opinion and act on it trumped the right of people she was employed to serve to equal treatment. In Haye’s case it’s similar – her work email address defines her as a representative of the council first, a private citizen second, whereas using her own address or a feedback form would have carried different responsibilities (but even the latter would probably track her IP address). By writing what she did using the means she did, she brought her employer into disrepute, through a fundamental breach of their equalities policy.
Now Greenwood. There’s some similarity here – she brought her employer into disrepute the same way, by breaching an operational code. And if that was contractually stipulated then they were right to fire her too. She’s wrong to say she didn’t have freedom of speech at work – it’s just that her freedom is limited when wearing her civil servant’s hat. She could have waited until she got home to make the comment to Blears and made no less an effective response; her overall freedom would have been unaffected. I find it remarkable how many people don’t understand that freedom of speech carries responsibilities with it as well.
They should both clearly have been disciplined. It’s down to their contracts whether bringing their employers into disrepute was worthy of immediate dismissal. I’m sure the success or failure of Haye’s action will depend or not she was fired for what reads as gross misconduct, even in the heavily biased Voice article.
Hello,
I spotted a link to my blog from here, so I came to investigate.
I’m not sure if you read my blog post properly, but at least part of it was trying to deal with the conundrum of being ‘gay’ and Christian. As I explained, I consider the ‘gay Christian’ to be an oxymoron.
To illustrate this, I wrote:
“If this ‘reverend’ really were a Christian, she would surely have tried to settle her concerns in private with Denise Haye rather than going straight to the Council to complain. I’m sure she knows there is increasing persecution which Christians are experiencing in their places of work, so why would she want to subject a fellow believer to this?”
Seems to me, her ‘sexuality’ is more important to her than her faith, which is presumably why she grassed up a ‘fellow’ believer. Because her faith appears to be secondary, she is unable to grasp the utter importance of the consequences of sin, which Denise Haye pointed out.
The only issue that should be of concern to the Council is that she used her work email. I am guessing that she thought the recipient, allegedly being a Christian, would be prepared to discuss matters in private, but no. To the secular world, her comments are considered ‘hatred’. Even a decade ago, her attitude would have been more mainstream.
Homosexuals like to reject the truth that (some) Christians are concerned for their eternal welfare because they remain in sin that is unrepented of.
This is the truth. This is why Denise Haye acted out of love, but the world doesn’t understand that much anymore, now that black is white and left is right and love is hate. Words have become whatever government and pressure groups want them to mean.
At worst, Denise Haye should be disciplined for using her work email for private use. I don’t see how sacking can be appropriate.
.-= Stewart Cowan´s last blog ..And I think to myself… what a funny old world =-.