Christian actress sacked for bible-based Facebook post to appeal decision to reject expert evidence
16 November 2020 Issued by: Christian ConcernHearing details
Thursday 19 November, 10.15am
Employment Appeal Tribunal, London
Streamed online via Skype for Business: https://meet.lync.com/justiceuk-justice/debra.armstrong/M32Z35VH
On Thursday 19 November, the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London will consider the appeals against several decisions made in the high profile case of Seyi Omooba, the West End star removed from a lead role in a musical for a four-year-old Facebook post that cited the Bible.
The Leicester Curve Theatre argues that the Facebook post was “deeply offensive to the LGBTQ community”, so that the production could not go ahead with Miss Omooba in the lead role.
Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Miss Omooba is suing the theatre, and Global Artists Agency who refused to act for her following the controversy, for discrimination and breach of contract.
Miss Omooba has secured support of an eminent theatre critic, Lloyd Evans, and a renowned theologian, Dr Martin Parsons, who both provided expert reports supporting her claim.
In the expert report submitted by Lloyd Evans, he stated: ‘It is not of any importance for an actor to agree with the ethical views or the feelings of a character in a play. Were that necessary, the art of drama would not exist, and many of the plays we regard as classics would be impossible to stage.’
Dr Parsons concluded his report stating that Miss Omooba’s Facebook post constitutes: “a fair and reasonable expression of Christian beliefs, as those beliefs have historically been held by the overwhelming majority of the Christian church throughout history.”
However, in a written decision, Employment Judge Elliott ordered both expert reports to be excluded from the case as inadmissible evidence. That decision will now be reviewed by the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
The trial was originally scheduled to take place in May 2020, but has been postponed for 10 months due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
The new trial now scheduled for February 2021 is again in danger from the resurgence of COVID-19 and the renewed restrictions on gatherings.
Miss Omooba has appealed to the Appeal Tribunal against the refusal of Employment Judge Elliott to hold the trial using an online platform such as Skype for Business, despite hundreds of similar hearings taking place on this format during the pandemic.
Ahead of the hearing, Miss Omooba said: “The theatre gave me the choice to either retract a statement regarding my faith or lose my job. I could not do this, not even to save the career that I love. The agency made a decision to terminate my contract based on false information.
“As I continue to seek justice I call on the courts to allow this expert evidence to be heard.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “This story sends a chilling message to Christians, not only in the theatre profession but across our society, that if you express and hold mainstream Biblical views, you will be punished and will lose your career if you do not immediately renounce your beliefs.
“We are deeply concerned that the evidence for such an important case, which has attracted global attention and concern, is being blocked by the courts.”
Given lead role in The Color Purple
On March 14 2019, Miss Seyi Omooba, 25, from East London, had been given a lead role as Celie in Leicester Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome’s co-production of the award-winning musical The Color Purple, based on Alice Walker’s classic American novel.
The casting was announced the same day that Miss Omooba went with her father, Pastor Ade Omooba, an eminent international Christian campaigner and Christian Concern’s co-founder, to Buckingham Palace to receive his MBE.
Miss Omooba had developed her raw talent from a young age singing gospel in church and studying performing arts at Anglia Ruskin University.
She had already built up a portfolio of performances, among them parts in Hadestown at the National Theatre, Little Shop of Horrors, Spring Awakening, and had played the role of Nettie in the Cadogan Hall production of The Color Purple.
In a review of her full debut in the West End musical, Ragtime, Miss Omooba was described as: “jaw-droppingly good, and her ferocious gospel vocals…pin you to your seat. This is her professional debut, and she’s someone to watch.” In the production of A Color Purple at Cadogan Hall, Miss Omooba’s depiction of the character of Nettie was described as capturing the “very heart of her character.”
Facebook post from 2014
After the cast was announced, however, on March 15, Miss Omooba was tagged on Twitter by another West End performer, Aaron Lee Lambert , who is not known to her. With a screenshot of a Facebook post that Miss Omooba had posted four-and-half-years ago on September 18 2014, Mr Lambert wrote:
“@seyiomooba Do you still stand by this post? Or are you happy to remain a hypocrite? Seeing as you’ve now been announced to be playing an LGBTQ character, I think you owe your LGBTQ peers an explanation. Immediately.”
In September 2014, Miss Omooba was a 20-year-old student whose acting career had not even started. She regularly posts about her faith online without any issue, and in this post had written on her personal Facebook page, in the context of the government introducing same-sex marriage legislation, that:
“Some Christians have completely misconceived the issue of Homosexuality, they have begun to twist the word of God. It is clearly evident in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 what the Bible says on this matter. I do not believe you can be born gay, and I do not believe homosexual practice is right, though the law of this land has made it legal doesn’t mean it is right. I do believe that everyone sins and falls into temptation but it’s by the asking of forgiveness, repentance and the grace of God that we overcome and live how God ordained us to. Which is that a man should leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24. God loves everyone, just because He doesn’t agree with your decisions doesn’t mean He doesn’t love you. Christians we need to step up and love but also tell the truth of God’s word. I am tired of lukewarm Christianity, be inspired to stand up for what you believe and the truth #our God is three in one #God (Father) #Jesus Christ (Son) #Holy Spirit.”
Miss Omooba received the tweet from Mr Lambert while supporting a grieving friend, and despite being deeply shocked and intimidated, refused to be drawn into an online discussion on the issue.
Called a nigger for citing the Bible
Calls for Miss Omooba to be removed from the cast followed, however, as well as online abuse which included her being called a ‘nigger.’
Miss Omooba, who visibly prays before each show and wears a ‘Not Ashamed’ of the Gospel wrist band, had accepted the lead role over Celie after originally auditioning for the character of Nettie, and disagrees with the interpretation that Celie is a lesbian character.
The character of Celie in The Color Purple has intrigued readers and critics since it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 after its publication the previous year. Set in the Deep South of the US, it’s main character, Celie, leads a life of immense struggle at the hands of men, until she briefly finds comfort and friendship with another woman. It was made into a Hollywood film in 1985 and starred Whoopi Goldberg, who described the film and the character of Celie as:
“Not really about feminism, or lesbianism, despite the fact that Celie finds out about love and tenderness from another woman….It has nothing to do with lesbianism. It has to do with, her eyes are opened, now she understands.”
Steven Spielberg, who directed the film, was pressed in 2011 on whether today he would make the ‘kiss’ scene in the film more explicit, but he said: “I wouldn’t, no. That kiss is consistent with the tonality, from beginning to end, of The Color Purple that I adapted.”
On the 15 March, Miss Omooba received a call from her agency, Global Artists, telling her that pressure was mounting for her to be removed from the show because of her views. She was told that only through retracting the comments and publicly apologising would she be able to continue under their management, which she refused to do.
Leicester Curve Theatre and the Birmingham Hippodrome then released a statement on 21 March which led to Miss Omooba’s contract being terminated. The theatres claimed in their statement that: “The play and production are seeking to promote freedom and independence and to challenge views, including the view that homosexuality is a sin.”
