‘To express Christian beliefs is a form of blasphemy’
“We’re living in a time when free speech is increasingly under threat in the country, as evidenced by some of our cases, street preachers being arrested and people losing their jobs just for expressing what they think.” Tim Dieppe, our Head of Public Policy, sits down with Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, ...
25 March 2023 Articles
‘Misgendering’ is not a crime: support preacher convicted for ‘misgendering’
Did you know you could be fined £620 and forced to do 80 hours of community service for ‘misgendering’ someone? In June 2021, Dave McConnell was preaching in Leeds when a ‘trans woman’ asked him whether God accepted the LGBT community, answering truthfully and Scripturally. However, after members of the crowd shouted, swore and made ...
7 March 2023 Articles
Giving thanks for 2022: the year in review
What are you grateful for in 2022? We’ve seen many cases won over the past year, including Nigel and Sally Rowe’s challenge over trans policies in schools; Dr Dermot Kearney’s case against the General Medical Council, and who has now helped to save over 30 babies from unwanted abortions; and the likes of Maureen Martin, ...
21 December 2022 Articles
Government admits it was ‘inappropriate’ for CPS to call Bible ‘offensive’
In a win for Christian freedoms, the government has said that it was “inappropriate” for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to argue that parts of the Bible are “no longer appropriate in modern society” while trying to convict a Christian preacher of an alleged ‘hate crime.’ In the House of Lords this week, Baroness Hoey ...
14 December 2022 Articles
The judiciary should ‘protect free speech’ – not suppress it
Street preacher John Dunn was arrested after reading the Bible in public and told by prosecutors that parts of the Bible are “abusive” and “no longer appropriate in modern society.” The Public Order Act charges against him were, however, eventually dropped after his accusers ‘refused to engage with the case’. The Christian Legal Centre’s Michael ...
5 December 2022 Articles
A chance for Christians to shape the Bill of Rights
The government is consulting on reforming the Human Rights Act by replacing it with a Bill of Rights. This is expected to be one of the biggest constitutional changes in the UK for decades. The consultation is a golden opportunity to tell the government to ensure Christian freedoms are maximised in the proposed Bill of ...
4 March 2022 Articles
2021: a good year for Christian freedoms?
Andrea Williams looks back over the past year, reviewing how Christian freedoms have been impacted. 2020 was a bad year for freedom generally with harsh lockdowns imposed across the country and churches forced by law to close for the first time in hundreds of years. As we entered 2021, things were looking brighter. Churches were ...
5 January 2022 Articles
Christian preacher’s Covid regs case dropped
The first Christian preacher to fall foul of coronavirus laws during the first English lockdown, has had the case against him dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The loss of religious freedom due to coronavirus regulations during the pandemic has been hotly contested, most notably in the successful judicial review of Scottish restrictions on ...
9 September 2021 Articles
‘What might be offensive to one person might be the salvation of another’
The Christian Legal Centre’s Roger Kiska explains why there should be space for street preachers to share the good news of Jesus Christ in the public square. Speaking to William Crawley on BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback he says: “what might be offensive to one person might be the salvation of another”. Christian Concern · ‘What ...
20 August 2021 Articles
Preacher to pursue legal action against police after Easter arrest and fine
A judge has ruled that it was right for the police to arrest and fine a Christian volunteer for breaking Covid regulations by street preaching on Easter Sunday. Andrew Sathiyavan, 46, who is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, was arrested on Sutton High Street in south London on Easter Sunday 2020 after being told ...
1 July 2021 Articles
Why do the police have favourites?
In a guest post, Harry Miller (Fair Cop) compares how different groups are treated by police when they critique or offend other religions and beliefs. Imagine a musical in which the prophet, Mohammed, is cast with the swivelling hips of Little Richard and Muslims are kept in line by a dancing pork chop. If it ...
7 May 2021 Articles
The ‘Wrong Man’ to accuse of a hate incident
Former police officer Harry Miller writes about his important legal case against the police for recording non-crime hate incidents. Harry explains why the police picked ‘the wrong man’ when they found him guilty without trial of a non-crime hate incident. There was a short exchange at my recent Court of Appeal hearing in which Lady ...
8 April 2021 Articles
The impact of lockdowns on religious freedoms
Following the government’s restrictive lockdown measures to try to combat the spread of Covid-19, the Joint Committee on Human Rights launched a call for evidence on the impacts of local and national lockdowns. The committee said it was seeking views on the impact that lockdown has on specific freedoms, including: “The impact of lockdown on ...
12 January 2021 Articles
Human Rights Committee to investigate hate speech and free expression
The Joint Committee on Human Rights is investigating the issue of freedom of expression, calling for evidence from interested groups and individuals. Christian Concern has now submitted evidence from many of our legal cases and the individuals and families that we have supported, calling for free speech to be protected in our society. We would ...
19 November 2020 Articles
The rest of the world is watching as freedom of religion is eroded in the West
Dr Martin Parsons, an independent consultant on the global persecution of Christians, comments on the closure of churches during the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on freedom of religion. On 23 March, the UK government announced a lockdown, including the first legal closure of churches by the government since Magna Carta. For a nation which ...
15 October 2020 Articles
Police remove preacher from Speakers’ Corner
Tim Dieppe comments on the recent removal by police of preacher Hatun Tash at Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner. ‘The home of free speech’ Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park has long been a bastion of free speech in the UK. It is reputed to be the most famous location for free speech in the world. A ...
26 September 2020 Articles
Scottish hate crime bill ‘over-regulates free speech’
The Christian Legal Centre’s Roger Kiska comments on how the proposed new Scottish hate crime bill endangers freedom of speech. On 23 April 2020, the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill was introduced by the Scottish government. On the same day, the Government issued a call for evidence in relation to the bill, with ...
29 May 2020 Articles
Assessing the Coronavirus Act 2020: what you need to know
The Christian Legal Centre’s Roger Kiska analyses how the Coronavirus Act will affect Christian freedoms in the UK. Read and download our summary guide on the Coronavirus Act 2020. “In many ways, it is hard for modern people living in First World countries to conceive of a pandemic sweeping around the world and killing millions ...
17 April 2020 Articles
Kristie wins hearts at Free Speech Union launch
Tim Dieppe reports on the launch of the Free Speech Union This week saw the launch of a new initiative to defend free speech. The Free Speech Union (FSU) has been set up by journalist Toby Young in order to help protect and support people who suffer in the work place or the public square ...
28 February 2020 Articles
Responding to the Conservative manifesto
The Conservative manifesto, released over the weekend, contains no policy proposals on liberalising abortion, gender self-declaration, or no-fault divorce. This sets the Conservatives apart from the other two main parties, both of which have extreme proposals on abortion and gender self-declaration, and both of which propose to introduce unilateral destruction of families through no-fault divorce. Same-Sex ...
28 November 2019 Articles
Appeasement, compromise and silence in a D-Day for the Church
Wilberforce Academy Director, Dr Joe Boot, comments on the state of the nation and where we have gone since the Britain of the 1930s and 40s. Sadly, he says, with eroding freedoms and emptying churches, “the heart and soul of the nation [has become] disease-ridden, on life-support and on the edge of extinction.” How will ...
14 June 2019 Articles
Government refuses to say evangelism isn’t hate speech
Tim Dieppe comments on this week’s House of Lord’s debate on religious hate speech. Lord Pearson asked an oral question in the House of Lords this week: “To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether section 29J of the Public Order Act 1986 remains in force, and if so, what is the basis in statute for the ...
7 December 2018 Articles
Scotland’s alarming hate posters
Tim Dieppe discusses posters used in a hate crime awareness campaign by the Scottish Government and Scottish Police. The Scottish Government and the Scottish Police, under the banner One Scotland, are running a hate crime awareness campaign. The campaign consists primarily of posters addressing ‘Bigots’, ‘homophobes’, ‘transphobes’, and others, and signed ‘Yours, Scotland’. David Robertson ...
12 October 2018 Articles
Christian preacher arrested in Barking for hate speech has charges dropped
Christian Legal Centre client, Pastor David Lynn, was released on Wednesday (21 March) without charge after being arrested outside Barking Tube Station on 20 March 2018 for preaching the gospel. David was held at Fresh Wharf Custody Base in Barking for over 20 hours, during which he was questioned by the police under caution. Preached ...
23 March 2018 Articles