Judge upholds freedom of speech for Christian doctrine
22 March 2011
In a landmark ruling, a High Court judge has quashed an adjudication by the Advertising Standards Authority that an advertisement which proclaimed sodomy an abomination was homophobic.
The ASA agreed with seven complainants that a religious notice was homophobic, but Mr Justice Treacy noted that the offending advertisement contained no exhortation to violence and that it also made clear how violent antagonism towards homosexuals was unacceptable and unjustifiable.
He ruled that Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects expressive rights which offend, shock or disturb. He said: “Moreover, Article 10 protects not only the content and substance of information but also the means of dissemination since any restriction on the means necessarily interferes with the right to receive and impart information.”
Article 10 is about freedom of expression.
Hopefully this is the turning of the tide. Christians have put up with jokes and insults against Christianity for a long time, but the persecuting principles in Equalities legislation is a step too far. There is still a lot of ground to recover in the employment and public service arena.
