No action to be taken against chaplain sacked over school sermon on identity politics

The government body that decides whether adults are suitable to work with children is to take no action against a school chaplain who was sacked after telling pupils that they did not have to agree with LGBT ideology.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) said “it would not be appropriate” to take action against Dr Bernard Randall.

The 51 year old ordained Church of England chaplain was sacked by Trent College in Derbyshire after he preached a sermon to pupils in the school chapel in which he expressed the Church’s own official position on marriage and human sexuality.

He had also expressed concerns about training provided in the school by LGBT charity Educate and Celebrate in which staff were encouraged to chant “smash heteronormativity”.

In a letter to Dr Randall, the DBS said: “After consideration of your representations, we have decided it would not be appropriate to include your name on the Children’s Barred List.”

The DBS is now the third body to take no action over referrals by the college after Dr Randall was cleared by the government’s anti-terrorism programme, Prevent, and the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).

Despite this, the Church of England Diocese of Derby, after carrying out its own safeguarding investigation into Dr Randall, concluded that he posed a “moderate risk to children” and vulnerable adults. Bizarrely, the diocese’s safeguarding team concluded that “the Church itself is a risk-factor”. He has not been allowed to officiate in church services since.

Commenting on the DBS’s decision, Dr Randall said, “I am obviously relieved that another malicious referral has been thrown out. It saddens me that it is now the CofE that continues to blacklist me and label its own teaching as a ‘risk factor’.”

He added, “By blacklisting me as a safeguarding risk to children, the CofE at the highest level, and locally, has been complicit in allowing the far-left Queer Theory agenda of E&C and similar groups in our schools.”

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), which is supporting Dr Randall, said the Church of England had “thrown one of their own under the bus”.

“Instead of defending Bernard, who had simply upheld the Church’s own teaching, the church authorities have refused to clear his name. This must now change,” she said.

“In his sermon, Bernard shared the Bible’s teaching on marriage and human nature. He explained that Christians are always called to love their neighbour no matter how much they might disagree. E&C, and groups like them, encourage children to ‘smash heteronormativity’ and teach them about the Gender Identity Unicorn.

“Who are the extremists and real danger to children here?”