A Christian school counselor in the United Kingdom has said she was fired for her support of traditional marriage views, which she posted on social media in a move school staff called “misogynistic.”
Gozen Soydag, 37, has launched legal action against St. Anne’s Catholic High School for Girls in north London for wrongful dismissal from her role as pastoral manager, harassment, discrimination and breaches of her human rights on the grounds of her Christian beliefs, The Telegraph reports. Her tribunal began Monday.
Soydag would emphasize the importance of the traditional, strong nuclear family to her over 30,000 followers across various Instagram accounts. Certain posts would discourage couples living together before marriage and others would reflect the biblical belief that wives should “submit to their husbands as to the Lord.” This is basic Catholic doctrine.
The counselor said she felt “persecuted” by the school and “completely excluded” as a Christian. Soydag had begun her employment with St Anne’s in September 2022 and reflected on how she was encouraged by the school’s “commitment” to Christianity and that there were “Bible verses and crosses in every room.”
Soydag said she was then called into a meeting in February of 2023 after she posted a video in particular of a woman dressed in Muslim garb talking about submitting to her husband, which a senior staff member took offense to and called “misogynistic.” She was asked to take down the video and was told that all employees must keep their social media profiles on private.
After the school said that further complaints were made, Soydag was fired, despite her trying to limit the reach of her posts. A senior staff member said her accounts were already “global” and it was “too little too late”.
She said that an email sent to her read she was sacked “[due] to much of [her] extensive online profile being incompatible with the school’s mission statement and ethos, and the fact that despite being asked to remove such incompatible information [her] profile appears to a large extent to remain unchanged.”
The counselor stated: “I still do not know what I did wrong to warrant being dismissed. I wanted to work in the education sector and make an impact for young people. This was a Catholic school, and they knew I was a passionate woman of faith.”
She continued, “There is so much talk about diversity in the workplace, yet in this instance, my beliefs and who I am as a Christian were completely excluded… I was persecuted. If this had been anyone else with a belief as part of the ‘inclusive’ culture, I would not be sitting here, I would have been celebrated and promoted.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “This is another example of schools, which on the surface have a strong Christian ethos, but appear to capitulate to secular orthodoxy […] when told the Christian message on marriage offends. Gozen unashamedly loves Jesus and is a brilliant advocate for women and God’s great and beautiful plan for marriage. Gozen was doing a fantastic job in a tough area of London, supporting young women in a Catholic school and had had nothing but praise, until someone complained about the beliefs she expressed in her own time.”
This Story originally came from humanevents.com