2022 news: The year in review
2022 saw an end to the lockdowns that had plagued the previous two years, and Britain has largely returned to business as usual.
Here at The Christian Institute, we know that ‘business as usual’ for those in positions of influence and authority, whether in government, education, medicine, or elsewhere, can often mean promoting ideas or pushing policies which run counter to the saving truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so this year, as every year, we have sought to be a Christian influence in a secular world wherever we could.
The issues that made the headlines in 2022
Here is our round-up of some of the issues which hit the headlines over the last twelve months.
Conversion Therapy
January witnessed significant developments amid pressure from activists to ban conversion therapy. The Equality and Human Rights Commission raised important concerns about the impact of proposals in England and Wales on churches, parents and teachers.
In its response to the Government’s consultation, the EHRC told the Government that its conversion therapy proposals risk “unintended consequences” and must not cut across basic religious freedoms. It said the legislation “must be carefully drafted” to “avoid criminalising mainstream religious practice such as preaching, teaching and praying about sexual ethics”. It added: “Encouraging people to comply with religious doctrine that requires refraining from certain types of sexual activity should not fall within the definition of conversion therapy either.”
North of the border, The Christian Institute warned The Scottish Government that it risked introducing “the most extreme legislation on conversion therapy in the Western world”. In a letter sent to Holyrood’s Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone, the Institute said that if MSPs support an activist-inspired ban then everyday church activities, such as prayer, preaching, parenting and pastoral care that uphold biblical sexual ethics, would all be put at risk.
Later, leading human rights lawyer Aidan O’Neill KC said in a legal opinion for the Institute that The Scottish Government’s far-reaching ‘conversion therapy’ plans amount to Holyrood overreach. He warned that the “fundamentally illiberal” proposals are “beyond the powers of the Scottish Parliament to legislate”.
Following his devastating critique of the Scottish Government’s plans to criminalise innocent parents and preachers, the Institute is preparing the ground for legal action.
Online Safety
This year has seen great emphasis placed on freedom of speech, with the Government promising to do more to protect it. But its desire to protect people from harmful content online looked set to bring about widespread censorship of unpopular beliefs.
Throughout the year, the Institute outlined the worrying implications of the Government’s Online Safety Bill. While the steps to protect children from pornography were welcomed, other proposals went too far. A duty would have been placed on tech giants to address content deemed ‘legal but harmful’, with no definition for what this constituted. Companies found to be in breach of this duty would have faced massive fines, and the Institute warned of tech firms being overly censorious, leading to mainstream Christian teaching deemed controversial being blacklisted.
In June, Lord Frost urged the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson to overhaul the Bill as one of his top priorities. He called on the Prime Minister to bring forward only the elements which “don’t kill free speech”. Former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption also criticised the Bill, saying it risked suppressing free and open debate on the internet, and branded it “a patronising abuse of legislative power”. In a scathing piece for The Spectator, the legal expert described the 214-page document as a “complex paperchase of definitions” that would “invite misunderstanding” and promote censorship.
But by the end of November, Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan announced that controversial wording relating to content deemed ‘legal but harmful’ would be dropped from the Bill. The amended Bill will also expand and strengthen some protections for children, and an offence relating to ‘harmful communications’ has also been deleted.
The CI welcomed the news, noting the Minister had highlighted the large amount of correspondence she had received from the public.
Transgenderism
While radical gender ideology continues to be promoted widely, the tide started to turn in 2022. Perhaps the most notable news was the announcement from NHS England that its controversial gender clinic for children would close by spring 2023 after an independent report found it was not fit for purpose. Just two weeks later it was revealed that the clinic could face legal action over its unquestioning affirmative approach towards gender confused children.
Another organisation under the microscope was the scandal-hit trans-affirming charity Mermaids. In December, the Charity Commission launched a full statutory inquiry into the group, after “newly identified issues” emerged about its “governance and management”. This followed a quick succession of deeply concerning revelations about the charity which had led to increased media scrutiny.
In the autumn, it was revealed Mermaids had been sending chest binders to girls as young as 13 without their parents’ knowledge and was allowing gender-confused youngsters to share advice and personal details on its moderated online youth forum. A trustee also resigned in disgrace after it emerged he had promoted paedophilia, having delivered a paper in 2011 that attempted to normalise sexual acts with children. Later in the month, it was revealed Mermaids had employed a man who had posed for highly sexualised photographs and posted them online.
Elsewhere, a tribunal found that an employer had unfairly treated women’s rights campaigner Maya Forstater on the basis of her belief that men cannot become women. The judge ruled she had been subjected to both direct discrimination and victimisation because of her views.
However, activists continue to push for more liberal laws, and they have found most success in Scotland, which spent much of the year considering legislation to make changing legal sex much easier and more readily available. The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill aimed to remove the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, reduce the waiting time from two years to just three months, and also to allow those as young as 16 to change legal sex.
Youth charity Children in Scotland even urged Holyrood to extend its self-ID plans to include children from the age of twelve; a recommendation campaigners described as “downright irresponsible”.
The Bill faced vocal opposition and the Scottish Government agreed to several relatively minor amendments. The CI warned that the concessions “barely scratch the surface” of the Bill’s problems and that it would cause “even greater misery and confusion for children and their families” than under the current law.
A YouGov poll revealed in December that around two thirds of the Scottish public were opposed to the radical self-declaration plans, but MSPs voted the Bill through by 86 votes to 39. Safeguards, including preventing sex offenders from changing legal sex, were rejected.
Assisted suicide
In March, Peers in the House of Lords voted against an amendment to the Health and Care Bill that sought to allow terminally ill adults to get help from doctors to kill themselves. It was the twelfth time in twenty-five years that such proposals had not been passed by UK parliamentarians.
But in October, Scotland moved a step closer to removing end of life safeguards when Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur confirmed he had secured the right to introduce his assisted suicide Bill to Holyrood, after it gained sufficient cross-party support. McArthur’s plan would allow anyone aged 16 or over who is deemed terminally ill and has been resident in Scotland for 12 months to get help to take their own lives. Draft legislation is expected to be presented to Holyrood early next year.
Over 14,000 responses were submitted to the public consultation on the Bill, the highest number ever received for a proposed Member’s Bill in the Scottish Parliament. The MSP for Orkney and his team claimed that 78 per cent of respondents supported the proposals, with 21 percent warning that weakening the law would endanger the vulnerable. However, more than 3,300 additional submissions opposing the Bill — mobilised by Right To Life — were adjudged to be ‘standard responses’ and discounted.
Abuse of Trust
In June, the Westminster Government finally amended the law on abuse of trust to make it illegal for sports coaches and religious leaders in England and Wales to engage in sexual activity with 16 and 17-year-olds in their care.
Previously, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 prohibited teachers, police officers and social workers from having sexual contact with teenagers who are above the age of consent but not legally an adult if they may be considered to hold a position of trust over that person. The Christian Institute had warned three years earlier that this was too narrow and would allow people in other positions of authority to abuse teenagers in their care.
This sadly proved to be true, but the law has now been extended by a new section in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
The Institute had been campaigning on the issue for more than 20 years.
Education
In June we warned Ofsted that its inspectorate has been unduly influenced by Stonewall dogma for far too long. The warning came after it emerged Ofsted had cited a lack of teaching “gender identity” and “gender reassignment” among reasons for giving schools low ratings.
Early in November, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced he wants to safeguard children from inappropriate sex education. The Daily Telegraph reported he wants to ensure parents can view Relationships and Sex Education content, including resources provided by outside organisations.
Marriage
At the start of the year, the European Court of Human Rights threw out LGBT campaigner Gareth Lee’s challenge to the landmark Ashers Baking Company ruling. The Court judged the application “inadmissible”, saying Lee was asking the court “to usurp the role of the domestic courts”. The story received positive global media coverage.
In May, the Church of Scotland voted to allow ministers to conduct same-sex weddings in its churches. Evangelicals in Scotland severely criticised the move, with former Kirk minister Revd Dr William Philip, of The Tron Church, Glasgow, saying the denomination had abandoned the Bible.
Meanwhile in the US, a court ruled in August that a Christian photographer could not be compelled to promote same-sex weddings. It said the local Government could not force Chelsey Nelson to express messages “inconsistent” with her beliefs.
Living Christianity
The new youth edition of our popular Bible study series Living Christianity was launched in September.
It provides engaging, biblically faithful content to help young believers aged around 11-16 to follow Jesus in every area of life, and was adapted from the original flagship series, which has had sales in excess of 10,000 since launching in 2019.
The free study materials are accompanied by superb graphics and animation, providing an engaging format for presenting a compelling biblical worldview.
Its strong focus on the Bible provides the foundation for tackling many of the controversies impacting young people today, including politics, gender identity and sexual ethics.
Abortion
This year was one of seismic change on the issue of abortion in the US, with the nation’s Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade in June – a landmark ruling which confirmed there is no constitutional right to an abortion. As a result, power to legislate on abortion was handed back to individual states, many of which quickly introduced laws to ban or restrict access to abortion.
In contrast, in the UK pro-abortion politicians successfully pushed for more liberal laws – partly in response to the tightening of restrictions in America.
In March, MPs voted to make emergency measures allowing home abortions in England permanent, just weeks after the Government had said they would end. Later in the year MPs gave their backing to the introduction of censorship zones around abortion clinics in England and Wales. The amendment to the Public Order Bill outlaws prayer and offers of help to women outside clinics, and anyone found guilty of breaching the rules could face a possible six months in prison.
The Director of March for Life UK fell foul of a similar zone in Birmingham in December. Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested and charged for praying silently near a closed abortion centre.
Northern Ireland can also ban prayer and peaceful protest outside abortion clinics after the UK Supreme Court unanimously rejected the Northern Ireland Attorney General’s appeal against the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill.
And in December the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland carried out the Westminster Government’s threat to override the Northern Ireland Executive by formally commissioning abortion services across the Province.
Religious freedom
In April, the UK’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief warned the House of Commons about the growing threat of ‘digital persecution’, including online censorship. Fiona Bruce MP highlighted that religious liberty is a foundation of a “stable and secure democratic society”.
Later in the year, former BBC journalist David Campanale told the CI he intends to pursue legal action for harassment, as he faces being removed as a Liberal Democrat candidate over his Christian values. Activists within the party told him “we do not recognise your right to have a conscience”.
Parental Freedom
Following the introduction of a smacking ban in Wales, there were calls for parents to be criminalised for reasonable chastisement in England and Northern Ireland.
But a spokesman for the Be Reasonable campaign said the Welsh Government had misled the public, and that the ban will “criminalise ordinary loving parents”.
Legal Defence Fund
The Christian Institute’s Legal Defence Fund helps hundreds of Christians who have been discriminated against because of their faith every year.
The vast majority of our cases are dealt with behind closed doors, away from the public eye, and that continued to be the case this year. However, in February we had the privilege of speaking to recent client Kenneth Ferguson, who won his discrimination battle against his former employer The Robertson Trust last July.
The Christian CEO was sacked by Scotland’s largest grant-making trust over his church’s views on marriage, but, with assistance from the CI, successfully sued for wrongful dismissal. Kenneth spoke to us of his gratitude for God’s help throughout the ordeal, saying: “Praise God for the way that he has enabled me to really hold fast to the truth that is in his Scriptures to say ‘don’t worry, this battle is not yours, stand and you will see the deliverance of the Lord’.
“And that has been my lasting impression of this, I have been able to stand and see the deliverance of the Lord.”
At the end of October, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was awarded almost £100,000 in damages after a Glasgow venue cancelled its gospel event over Franklin Graham’s Christian beliefs on marriage and sexual ethics.
Queen Elizabeth II
On 8 September, Buckingham Palace announced the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second.
The longest-reigning monarch in British history had celebrated her Platinum Jubilee earlier in the year.
Director of The Christian Institute Colin Hart paid tribute to Her Majesty’s devotion to faith and duty and gave thanks to God for her life of selfless service. “In 1952, in her first Christmas broadcast, she asked the nation to pray ‘that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life’. God answered that prayer.”
Institute Chairman Revd Dr Richard Turnbull said: “The Queen was a person of deep, personal, and genuine faith that expressed itself in numerous ways during the course of her reign. We will never see the like of her again. Her humility, not least in times of adversity, her cheerfulness as she carried out decades of public and charitable duties, and her absolute dedication to the service of the nation made her a focus of national unity and identity.”
Former Chairman John Burn OBE, who met the Queen in 1993 to receive his New Year honour, added: “She was a remarkable example of service to the nation. We all recall the vow she made at the time of her 21st birthday, when she said ‘I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service’. In a day when vows are lightly broken, she has held forth constantly the fulfilment of that vow – to the very end of her life. I believe we should thank God for her, for her extraordinary life and for her example of simple Christian faith.”
The Year Ahead
Finally, we would like to express our gratitude for the many thousands of Christians around the UK, and indeed abroad, who support us through prayer and action. Thank you for standing with us during this challenging year. We give thanks to God and trust him to provide for us, and for you, in 2023.
From everyone at The Christian Institute, we hope you have a blessed New Year.
As well as the campaign work and legal cases, we strive to keep you up to date with various issues affecting Christians in the UK. This happens directly through hundreds of supporter meetings but also through our website and social media channels.
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