Interesting times ahead perhaps...

Christian Magistrate Andrew McClintock has lost his case to have his freedom of conscience recognised when practising as a Justice of the Peace. The decision by the Sheffield Employment Tribunal means that Mr McClintock, will not be able to serve on the Family Panel, even though the Tribunal recognised his "unblemished record and the high regard in which he is held by the Department of Constitutional Affairs".

Difficulties first arose for Mr McClintock when he considered the implications of same-sex adoption on which he was forced to rule. He became concerned that a tension existed between his Christian beliefs in the Biblical model of the family and his work as a Magistrate. In March 2004, Mr McClintock raised his difficulties with the Chairman of the Family Panel at Sheffield. Mr McClintock was not asking for a change in the law, rather he was requesting that his religious conscience should be accommodated, and that he should be "screened" from cases which might require him to adopt children in to same-sex households. He also expressed his concern that children could be put at risk by the untried social experiment of same-sex adoption, in which vulnerable children were being used as "guinea pigs". The Employment Tribunal rejected Mr McClintock's claim that he had been discriminated against because of his religious beliefs.

Commenting on the judgment, Andrea Williams of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship said: "This is yet another example of the repression of Christian conscience and signals the erosion of Christian values at the expense of our children's welfare. Andrew McClintock believes that the best interests of the child are served by placing them in a situation where they would have both a mother and a father and therefore he could not agree to participate in gay adoption. This case demonstrates what will happen as greater numbers of men and women of integrity are forced to choose between applying a law which runs contrary to their fundamental Christian belief or obeying their conscience. The imposition of secular values in every aspect of our lives will force those who hold Christian beliefs out of jobs."

Andrew McClintock commented: "This ruling is going to make it harder for many conscientious people. Anyone who holds seriously to traditional morals and family values will think twice before taking on such a job. There will be more children now whom the courts remove from one kind of harm, but only to face another hazard. So, more needy children will be fuelling this experiment in social science, and suffering what the experts call mother-hunger or father-hunger."