A volunteer prison chaplain and gardener, who resigned from his post after accusations of reading "homophobic" Bible verses to prisoners, has lost his case for unfair dismissal at the employment tribunal.
Pentecostal minister, Reverend Barry Trayhorn, from Bedfordshire, UK, had read 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9-11 to inmates at HMP Littlehey in 2014. Upon hearing the verses, gay prisoners were offended and complained about him.
The 51-year-old chaplain told the tribunal in one the hearings that he was informed of "some sort of campaign" to remove him from the chapel services at prison because of his quotes from the Bible.
Reverend Trayhorn, who also worked as a gardener at the prison, faced complaints about his gardening work as well, after he preached about God's word on 'sin and repentance.'
The employment tribunal banned him from volunteering chapel services,
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He said that the passages were about God's love, and how he wanted to forgive people of all their sins.
"But I fear and do not believe it is right to alter the Christian faith so as to tailor it to any modern view of sexual ethics," he had told the disciplinary hearing.
After preaching the inmates back then, he recalled telling them, "You may want to complain about this, but this is the word of God, God loves you and wants to forgive you."
Reverend Trayhorn was charged for not being sensitive to differing views in the congregation.
Responding to the verdict, Trayhorn said: "This case is alarming on a number of fronts. The tribunal's reasoning was based on the effect that my message, which included the Bible verses, had on those who heard them. Yet those who attend chapel do so voluntarily to worship God and to learn what the Bible has to say. The congregation know that the Bible will be preached on, and therefore complaints should have been considered in light of