Judges on an Employment Tribunal in the United Kingdom have slammed an actress with a $480,000 penalty for her Christian faith, complaining publicly that she was unjustified in filing a challenge to her firing for holding biblical beliefs.
The result in the case involving actress Seyi Omooba was outlined by Christian Concern, which said it will represent her while the extraordinary penalty is appealed.
Omooba was described, before the LGBT war against her began, by reviewers as "jaw-droppingly good," with "ferocious gospel vocals."
She was contracted by Leicester Curve Theatre to play the lead role in The Colour Purple, but then summarily was fired when someone dug out a four-year-old social media statement where she affirmed the Bible's perspective on homosexuality.
She sued for discrimination and an Employment Tribunal recently heard her case.
Explained Andrea Williams, chief executive for Christian Concern, in a 7,000-word profile of the case, "The Employment Tribunal has now given its stamp of official approval to everything the Theatre and the Agency have done to Seyi. Moreover, the Tribunal has concluded it was unreasonable for her even to complain, and on that basis, ordered her to pay the full legal costs incurred by her opponents – estimated to be an extraordinary £350,000. The Employment Tribunal is meant to be a costs free forum – each side bears its own costs."
He said the costs are some 15 times more than a usual tribunal case, apparently because the defendants were "so concerned about it that they hired the most expensive solicitor firms, a specialist QC and senior counsel to defend what they now try to make out was a hopeless case. The Tribunal joined in for good measure."
The decision reveals "the darker depths of 21st century totalitarianism. Where stabbing a colleague in the back is not merely within the norm, but a professional duty. Where, having once deviated in your mind from the ideological orthodoxy, you cannot trust anyone or anything: even a favorite book of your adolescence may be suddenly re-interpreted to become an indictment against you."
Williams said it should have been an open and shut case.
But she was up against a "PR campaign" by Curve Theatre and the agency that fired her too, Global Artists."
They drummed up "support from the vociferous movement of ‘LGBTQ+ and allies’, and hired aggressive heavyweight barristers to attempt a very public character assassination in the witness box."
During the three years of her career, Williams explained, Omooba made no secret of her faith. But "she had told her agent, early on, that there were things she was unwilling to do on stage: mock religion, participate in sexually explicit scenes, or play lesbian characters."
The firing came after a social media campaign of hate, officials described.
In fact, a theater manager was worried a mob "would organize a violent physical attack on her, and possibly others, in the theater." There were confirmed death threats against her, but theater operators never reported them to police.
"The whole point of a totalitarian campaign is to terrorize people into joining it by targeting those not zealous enough. People who work nearest to the victim are automatically suspects and have to acquit themselves promptly by a convincing show of outrage. In this anti-Gospel, if you are too slow to throw a stone, you are a traitor, and the next in line to be stoned. From the outset, the social media mob was ‘calling out’ (among others) the Curve Theatre, for failing to deal with ‘the homophobe’ swiftly and ruthlessly. Indeed, having harbored and promoted her in the first place, they surely owed their LGBTQ peers an explanation. Immediately," Williams explained.
At that point, too, the theater insisted that the entire function of the play would be to challenge the idea that lesbianism is a sin.
The American movie production of the same story essentially ignored any such claim.
The defenses raised included that Omooba's beliefs "were not worthy of respect in a democratic society, and of legal protection," Williams explained.
Williams warned, "Nowadays, none of us are safe from a similar test being suddenly imposed on us when we least expect it. God help us to pass it as faithfully and graciously as she did. The latest twist in the sorry tale, that is worthy of a novel or a musical (the end is not yet written) is that the barristers for the Theatre and Agency have come after Seyi for £350K costs.
"For the other side to apply for and have granted a £350,000 costs order is unprecedented and deliberately punitive. It is designed to frighten and put off others from seeking justice."
It was only a few months ago that a prominent British theater critic announced his support for the actress.
The critic, Lloyd Evans, had written in support of Omooba, who was dropped by a London West End theater when someone reported her for a 2014 Facebook post, said the British charity Christian Concern.
Evans submitted an expert report in Omooba's lawsuit challenging her dismissal.
"It is not of any importance for an actor to agree with the ethical views or the feelings of a character in a play," he wrote. "Were that necessary, the art of drama would not exist, and many of the plays we regard as classics would be impossible to stage."
The actress also received support from Martin Parsons, a prominent theologian, who said Omooba's Facebook statement was "a fair and reasonable expression of Christian beliefs, as those beliefs have historically been held by the overwhelming majority of the Christian church throughout history."
The judges in the case, however, ordered the statements by Evans and Parsons to be excluded from the case.
WND reported Omooba was blacklisted by the theater industry in London in an action that sent a "chilling" message to members of the faith.
The message, said Williams, is that if you "express and hold mainstream biblical views, you will be punished and will lose your career if you do not immediately renounce your beliefs."
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