The disgraceful legal action taken against Asher’s Bakery in Belfast by the Equality Commission (more like Inequality Commission!) of Northern Ireland has attracted an incredible amount of publicity in Northern Ireland, throughout the UK and further afield.
However, an important fact that has been overlooked through all the reporting of this issue is the presence of a Presbyterian ‘minister’ in the second most senior role on the Inequality Commission.
‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll (pictured, top), a Presbyterian ‘minister’, is the Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Inequality Commission.
She is a noted ecumenist and we previously wrote about her disgraceful appearance as the guest speaker at a service in St Patrick’s Roman Catholic chapel in the village of Donaghmore in County Tyrone during the God defying Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Not only that, but we then also highlighted her shameful message of ecumenical deceit at that meeting, in which she appeared to equate the Pope’s impending visit to Ireland with the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and God’s miraculous parting of the Red Sea and stated that the Second Vatican Council offered hope to Christianity.
She is a blasphemer of God’s Word and is utterly unsuitable to be a ‘minister’, and not just because of her gender, though that alone is enough to preclude her from the role she has corruptly assumed.
1 Timothy 2:12: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
However, it is her role on the Inequality Commission in conjunction with her role as an ordained ‘minister’ of the gospel we wish to focus on in this article.
In case anyone doesn’t know the background to the case, a homosexual man, called Gareth Lee, ordered a cake from the bakery and asked that the message ‘Support gay marriage’ be emblazoned on it. The order was initially taken by the member of staff at the till who was unaware how to handle the situation. It was passed to the owner, a Christian called Daniel McArthur, who contacted Gareth Lee to say they were unable to carry out the order and refunded him.
Unhappy, Gareth Lee contacted the Inequality Commission, who took legal action against Asher’s Bakery and, disgracefully, they were found to have discriminated against Gareth Lee, with scant regard given to the religious freedom of the McArthur family and Asher’s Bakery.
Having appealed the decision, it has now reached the UK Supreme Court, who heard the case in Belfast earlier this week. Their decision will be published later this year.
This grouping has as its Chief Commissioner a Michael Wardlow, who has acted as a vocal spokesperson against Asher’s Bakery throughout this case. Remarkably, he professes to be a Christian, but this is a matter of public knowledge.
His second in command is Deputy Chief Commissioner ‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll, who has remained remarkably silent on this matter and who has attracted no attention for her role in this shameful process. We have pictured below a snapshot of the Inequality Commission’s website to demonstrate her close involvement with the group.
We can find absolutely no trace online of her making any pronouncements on this matter or taking any kind of stand in support of the McArthur family.
Her continued presence on the Inequality Commission and the absence of her making any comments in relation to the matter can only point to her agreeing with the aggressive repression of an individual Christian’s conscience that has been pursued by the Inequality Commission.
‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll continues to show her support for the Inequality Commission. In the past week she has retweeted three tweets from the Inequality Commission and the most recent post on her Twitter account is a retweet of an Inequality Commission tweet.
If ‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll has any objection to the persecution of Christians for refusing to taint themselves by endorsing something repugnant to the Word of God, then she has certainly not proclaimed it.
God’s Word tells us in Ephesians 5:11: “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
Not only has ‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll failed to reprove the unfruitful works of darkness but she has continued to enthusiastically have fellowship with them.
2 Corinthians 6:17 says: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing”.
‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll has certainly not followed this advice from the inspired Word of God.
And her silence on this matter is a shameful reflection on not just her, but also on the Presbyterian Church.
Isaiah 56:10 warns of such elective ecclesiastical mutism. While this verse refers to watchmen, and God approves only of saved male ministers of the gospel whom He has called, as we have previously stressed, it has a relevant application to this situation.
It says: “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.”
‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll certainly seems to be afflicted with dumbness in relation to this issue.
What does ‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll think of the Asher’s Bakery case? Does she believe it is acceptable to force a business run by Christians, whose interests she is supposed to have at heart as a ‘minister’, to endorse gay marriage?
Marriage between one man and one woman is a God ordained estate (Genesis 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”) and homosexuality is described by God as an “abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).
How anyone who holds the position of a minister can attempt to justify this is frankly outrageous.
It would be very interesting to hear what Rev Lesley Carroll has to say about Asher’s Bakery being victimised because of their Christian beliefs.
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