A magistrate has been removed from office in the United Kingdom for expressing his deeply held opinion in an adoption case that children do best in the custody of a mom and dad.
The decision by judicial officials, which followed an investigation by the nation’s Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, will be challenged, according to the magistrate, Richard Page, 69.
“I am surprised at the Lord Chancellor should seemingly pander to the new political orthodoxy when what it amounts to is social experimentation on the lives of the most vulnerable children in our communities,” Page said in a statement released by Christian Concern, which represented him.
“To punish me and to seek to silence me for expressing a dissenting view is deeply shocking,” he continued. “I shall challenge this decision as it is illiberal and intolerant. It is vital that family law courts always have in mind the best interests of the children.”
“Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians” provides documented accounts of attacks on Christians worldwide, and it tells of the perseverance and courage of men and women who suffer abuse because of their faith in Jesus Christ
Andrea Minichiello Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre, charged that the removal was based on Page’s “allegedly being ‘prejudiced’ and for speaking out in the media.”
“This unmasks the face of the new political orthodoxy; it is unkind,” Williams said. “It tries to silence opposing views and if it fails it crushes and punishes the person who holds those views.”
Page explained his foundation for making decisions in family court.
“As a highly experienced magistrate, I have made judgments on thousands of cases and in each case, have come to my decision based on the evidence, and the evidence alone, placed before me and my colleagues. That is the oath which I took when I became a justice of the peace,” he said.
“When you sit in a family court, you have a huge responsibility to ensure the overall well-being of the children who are being recommended to be placed into new families. You weigh the reports and references before you and the evidence you hear. In the case of same-sex couples adopting children, it has only been a relatively short time that same-sex couples have been able to adopt and foster and, therefore, there has not been time for a proper analysis to be carried out into the effects such placements have on the children’s educational, emotional and developmental well-being.
“As a magistrate, I have to act on the evidence before me and quite simply, I believe that there is not sufficient evidence to convince me that placing a child in the care of a same-sex couple can be as holistically beneficial to a child as placing them with a mum and dad as God and nature intended,” he said.
He had expressed his opinion in a 2015 interview with BBC reporter Caroline Wyatt.
“My responsibility as a magistrate, as I saw it, was to do what I considered best for the child, and my feeling was therefore that it would be better if it was a man and woman who were the adopted parents,” he said.
He’s been a magistrate on the family panel of the Kent Central Magistrates Court.
Christian Concern described his removal as “a political statement.”
“It is somewhat ironic that the interview for which Mr. Page has been dismissed occurred as part of a TV debate about Christians being squeezed out of public life,” the organization said. “The BBC package followed research conducted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission about challenges to freedom of religion and belief in the U.K.
“Mr. Page was first challenged by his seniors in late 2014 when, after hearing an adoption case, he could not agree with his fellow magistrates that placing a child into the care of a same-sex couple was ‘in the child’s best interest.’ Mr. Page came to his decision having weighed the evidence presented to the court and therefore, in good conscience, could not vote to make the order. He was subsequently reported for his actions, reprimanded, and forced to attend ‘re-education training,’ which he duly did.”
His removal came after he expressed his opinion to the BBC.
In both the United Kingdom and the United States, the demand by homosexual advocates that adoption agencies place children with same-sex duos actually has been a “death sentence” for a number of those agencies, which have closed down rather than violate their faith under orders from government “non-discrimination” agents.
“Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians” provides documented accounts of attacks on Christians worldwide, and it tells of the perseverance and courage of men and women who suffer abuse because of their faith in Jesus Christ