Victoria Wasteney.
Political correctness is driving people apart, not bringing them together — Christian Legal Centre
An Employment Tribunal has ruled that the employer of a senior occupational therapist in London was justified in disciplining her for giving a Christian book to a Muslim colleague.
Victoria Wasteney has worked as an occupational therapist at the East London NHS Foundation Trust for eight years and has an exemplary record.
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Accusation
However, she was accused of “harassing and bullying” her Muslim colleague for giving her a book about a Muslim woman’s encounter with Christianity.
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And even though the colleague had given her consent, senior managers also told Miss Wasteney that she was wrong to pray with her and invite her to church events.
An internal disciplinary panel in February 2014 found her guilty of three charges of misconduct related to the accusations of “bullying and harassment” – praying with her colleague, giving her the book and inviting her to church events.
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Miss Wasteney was suspended (on full pay) for nine months. She also had to accept a range of rulings designed to stop her discussing her faith and beliefs with colleagues.
Tribunal
The Employment Tribunal, which heard the case in January of this year, has now ruled that the Trust acted reasonably in how it dealt with the senior occupational therapist’s case.
The Tribunal’s ruling raises serious concerns that political correctness in the NHS is stifling ordinary conversations about faith.
“Caginess”
“I conducted all my conversations with my colleague in a sensitive and appropriate way,” said Miss Wasteney.
“I knew she was from a different faith background and I was respectful of that. I didn’t force my beliefs on anyone at any point. Surely there should be room for mutual conversations about faith, where appropriate, in the workplace?
“I am extremely disappointed with the Tribunal’s decision to side with my employer. There is already an unnatural caginess around faith and belief which is an obstruction to building meaningful relationships in the workplace.
“This decision will only perpetuate that, to the detriment of working relationships in the NHS.”
“Walking on eggshells”
Miss Wasteney is supported by the Christian Legal Centre, whose chief executive, Andrea Williams, agrees that the decision is detrimental to healthy working relationships.
“Victoria has been punished and left out in the cold for being honest and open about her faith,” she said.
“Are these the kind of workplaces we want, where people are forced to hide their identity and the things that matter most to them? Such an environment is detrimental to meaningful working relationships and ultimately to productivity.
“With the general election fast approaching, what will political parties do about the place of Christianity in the workplace, particularly in the NHS?
“The current ‘equality and diversity’ framework is having the opposite effect to what was intended. It is driving different people apart, not bringing them together, by breeding an atmosphere of mistrust in which people constantly feel as if they are walking on eggshells.
“Victoria’s case clearly demonstrates this. What will our politicians do to restore trust in the workplace?”
I have seen a short video of the UK Prime Minister declaring just his past Easter of 2015,that the UK is a Christian country and spoke a whole list of wonderful things the Christians in that country do for other people. If the NHS can do this to a Christian then I wonder just how Christian the UK can be. Shame on the NHS and the Employment Tribunal.
PC Christianity means to just aye and amen everything and be the least (meaning be wrong whenever YHWH’s Word dictates opposite of what people demand to be right.)
True-to-God (YHWH, NOT allah) Christianity, means to actually judge between right and wrong and hold on to what is Right. Prepare for a lot of “Who died and made you God?” from the sell-outs who refuse to read “By peace, he shall destroy many” in the book of Daniel concerning the final Traitor to YHWH and His Son Jesus.
We are in the End Days. And just as there will be a great outpouring of faith, so there will be a great growth in antagonism to the Living God, Jesus the Christ. Satan will not give up without a fight, and it is he (notice the lower case ‘h’!) who is causing this to happen in our Western societies, the previously Christian countries of the world…
Keep praying for our leaders to wake up and smell the coffee!
An open letter to BRITISH PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON
SIR, I SALUTE YOU…..when most of the leaders of the so-called free Western world seem so quick to mock, laugh at or just ignore or try to eradicate from everyday life anything and everything that speaks of Christianity,you Sir, make a resounding call on people to take another look at what it means to be a Christian nation and you proudly proclaim Britain to be such…..and I quote
“Across Britain, Christians don’t just talk about ‘loving thy neighbor’, they live it out in faith schools, in prisons, in community groups… And it’s for all these reasons that we should feel proud to say, ‘This is a Christian country.’ Yes, we’re a nation that embraces, welcomes and accepts all faiths and none, but we are still a Christian country.”
Would to God there were more like you today who speak out fearlessly on behalf of Christians everywhere.
May God bless and keep you.
I recently surfed onto a website shoebat dot com, run by an ex-muslim who got Saved after doing some logical thinking – not allowed in islam, for anything that disproves islam is bullied to death. That website was a bit of an eye opener concerning the Antichrist already proclaimed and how islam is set to be the false religion of the Antichrist. It is worth looking up Walid Shoebat’s testimony of how he realised that allah and YHWH are two different spirits, and not the same as muslims proclaim. And the proof is written in the Bible, which even unofficial biblical scholars somehow miss while reading it.
Official biblical scholars may well miss it for the politically incorrectness towards islam portrayed there…