Anti-LGBT fundamentalist group ‘hijacked’ the tragic case of Alfie Evans
Candles in support of Alfie Evans are seen outside at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital on April 26, 2018 in Liverpool, England. (Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)
A senior judge has expressed concern about the “fanatical” and “deluded” anti-LGBT Christian activists who are now at the centre of a very public legal battle about a dying child.
Doctors at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool made the decision to withdraw life support from seriously ill 23-month-old Alfie Evans, after concluding there is little chance of treatment.
However, the case has been swept up in a high-profile legal battle after the boy’s parents sought an order to allow them to take him abroad for treatment against what medical experts say are his best interests.
A High Court judge this week expressed concerns that parents Tom Evans and Kate James are being exploited by representatives from the Christian Legal Centre.
Police are seen outside Alder Hey Children’s Hospital on April 26, 2018 in Liverpool, England (Anthony Devlin/Getty)
The Christian Legal Centre is the legal wing of evangelical campaign group Christian Concern, which has strongly lobbied against LGBT rights in the UK for decades.
The group has opposed partnership rights for same-sex couples, opposed moves to ban gay ‘cure’ therapy, and claimed that sex education in schools “is being used to bring in indoctrination about homosexuality and transgenderism.”
Meanwhile the Christian Legal Centre has defended a string of pro bono clients accused of discriminating against gay people or accused of homophobic hate speech – as well as representing a family who wanted to force their transgender teenage son to undergo treatment for “gender confusion.”
The activists’ extreme beliefs were referenced by Mr. Justice Hayden, who described Christian Legal Centre advocate Pavel Stroilov as a “fanatical and deluded young man.”
A monkey left in support of Alfie Evans is seen outside at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital on April 26, 2018 in Liverpool, England. (Anthony Devlin/Getty)
The judge accused the activists of doing the parents “far more harm than it does them good” and described their submissions of being “littered with vituperation and bile.”
He also challenged the “startling proposition” in the group’s legal submissions that “Alfie’s best interests are irrelevant” compared to the wishes of his parents.
The family’s former lawyer Mary Holmes has also publicly accused the Christian Legal Centre of exploiting the case of Alfie.
She told The Times: “These people, I don’t believe are in it because they love Alfie. When this case is over they’ll move on to the next. Or they’ll find some other cause they can ride on the back of.
“I just think they pick on the vulnerable and they are easy prey. Keep this child alive at any cost and not for the right reasons.
“It’s getting them in the public eye – it’s like, we’ve got involved, look what we’ve done, we’ve got an audience with the Pope.”
Andrea Williams, the Chief Executive of Christian Legal Centre and head of Christian Concern, has described gay people as “children of the devil” and called for homosexual Christians to “repent” their sexuality.
Andrea Williams
The Christian Legal Centre chief has also called for schools to “promote” straight lifestyles to children.
Williams said: “As human beings, the Christian teaching would say each one of us is wonderfully made and we should embrace one another – but that doesn’t mean we should have to accept in education this idea that all lifestyles are equivalent, that all lifestyles bring equal good.
“When it comes to teaching children about relationships as young as seven. What we need to be promoting is this beautiful model of marriage between a man and a woman, with children within that construct.
“The idea that we’re normalising lifestyles that may not be… [equivalent].”
She has also called for LGBT equality laws to be axed after Brexit.
Williams said: “The vote for Brexit on 23 June was a protest vote (…) the vote to leave was a vote to reassert our foundation principle of democratic accountability.
“It is our job to seek to ensure the political earthquake fuels a much broader spiritual, political, social and cultural rethink in the country.
“Last month Gay Pride was celebrated in schools, even primary schools – our children wearing rainbow colours and donating to LGBTQI charities.
“A ‘normality’ that paraded through the streets of London on Saturday where thousands marched for LGBTQI pride, iconising fetish behaviour – men dressed up as puppy dogs in leather – and the elites seemingly desperate to be seen alongside them.
“Politicians, the police, the military, media personalities, and even some parts of the ‘church’. We, the Christian people of our nation, need lovingly to assert another truth.”
Williams added: “Only Christianity can provide a safe and secure moral foundation for our nation. It is Jesus who has the power to transform lives and change nations. Radical obedience to His commands will lead the nation forwards.”
