Bryan Barkley worked hard for the Red Cross for 20 years, volunteering his time to help reunite people with lost family members. But none of this mattered after the 71-year-old U.K. man decided to protest against faux marriage in front of his local church.
The British Red Cross terminated him, saying that his views were incompatible with the organization’s “fundamental principles.”
Barkley, a resident of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, staged his protest in March outside Wakefield Cathedral, holding placards stating “No same sex marriage” and “No redefinition of marriage.” He never dreamed this would mean no volunteering. Nonetheless, “In May he received a letter from Andy Peers, director of operations for the [Red Cross] charity in Yorkshire, summoning him to a disciplinary hearing,” reported the Daily Mail on Friday. The paper continued:
During the meeting, Mr Peers told Mr Barkley that the British Red Cross does not have a view on same sex marriage because as a charity it is impartial and neutral. Yet on August 8, Mr Barkley was told the charity was withdrawing his ‘opportunity to volunteer’ with immediate effect.
The letter of dismissal accused him of breaching its principles. Coalition for Marriage, which co-ordinated opposition to gay marriage, is providing Mr Barkley with legal advice. Its director, Colin Hart, said: ‘This is a shocking case.’
In fact, Hart appears to believe it’s Orwellian. He elaborated, Barkley’s “only crime seems to be that he was one of millions of ordinary people who opposed this change [the ‘undefinition’ of marriage]. What will disturb most people is that the Red Cross says it is not his actions but his thoughts and views that were the problem.”
As for Barkley’s thoughts, he echoed Hart, saying that while he had “nothing against homosexuals,” he didn’t “believe Parliament was representing the views of the people when it changed the definition of marriage.” He furthermore warned, “Freedom of expression is being stifled in this country.”
But it was stifled long ago. Britain has hate-speech laws frequently used to prohibit criticism of homosexuality and Islam, as The New American reported here and here. And it’s not just Britain, as it’s hard to find a Western nation outside the United States without such laws. Moreover, the pink muzzle extends into the United States as well; after all, most suppression of politically incorrect ideas is effected not through law, but social pressure.
Unbeknownst to many, this was predicted and prescribed almost 25 years ago by homosexual activists Hunter Madsen and Marshall Kirk in their 1990 book After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90’s. Writing of how to silence people of principle who would never in their hearts and minds accept the homosexual agenda, the authors wrote that the “primary objective” was to “cow and silence them as far as possible, not to convert or even desensitise them…. The ambivalent sceptics are our most promising target. If we can win them over, produce a major realignment solidly in favour of gay rights, the intransigents (like the racists of twenty years ago) will eventually be effectively silenced by both law and polite society.”
And these words have proved prophetic. As pundit Dennis Prager wrote, citing the economic persecution Mozilla Corporation co-founder Brendan Eich suffered earlier this year:
Although the gays who work at Mozilla all acknowledged how fairly they were treated both as individuals and as couples under Eich, it didn’t matter to the left. Once Mozilla discovered that Eich had given $1,000 to the Proposition 8 campaign to have the California Constitution amended to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, he was asked whether he had since recanted. When he refused to recant, he was forced to resign. This is as close to what was routine in communist countries as America has ever experienced: You may not hold certain beliefs, and if you do, you must be re-educated and recant or you become a non-person.
The same tactics were used in 2012 against Chick-fil-A. After it was revealed that the chief operating officer of the fast-food company made remarks opposing same-sex marriage, the mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, announced that he would not allow Chick-fil-A to open franchises in the city “unless they open up their policies.” Immediately afterward, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that Chick-fil-A is not welcome in Chicago. “Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values,” he announced.
Once again, if you hold a position that differs from the left, you are not to be debated — you are to be crushed.
Bakers, shirt printers, bed-and-breakfast owners, a New Jersey Christian organization, and others who didn’t want to be party to the homosexual agenda have learned this the hard way. And so did the established Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark after, shockingly, the Danish parliament voted in 2012 to force the church to “marry” same-sex couples.
Oh, and how effectively have homosexual-agenda opponents been cowed and silenced?
When Bryan Barkley protested in front of his church, he did it all alone.
