Christian Counselor Fired From Catholic School For Urging Wives to Submit to Husbands
A Christian Counselor who was fired from her job at a Catholic school is set to appear in front of an employment tribunal this week, making the case for “wrongful dismissal, harassment, discrimination and breaches of her human rights on the grounds of her Christian beliefs” according to a press release from the Christian Legal Center, who is representing her.
Gozen Soydag runs the Wife in The Waiting Academy, which is described as “a God-centred ministry that encourages, empowers and equips women, who desire to be married, to position in purpose, dedicated specifically to celebrating the institution of marriage and the traditional nuclear family, and where she posts things like this:
Basically, it’s a ministry dedicated to promoting “the holiness of marriage, the importance of the traditional nuclear family, and the importance of preserving purity for marriage and not co-habiting before marriage.”
Last February, she was fired from St Anne’s Catholic High School for Girls in England, with the Christian Concern recounting:
Miss Soydag was summoned to a meeting with the school’s assistant deputy head, Jo Saunders.During the meeting she was told that elements of her online social media activity had been brought to the school’s attention. At no point was she asked or given the opportunity to explain the purpose of her @wifeinthewaiting account.
One video Miss Soydag had shared on Instagram, which she was told was of particular concern, involved a woman wearing Muslim attire talking about her happiness of living in submission to her husband. On occasion Miss Soydag would post videos on the theme of marriage and relationships, not because she agreed with the entirety of what she posted, but to generate debate.
Soydag was told that these types of comments would be “misogynistic” if a man were saying them and, therefore, were deeply troubling. Other concerning posts included her quoting Ephesians 5:22-23, which reads, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. “
Saying that her beliefs were “incompatible with the school’s ethos,” she was told to take down several social media posts that an anonymous complainant found offensive, which she did.
Notably, the school’s Mission Statement& Ethos specifically states that “The school is conducted as a Catholic school in accordance with the Canon Law and the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, and in accordance with the Trust Deed of the Archdiocese of Westminster” and that “Catholic values and worship are at the heart of our school.”
She was told that all her social media sites had to be made private and inaccessible to students. Two weeks later, she was summoned to another meeting where she was told that she had 24 hours to ensure that her @wifeinthewaiting account was not visible on a Google search.
“Miss Soydag tried to explain that due to Google’s functionality this would take two weeks.
The following day, Miss Soydag told the Headteacher what she had done to make her accounts less visible, but was told that her accounts were ‘global’, that it was ‘too little too late’, and the beliefs she expressed were openly criticised.
Miss Soydag was then dismissed and told in an email that: “due to much of your extensive online profile being incompatible with the schools mission statement and ethos, and the fact that despite being asked to remove such incompatible information your profile appears to a large extent to remain unchanged”.
Commenting on her situation, Soydag offered:
“I wanted to work in the education sector and make an impact for young people. This was a Catholic school, and they knew I was a passionate woman of faith. The school’s building is in the shape of the Cross. Every classroom had a Cross and Bible verses on the walls. This was a place where I believed they accepted Jesus.
“My social media channels were about sharing hope through the Word of God, especially for women. No one who desires marriage wants a singles ministry! But that is what God gave me.
“The majority of my adult life I have worked with vulnerable people. I’ve never had a complaint against me and it has never been suggested that I am a danger to anyone.
“When I was dismissed, it was therefore a complete shock. People had always said to me about my social media accounts: ‘you are such an encouragement, good for you.’
“I tried to boost the confidence of the girls I worked with at St Anne’s, but I never referred them to my social media accounts. @wifeinthewaiting is not for 14-year-olds, but for women in their 30’s and 40’s who desire marriage and want to do it God’s way. It is about living a life of purpose whatever season you are in.
“The @wifeinthewaiting page was not about me, but about encouraging others who wanted to get married to do it in the right way. It is about purity, Godliness, and the challenge of where God is in our lives and the marriages women desire to have. It was about helping women to deal with loneliness. I wanted to be the good within social media, amongst all the bad stuff that is out there.
“The ‘king of my life’ post they were initially concerned about expressed the personal experience of a woman and her marriage. Some of my social media activity challenges people’s perspectives on marriage and is designed to engage and start discussion. I was putting forward the idea that Biblical marriage is very beautiful if done God’s way.
“I stand for the nuclear marriage and God’s blueprint for marriage. I’m not against anyone, I am for God’s blueprint for the family and believe children do best in a nuclear family.
“I want to speak up now because traditional Christian marriage in this country is being broken, trampled on, and even marginalized, and what has happened to me really highlights that.
“It is wrong to fire someone because they believe in the institution of marriage. I believe it is wrong to fire someone because their beliefs don’t align with yours. There is so much talk about diversity in the workplace, yet in this instance, my beliefs and who I am as a Christian were completely excluded.
“Christians cannot allow people to walk all over the principles that we stand for. No one has to believe what I believe. Just because I don’t believe what someone else believes doesn’t mean I can’t respect them or work with them.
“I was persecuted. If this had been anyone else with a belief as part of the ‘inclusive’ culture, I would not be sitting here, I would have been celebrated and promoted.
“When you know your future is secure in God, you don’t need to worry. It is important to speak up for truth. I am not going to let go of what God has given me and am determined to fight for justice.”
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I can’t blame the Catholics for firing that sick P0S for promoting Sharia, which is the religion where men own their wives and can beat them with little push-back. Husband and wives are partners who lovingly share responsibilities and do not compete with each other for power in the relationship.
I’m a died in the wool Atheist but what is right, IS RIGHT AND THE CATHOLICS ON THIS ISSUE WERE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT !!!
Wow, you could at least try to accurately frame what actually happened, and the truth about what is actually believed.
Women don’t have to submit to anyone. They are complete human beings who have the natural born right to live as they please. This nonsense of the patriarchal religions has done more harm to the human race than any other.