Belfast church launches legal bid for right to sodomy ads

Sandown Free Presbyterian Church’s advertisement ran in August last year with the headline: “The word of God against sodomy.”

It appeared in an edition of News Letter ahead of the Belfast Gay Pride parade, before being banned by the Advertising Standards Authority after several members of the public complained that the advert was homophobic.

A judicial review was granted after a lawyer for Sandown claimed that the ban breached the church’s rights to freedom of religion and expression.

John Larkin QC told a court hearing that the advert was not homophobic but represented “the classic evangelical position between loving the sinner and hating the sin”.

“It’s a biblically-based church, they are bound to proclaim the truth as they see it,” he said.

Mr Larkin indicated that the church had no intention of changing the wording of the advertisement.

He said: “We shouldn’t have to take out the quotation from Leviticus. The sentence which seems to lie at the core of the ASA’s adjudication couldn’t be clearer.”