By Community Correspondent Stephen Evans

Wandsworth council came in for a fair amount of stick when they sacked Duke Amachree for gross misconduct after he imposed his religion on a member of the public seeking his professional help.

Now the case of Mr Amachree has been taken up by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC) who is taking the case to an employment tribunal, claiming that Wandworth’s decision effectively 'privatises' Christian faith and is against Mr Amachree’s human rights.

We can surely all agree that everyone should have the right to believe whatever they want and practise whatever faith they so wish. However, should employees have the right to impose their religion on others? I would say an emphatic no - especially when they’re providing a public service that serves the whole community, funded by public money. Despite the claims of the evangelicals, this is not a denial of human rights and it has little to do with freedom of speech. It’s about professional working practises, good manners and protecting people from evangelisers like Mr Amachree.

Employees in such cases are happy to complain about their rights, but no mention of rights should be made without reference to responsibilities.

The Christian Legal Centre (CLC), who are backing Mr Amachree, are behind a well funded and well orchestrated campaign to misinform us all into believing that Christians are being persecuted in the UK. This is of course complete nonsense. The fact of the matter is that Christianity is in rapid decline and the Church is fast losing its influence in an increasingly secular society. Some Christians may not like it, but it’s hardly persecution.

Take a look at the high profile case of Nadia Eweida, who was portrayed in the press as the victim of cruel religious discrimination - a poor persecuted Christian who had been "banned" by British Airways from wearing a simple cross at work.

When the CLC and Nadia Eweida took BA to tribunal, they lost. The Employment Tribunal kicked out every one of her claims of discrimination saying she “generally lacked empathy for the perspective of others” and “her own overwhelming commitment to her faith led her at times to be both naive and uncompromising in her dealings with those who did not share her faith."

The CLC lawyer then was Paul Diamond, a familiar figure in court cases demanding religious privilege, who will also be making the case for Duke Amachree.

Mr Amachree was sacked following a disciplinary where it was revealed that he gave ‘wholly inappropriate and unprofessional advice to a very sick person who has an incurable illness, which caused great upset and distress’. By his own admission he suggested to the woman, who came to him seeking housing advice, that she should put her faith in God and that ‘sometimes the doctors don't have all of the answers’. He went on to suggest that she should believe in ‘miracles’.

Mr Amachree is free to believe whatever superstitious mumbo jumbo he wants to, but he should not be entitled to peddle such beliefs whilst being paid by Wandsworth Council to give professional housing advice.

Mr Amachree may well be “stunned” by the actions of Wandsworth Council, but that just goes to show the arrogance of certain evangelicals who demand the right to impose their religion on others.

This is not about gagging Christians, it’s about principles. I’d be saying the same if a Muslim, Jew, Sikh, atheist or anyone else tried to impose their religious or political beliefs on others in this way.

Common sense should always be applied in such cases, but employers must be permitted to declare their workplaces secular spaces and request that employees leave their religion at the door. They can still apply their Christian values at work (providing, of course, that they comply with their employer’s equality policies) but the religiously motivated need to modify their language and translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. And if employers refuse or feel their religion doesn't permit them to work in the way that the job demands, then an employer should have the right to ask them to find another job that does.