A church in Northern Ireland, which had a newspaper ad banned for using the biblical word 
‘sodomy’, has had the ban overturned in the High Court.
The court ruled that the advertising regulator’s decision in 2008 to ban the ad, sponsored by Sandown Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast, was a breach of the church’s rights to free speech.
The judge, Justice Treacy, said the ad quoted well-known passages of the Bible and “constituted a genuine attempt” to stand up for the church’s beliefs.
Justice Treacy said: He said: “The applicant’s religious views and the Biblical scripture which underpins those views no doubt cause offence, even serious offence, to those of a certain sexual orientation.
“Likewise, the practice of homosexuality may have a similar effect on those of a particular religious faith.
“But Article 10 (of the European Convention on Human Rights) protects expressive rights which offend, shock or disturb.
“Moreover, Article 10 protects not only the content and substance of information but also the means of dissemination since any restriction on the means necessarily interferes with the right to receive and impart information.”
The ad had to be read in context, Justice Treacy added. At the previous year’s Gay Pride march in Belfast, a banner stating “Jesus is a fag” was carried, uninterrupted, by one of the participants, he pointed out.
He also said “the advertisement did not condone and was not likely to provoke violence”.
Rev David McIlveen, pastor of Sandown Free Presbyterian Church, described the decision as a landmark ruling, meaning that scripture could be quoted freely.
In 2008 it placed an advert in the Belfast News Letter calling on people to meet in a “gospel witness against the act of sodomy”.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received seven complaints about the advert and banned any further publication.
The full-page advert was published ahead of a Gay Pride event in Belfast. The ASA had claimed the advert was “forceful, confrontational and threatening to a section of the community”.
But the church’s lawyers said the ad showed the “classic evangelical position between loving the sinner and hating the sin”.
The advert cited a number of Bible verses, including 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Leviticus 18:22.
Rev McIlveen said: “We want to make it clear we had nothing against the seven people who objected to the advertisement.
“This is a landmark now for future decisions. People can quote the Bible and that’s a freedom that we have sought.”