7 December 2008

Dear Sir/Madam,

At a meeting of the General Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster on
Friday, 6 December 2008, a resolution was unanimously passed in support of the public
stand taken against the sin of homosexuality by Rev. David McIlveen and his church
session of Sandown Road Free Presbyterian Church.

Members of Presbytery had been informed that, in one of your recent adjudications, you
determined that an advertisement placed by Sandown Road FPC in the Belfast News
Letter was offensive and indecent.

As you know, the advert in question, entitled, ‘The Word of God against Sodomy,’ was
published to coincide with Belfast’s Gay Pride parade on Saturday, 2 August 2008. It was
designed to provide a biblical response to the sin of sodomy that is celebrated by this
parade, and to announce a protest to be held at this event by Bible-believing Christians.

While we appreciate the fact that one portion of your ruling dismissed complaints that the
calling for, “an outdoor meeting to be held in protest of the act of sodomy and to voice
disapproval of the Belfast Gay Pride parade” was not, “an attempt to spread hatred and
incite violence,” we were nevertheless perturbed that you chose to highlight for special
censure several phrases about homosexuality that were used in this advert:

(i) “... declaring it to be an abomination ...”,
(ii) “... God’s judgement upon a sin ...”,
(iii) “... remove the guilt of their wrongdoing ...”,
(iv) “... a cause for regret that a section of the community desire to be known for a
perverted form of sexuality ... .”

Your conclusion was that these statements against sodomy, “went further than the majority
of readers were likely to find acceptable,” and breached standards of “decency” as defined
by the advertising industry (CAP Code clause 5.1).

However, each of these statements you have found objectionable is a faithful
representation of what Almighty God has declared in His Word – the timeless and
unchangeable Scriptures of Truth.

(i) Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:25-28,
(ii) Genesis 19, Romans 1:32, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Jude 7,
(iii) Romans 1:28, 32,
(iv) Genesis 2:18; 21-24, Romans 1:26-27.

Therefore your adjudication is not only a violation of our freedom of speech - an attempt to
curtail the right of a gospel preaching church to express its sincerely held beliefs on the
subject of sodomy - but is a fundamental attack on the Bible itself, since it judges that its
statements are unfit for publication in advertisements.

You may realise that a judge (Mr Justice Weatherup), ruling in the Belfast High Court in
August/September 2007 on the Sexual Orientation Regulations, established as a finding of
fact that the orthodox Christian belief is that the practice of homosexuality is sinful, and
quashed the harrassment provisions that were originally intended to be part of these
regulations on the basis that they threatened free speech. We fail to see any recognition
of such a decision in your adjudication.

Our Presbytery considers this ruling by the ASA to be both draconian and diabolical. We
are convinced that we shall not be alone in opposing it. In addition to the eighty
congregations belonging to our own Presbytery (represented by the signatures attached to
this letter), many Christians from the broad spectrum of evangelical denominations in this
country and beyond have expressed their support of the statement made and stand taken
by Sandown Road Free Presbyterian kirk session on this issue.

Yours sincerely,

Rev. Dr. Ian Brown
(Clerk of Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster)

NB. This letter was accompanied by a petition from Presbytery, containing the names of 276 Presbyters who voiced their opposition to this recent ruling by the ASA in favour of sodomy and against Scripture.

The petition began:

"These are the names of MINISTERS and ELDERS of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster,
representing 80 congregations in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, who have supplied their names for this letter/petition in opposition to the ruling made by the Advertising Standards Authority re the Advert against Sodomy placed by Sandown FPC in the Belfast News Letter, August 2008.

It will immediately be noticed that the number of men listed below, who have each been offended at the manner in which the teaching of the Holy Scriptures on the subject of the sin of sodomy has been questioned and maligned by the Advertising Standards Authority, far outweighs the meagre total of persons who initially complained about the Advert.