He joined the organisation in August 2003, and a condition of his employment was acceptance of the group's equal opportunities policy, which required him to ensure "that no person... [receive] less favourable treatment on the basis of characteristics, such as... sexual orientation...".

[7] The Tribunal found that the applicant had suffered neither direct nor indirect discrimination under the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 or the Human Rights Act 1998.

The Tribunal made particular reference to remarks by Lord Bingham in the House of Lords decision in R (Begum) v Denbigh High School, that:[7] The Strasbourg institutions have not been at all ready to find an interference with the right to manifest religious belief in practice or observance where a person has voluntarily accepted an employment or role which does not accommodate that practice or observance and there are other means open to the person to observe his or her religion without undue hardship or inconvenience.Reference was also made to Ladele v London Borough of Islington, a Christian registrar's unsuccessful appeal against dismissal for refusing to officiate civil partnership ceremonies.

The statement supported Mr McFarlane's request for a specially constituted court, and also sought to refute suggestions that Christian teaching on same-sex unions was discriminatory and that such views were equivalent to homophobia.

Lord Justice Laws stated that: the conferment of any legal protection or preference upon a particular substantive moral position on the ground only that it is espoused by the adherents of a particular faith, however long its tradition, however rich its culture, is deeply unprincipled.As religious beliefs were by their nature impossible to prove, they were necessarily subjective, and could therefore only be considered to bind the behaviour of the believer and not that of anyone else.