PM fast-tracks sex ed review after Christian MP’s campaign
NATIONAL Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called for a government review of sex education to be fast-tracked after Christian MP and former teacher Miriam Cates criticised the content.
Cates, whose objections were supported by 50 Conservative MPs, says Relationships and Sex Education is currently “age inappropriate, extreme, sexualising and inaccurate”.
The Prime Minister has asked the Department for Education for an urgent review of the lessons, which are now compulsory.
The 50 MPs warned that children are “being taught about extreme and dangerous sex acts, (and) encouraged to share intimate details about sexual desires with classmates and teachers”, and that “even primary school children are being indoctrinated with radical and un-evidenced ideologies about sex and gender”.
So outraged is the campaign group Let Kids be Kids that they are initiating a judicial review against the Department for Education.
Meanwhile, a Christian mother has accused her child’s school of “indoctrination” after her four-year-old was forced to take part in a gay pride event. The Evangelical Times reports that the school told Izzy Montague that her son could not opt out. After raising her concerns, Montague was banned from the school and Christian Concern reports that she has launched legal action against the school “on the grounds of direct and indirect discrimination, victimisation and a failure by the school to uphold its statutory duty.”
Children are “encouraged to share intimate details with classmates and teachers”
In another case, a Christian teaching assistant is appealing her case after she lost an employment tribunal over her sacking, allegedly for her religious beliefs. Kristie Higgs was fired from a C of E school in Fairford, Gloucestershire in 2019 after sharing on Facebook a petition against the compulsory teaching on gay issues and sex education.
The school called her views “pro-Nazi right-wing extremist” and Higgs lost her tribunal because the judge said the school could fire her if other people perceived her to be homophobic, even though he accepted she was not homophobic.
● This newspaper has printed articles warning about ‘grooming’ via RSE lessons in the Feb/Mar 2023 and Dec/Jan 2022-23 issues. These
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Government orders police to protect free speech
Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s migrant boats policy has been under the media spotlight for months, but her attempts to tackle ‘woke’ police practices have received significantly less attention.
Braverman has said she will introduce new legislation requiring the police to concentrate on serious crime rather than so-called ‘hate’ incidents.
She told the Daily Express: “It is only common sense that their focus must remain on catching dangerous criminals and bringing them to justice, not getting embroiled in political debate where no laws are being broken.
“That’s why we’re taking action to ensure a clear threshold must be met in order for ‘non-crime hate incidents’ to be recorded. Under new safeguards, the police will only record these incidents when it is absolutely necessary and proportionate, and never simply because someone is offended.
“Our new code, laid in Parliament today, will protect the fundamental right to freedom of expression, and better protect people’s personal data.”
Writing in The Times, she added that the work of a police officer “must never include politically correct distractions. People are perfectly entitled to say things about politics, gender, and religion that others find offensive. Disagreement is not incitement, and nor is irreverence or mockery.
Online Safety Bill nears completion but may still not protect children
The Online Safety Bill, which began as the Online Harms White Paper in April 2019, may soon end its journey through Parliament – but how much it will protect children is still in doubt.
The revised Bill covers a wide range of measures to address online abuse and harassment, and puts a duty of care on tech firms to protect under-18s, but it does not mandate the use of specific age-checking technology.
78 per cent of adults backed ageverification checks to prevent children from accessing online pornography
Yet in a survey for GB News in February, 78 per cent of adults backed age-verification checks to prevent children from accessing online pornography. Only five per cent disagreed. According to the Christian Institute, Lord Bethell is seeking to amend the Bill in order to force porn websites to verify the age of users within six months of the legislation being passed.
Age verification checks were approved under the Digital Economy Act 2017, but abandoned in October 2019. The Bill is currently at Committee stage in the House of Lords.
However, freedom campaigners point out that online age verification is an apparently harmless way of introducing the next generation to using a digital identity.
Methodist college lecturer sacked for defending orthodox theology
Dr Aaron Edwards has lost his job for expressing conservative biblical views An evangelical theology lecturer has been fired for a tweet and even threatened with a counter-terrorism referral. Cliff College in Derbyshire, a Methodist institution, sacked Dr Aaron Edwards after he raised the traditional Christian view of homosexuality on Twitter. Edwards wrote: “Homosexuality is invading the Church. Evangelicals no longer see the severity of this because they’re busy apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it’s true. This is a ‘Gospel issue’, by the way. If sin is no longer sin,we no longer need a Saviour.”
The Methodist Church allowed same-sex marriages in its churches in 2021 and, according to Premier, Edwards has “long argued that free speech for conservative evangelicals would be threatened by the Methodist position on marriage.”
“If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Saviour”
After the college asked Edwards to delete the tweet and he refused, he was sacked and threatened with being reported to Prevent – the Government’s counter-terrorism programme – which could affect his entire future career.
The dismissal has had a significant impact on Dr Edwards’ family, leaving them with no income. At the same time, they face eviction from their home within a matter of weeks.
He said: “We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we know God’s going to provide.