The Land of Mist
Behind the news is a land of mist. It can be extremely
difficult to work out exactly what has happened. A case in point is that
recently reported by “Bishop” Gavin Ashenden in the columns of the Jersey Evening Post.
He is looking at the case of a
primary school in Tunbridge Wells:
“The latest seed bed of hate-filled extremism has been
lurking undiscovered for the last 16 years in a Primary School, in Tunbridge
Wells. With psychological and social consequences that surely defy imagination,
a generation of children have been infected by 'hate' at the hands of an
extremist organisation masquerading as a Christian charity.”
“For 16 years this charity called Crossteach has been sowing
'hate' and 'extremism' under the pretence of pretending to help local C of E
Primary schools bring their Christian ethos and culture to life. Young
extremists masquerading as 'enthusiasts' offered drama in assemblies with the
cover story they were keeping them cool and entertaining; they even pretended
to help rather hapless RE teachers in the classroom, saying this would lift the
faith to from the page to give it life.”
“It seems that that the school had not been careful enough
to hide from the children that Jesus taught that there was a heaven and a hell
and that he had come to save people from a dreadful separation from God by
dying in their place, and shedding His blood as a sacrifice, and carry them to
heaven. (Oh, and in passing, marriage was intended to be between a man and a
woman.)”
Note that in passing, as he sees it, the Crossteach group clearly chimes with
his own beliefs that being gay is a curable disorder and gay marriage is wrong. This is not necessarily the case.
So what happened? A group of parents protested about how
Crossteach were conducting teaching Christianity in assemblies:
"We recognise and respect the school's Christian values
but think there is a brand of Christianity that is abusing that respect. The
basis of [our] complaint relates purely to concerns over the welfare and
safeguarding of children who we believe are being exposed to potentially
damaging ideology."
The local vicar Reverend Giles Walter called the protesting
parents as “extremists”. In a statement released to the Kent newspaper, he
said: “The behaviour of this small group of parents has hurled a hand grenade
into a previously happy and harmonious environment. They seem determined to
drive mainstream Christian teaching out of our church school: and it is they
and not ourselves who should be charged with extremism and non-inclusiveness.”
According to the Telegraph, one parent said that children
were being taught about sin and told that if they did not believe in God
"they would not go to a good place when they died".
According to the Guardian: “Incidents included a harvest
festival assembly in which a CrossTeach guest speaker attempted to demonstrate ’the
destructive power of God’ by smashing a model boat. One parent claimed her son
had been told last week that ‘men can’t marry men’.”
And it also points out that while this is a faith school, ““faith
schools must still adhere to Department for Education guidelines regarding
fundamental British values, including equality and non-discrimination in
matters such as gay marriage, as well as respect and tolerance for other
faiths.”
The Freethinker website, which obviously has its own agenda
notes:
“As a faith school, St John’s has more leeway to promote the
Church of England and Christianity to pupils. But faith schools must still
adhere to Department for Education guidelines regarding fundamental British
values, including equality and non-discrimination in matters such as gay
marriage, as well as respect and tolerance for other faiths.”
Crossteach on its own website says in a Q&A: “Do you aim
to convert people?” by providing this answer: “Crossteach is an educational
charity and our aims are exclusively educational: to inform students and enable
them to critically engage with the Christian faith.”
The Rev Jules Gomes is incensed by the business:
“The parents want to re-define Christianity in their
Tunbridge-Wellsian image and likeness – reared and carved like the Christmas
turkey from Waitrose. They sincerely believe that teaching children about ‘sin’
and ‘judgement’ (as they point out in a 13-page letter) is ‘extremist’. ‘No one
minds Nativity plays and Bible stories . . . I think the feeling is that it’s all
too much,’ says one parent. So this parent wouldn’t mind the Bible stories of
Joshua slaying the Canaanites or Herod slaying the innocent children of
Bethlehem (part of the Nativity story) but the story of Jesus’s crucifixion ‘is
all too much’?”
Now that is interesting, because it is the first mention we
have of a letter. The snippets reported by the newspapers are parental
comments, not extracts from the letter.
So what might the letter say. Kent news, close to the
affair, comments that:
“Parents say the group's fundamentalist teaching had been
"upsetting and disturbing" young children The move comes after a
number of parents withdrew their children from assemblies over concerns about
their "heavy content". One, who asked not to be named, said: "I didn't
pull my mine out because overall I think it would do more harm than good to
segregate them. But I do know some of the children have been upset by what they
have heard. No one minds Nativity plays and Bible stories but considering most
of the parents at the school aren’t practising Christians I think the feeling
is that it’s all too much.”
But that's vague.
One of the complaints is that parents can take children elsewhere if they don't want a religious school, but as one said:
“In Tunbridge Wells the vast majority of primary schools are
affiliated with the church so it’s not like you have a choice whether you
expose your children to this.“Personally I want my children to learn about all
religions. If you want them to be raised as Christians there are plenty of
Sunday schools.”
Christians in Education notes that:
“It seems it all began earlier this year when some parents
raised concerns at the Parents Forum – minutes of the meeting show that the
head passed on those concerns to the church. Presumably, this didn’t resolve
the situation, as a formal complaint was made to the governors. Not content
with this, the parents started an online social media campaign against the
teaching of Christianity in the school, claiming that nothing was being done
about their concerns. On Monday, for the purpose of restoring peace, the head
decided to act.”
And another website has a snippet more information:
“After a conversation tonight with our CrossTeach team
locally, I have discovered a number of things, 1. they have every sympathy with
the Headteacher who they feel has been put in an extremely difficult position,
2. there is a lot of false information about what was or is being objected to,
3. at the root of the problem is one particular parent who largely objected to
a lesson in which their child was told that heaven would be better than the
best things on earth, 4. other parents have been rallied to the cause with
often misleading information. It has been rumbling on for some time with the
team often being misquoted or quoted out of context. In all lessons two
representatives of the team are there along with a teacher.”
Archbishop Cramner website says::
“Parents have a legal right to remove their children from RE
lessons and assemblies. There’s no justification for small but very vocal
minorities to insist on removing Christianity from schools. Part of high
quality RE teaching involves examining Christian teaching on marriage and
sexuality, sin and life after death. If you disagree with the Bible, critique
it and present a robust argument against it. Simply calling something toxic
because you disagree with it is not a valid form of debate.”
This is, it should be noted, a very fundamentalist position,
because it makes the claim that “the Bible” is the justification for one and
only one point of view. Theologians and Biblical scholars, as well as the odd
Bible reader, may find much to disagree with.
But what is nowhere clear what this 13 page letter said, and
how, presumably, it outlined how the children were upset and how their parents
found out their distress.
Without that, what we have in fact, is a collection of
snippets from parents which hardly give the detail to fill one page, let along
13 pages, and a chance for merry fundamentalists like “Bishop” Ashenden to use
this as a platform for his own particular agenda.
In conclusion, despite Gavin Ashenden weighing in, and
various reports about Crossteach, and about how CrossTeach have been unfairly treated, or from the Humanists, how they have been proselytising ,we still have next to no idea why they were
banned from the school, or what the parents complained about.
No one has published the letter!
And yet this has not stopped a number of commentaries
springing up, telling us what they believed to be the case! And by dint of repetition, everyone seems to believe they know what happened, what the parents believed, and what their complaints were about on the basis of scantiest of quotations.
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