Four threats to religious liberty from extremism agenda

Feb 11, 2017 by

From The Christian Institute:

The Westminster Government’s extremism agenda is leading to at least four different threats to our Christian freedoms.

Prime Minister Theresa May used a major speech in the USA recently to boast that the UK has “led the world” in its plans to “address the whole spectrum of extremism”.

1. Out-of-school settings plans

Of all her Government’s proposals, sending Ofsted into churches to inspect youth work is probably the most alarming for Christians.

Schools Minister Lord Nash has revealed that there were 18,000 responses to the consultation on these plans for ‘out-of-school settings’. We believe most of them came from Christians.

They have certainly given the Government pause for thought. Lord Nash told the House of Lords on 11 January that the Government is “determined to regulate in this area” but needs to “tread carefully because many of these organisations are small, open for only a few hours a week and staffed by volunteers”. The Welsh Government has similar plans.

2. ‘British values’ inspections

Whatever your view of Brexit, there is no doubt that it is significantly slowing down the rest of the Government’s legislation, including its plans for out-of-school settings. However, Ofsted is continuing to menace Christian and Jewish schools with its ‘British values’ inspections.

Over the past couple of years, Ofsted inspectors have caused the most widespread problems for religious liberty in England, with aggressive questioning of teachers and pupils over their beliefs, for example on same-sex marriage and transsexualism. We are continuing to help those affected.

Read here

See also:

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali says secularism is a spectacular failure, by Andy Walton, Christian Today

Freedom of speech decreasing for Christian students, by Aaron James, Premier

‘Equality oath’ threatens supporters of traditional marriage, from C4M

 

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