Why is the Church not standing up for parental rights?
by David Paton, Catholic Herald:
The British Government is ignoring parents’ concerns on sex education. Can the Church speak up for the voiceless?
Across the world, parents are engaged in battles with local and national governments over their right to decide how sex education is taught to children in schools. Some have had more success than others in standing up to the sex education establishment and also, regrettably, in recruiting the Church in their support.
In the Canadian province of Ontario, there was huge public upset over the graphic nature of a sex education programme which became mandatory for all schools. In response, Conservative leader Doug Ford promised to repeal the programme and this played a significant role in his election in 2018. This success was no thanks to the Catholic headteachers in Ontario who, quite remarkably, opposed its repeal. In contrast, parents in Colorado received full backing from the Catholic Archbishop of Denver in their opposition to a new law banning schools from taking a more traditional approach to sex education.
Over the past few months, the focus of the issue has switched to England. In a year’s time, schools will have to implement a radical new approach to sex education being imposed by the Government and which will fundamentally overturn the long-standing principle that parents are the primary educators in matters of sexuality. Worryingly, there is little sign that the Church is prepared for the challenge.
Editor’s note: Anglican Mainstream has posted a number of articles (eg here) confirming the same reluctance of evangelicals to speak up against the new Relationship and Sex Education curriculum, its tendency to dangerous indoctrination in progressive ideology, and early sexualisation of young children. What are the reasons? Here are some:
* ‘two kingdoms theology’ ie we are concerned about the church, not the world* focus on evangelism, not social/political action* sophisticated prosperity theology – “don’t need to do anything uncomfortable/unpopular”* “we outsource all stuff on LGBT issues to Living Out”* “we must be positive and tell a better story, not complain about the culture”* “we might upset gay people in our church”* “we haven’t heard eminent, respected people speaking up about this, so it isn’t important”* “we don’t want a bad relationship with the school/community”* “we won’t be able to persuade the school to change”I’m sure there are others. How might this deeply ingrained thinking be countered for the sake of the nation’s children? Evangelism and church life will not get easier in the future if we do nothing.
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