VIDEO:
CHURCH OF ENGLAND SCHOOL GOVERNOR RESIGNS OVER CONCERNS CHILDREN
"SACRIFICED ON ALTAR OF TRANSGENDER IDEOLOGY"
BY HEATHER CLARK
SEE: https://christiannews.net/2019/05/28/church-of-england-school-governor-resigns-over-concerns-children-sacrificed-on-altar-of-trans-ideology/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
LONDON — A vicar with the Church of England (CofE) who also serves as a governor at a CofE school has quit both of his jobs over concerns about the evident capitulation to “transgender” ideology.
“[W]e’re being coerced to think and speak a particular way,” lamented John Rogers in a video released by Christian Concern/The Christian Legal Centre. “[W]e’re being told we must go down a particular route.”
According to the organization, earlier this year, leadership at the school — which has not been identified — agreed to allow a child under 12 announce to his class that he would be “transitioning” to a girl. The head teacher allegedly told the school’s governors that the child’s parent was insistent that other parents should not be advised until the day of the announcement.
Therefore, the boy made the announcement unbeknownst to parents and “governors were informed by the head teacher that this was de-facto policy and the change would be done that way.” Children were also read the books “Big Bob, Little Bob,” a story about about a boy who dresses as a girl, and “Red: A Crayon’s Story,” in which the red crayon prefers to be blue.
Several governors, however, voiced their concern about the development, as well as other ramifications that they were left in the dark about, such as restroom use, changing room use, and lodging during trips away. They state that their complaints were ignored and they were told that the school was required under the UK’s equality laws to follow the policy.
The head teacher also brought in the transgender advocacy group Mermaids to conduct a training session with staff at the recommendation of the Department of Education. Audio snippets from the session were included in a video released by the Christian Legal Centre.
“Unless specifically stated by this family, everyone else just gets told, ‘The pupil you knew who had this name and this pronoun from this day will be this name and this pronoun,” the speaker said. “And that’s just staff who interact with the children. Governors just get told, ‘We have a pupil who is socially transitioning,’ and that is it.”
He said that there wasn’t any room for disagreement about the issue.
“Is it okay if I could share some different viewpoints that staff could take away … ?” Parker asked during the sessions, as captured by the audio recording.
“No, I don’t think so John,” the Mermaid member replied. “I’m sorry. It’s training today. It’s not time to share your viewpoint.”
As leadership likewise would not listen, Parker consequently left the school, seeing that it was “no longer a Christian place.” His resignation letter remarked that children are being “sacrificed on the altar of trans ideology.”
“The governors were simply told by the head teacher that a child born male now wished to be regarded as female, that parents were not to be informed by the school ahead of the transition, and that a controversial organization was being brought in to provide awareness and training to staff,” Parker said in a statement.
“Given the Christian ethos of the school, and the fact that a certain percentage of parents have sent their children to a CofE School because they sought for their children a Christian education in line with their own beliefs, the issue needed to be handled with those sensitivities in mind, and it has not been,” he mourned.
Andrea Williams, who leads the Christian Legal Centre, similarly expressed concern over the development and called for action and reformation.
“This is not an isolated case, and we are going to see more and more like it if nothing is done. Parents have a right to know if and when this ideological movement is in their schools and being taught as fact,” she said in a statement.
“The Church of England has one million children in its care. This is a serious God-given duty which the Church is failing at,” Williams lamented. “It has invited the new state ideology into the classroom and it has lost confidence in its own message of what it means to be human. The Church needs to act before it is too late.”
