The Myth of Secular Neutrality

(Text of talk given by Lynda at the Christian Coalition for Education Conference in Oxford, Saturday 24^thNovember)

In multi-cultural Britain, where the majority of the population actually have no faith, secularism is presented as the objective voice of reason working to establish successful democratic governance across the world.  “We campaign for a secular democracy with a separation of religion and state, where everyone’s Human Rights are respected equally.”  This is the mission statement of the National Secular Society on their website.  (https://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/rethinking-religion-and-belief-in-public-life-a-manifesto-for-change-4.pdf)

Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  You might think these are people we can really trust.  But the truth is rather different because, in reality, Secularists are enemies of faith groups and are leading an open and explicit campaign to remove all trace of Christianity from public life.  Secularists of course reject any idea of God, but over and above that they claim that religion is repressive, and responsible for most of the world’s ills – which is why, they say, its influence needs to be removed.[1]And they’re the ones to do it, because they’re objective, reasonable, neutral …  simply campaigning for a better and fairer future for all.

At every level this is a lie.   Secularists are not neutral, they are not tolerant, and they are not fair.  What we have to realize is that Secularism actually is a competing ideology or belief system – in effect it’s a religion, and it wants total dominance.  Secularists may claim to defend tolerance and freedom of speech for all, but the reality is they will not allow any dissent.  They want total subjugation.

Let’s not be under any illusion.  If they can, Secularists will not just close down all faith schools (https://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/rethinking-religion-and-belief-in-public-life-a-manifesto-for-change-4.pdf); they’ll remove every last trace of Christian influence and morality from the whole of education – because education, with its power to shape young minds, can transform the defining values of our culture. Education is the future.   As first said by Aristotle, ‘Give me a child till he’s seven, and I’ll show you the man’, or as it’s sometimes remembered, “Give me a child till he’s seven, and he’s mine for life.   If you can ‘control’ what children think, and the values and attitudes that they’re going to live by, you’ll control the future direction of society.

This is why we’re seeing the incredible and deliberate rebranding going on in education today, not just in Relationships and Sex Education, and Health Education, but across the whole curriculum.

When it comes to RSE, the underlying rationale being put forward by Government is that we have to equip children to face the modern world.  The only way we can protect them, they say, is by giving ever more explicit and graphic teaching about sex, so that they can exercise informed choice, when they’re ready.  It’s been an absolute disaster up to now, but the Secularist pitch is that any hint of retrogressive Christian morality or judgment must be excluded – because that denies the fundamental and inalienable right of every last one of us on the planet – male, female, gender non-binary, questioning, or simply plain confused – to have consequence-free sex whenever and wherever we want.

But even more worryingly, this is now percolating through into the whole of education, with a growing number of reports coming through of advice being given to schools by LGBTQ advocates on how to shape the whole academic curriculum so as to promote and embed ‘diversity’.

For example, CREATING AN LGBT- INCLUSIVE CURRICULUM is a recent resource put out by Stonewall for use in Secondary schools, advising teachers on how to make all subjects ‘inclusive’. (https://www.stonewall.org.uk/sites/default/files/inclusive_curriculum_guide.pdf)  Thus in English teachers are encouraged to study LGBT writers, set against LGBT identity and culture, and to explore LGBT themes.  In Maths, for problem solving, they’re recommended to include references to LGBT people and different family structure, with the example being given, Mr X & Mr Y want to know how much it will cost to have a holiday in Italy if…’, ‘Lila’s mums are trying to calculate…’

Yes, we’re having something of a battle at the moment over Relationships and Sex Education, and the downgrading of the parental right to withdraw their child from sex education classes to a right of request.  And that’s dangerous.   But I would suggest that far more pernicious and concerning is this covert reframing of the curriculum that we’re seeing ‘sliding’ in, deliberately brainwashing children into accepting without question the so-called new values – like gender choice, sexual fluidity, the equality of all relationships…   If LGBT activists get their way, children won’t learn anything else.

Make no mistake, what we are up against is deliberate and planned indoctrination.   It’s the imposition of secular totalitarianism, and it’s scary.

So what can we do? Well, first of all, we need to stand on our rights under the law.   The Equality Act 2010 lists 9 Protected Characteristics.  Age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation.

Please note, there is no hierarchy to these characteristics, so religion or belief is protected equally alongside sex and sexual orientation.

At the same time, the rights to freedom of religion and of speech as set out in Articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights are protected by the Human Rights Act 1998.   So we have a protected rightto state and to defend our belief.  We have a right to call for respect of that belief.  And we surely have a right to call any attempt to suppress or denigrate that belief a hate crime.

Under Protocol 1, Art 2 of the European Convention, parents also have the right to have their child educated in line with their religious or philosophical beliefs – which means we are entitled to object to the promotion of promiscuity or LGBT indoctrination, on the grounds that it conflicts with our faith.  More than that, we have the right to have our children educated in a way that respects our faith.

Second, we need to highlight the very real physical risks and dangers to which children are being exposed by this teaching.  The adverse health outcomes of promiscuity and sexual behaviours that only a few years ago would have been labelled deviant are well documented.  We need to demand that children are taught the full truth.  That some of the 32 STIs currently going round, for example, are untreatable, and not just life changing but life threatening: or that early onset sexual activity will impair that future ability to form a stable, longlasting relationship.

Children shouldn’t be taught that they have a right to sex as soon as they hit puberty, and that all they need do to be safe is to use a condom. They shouldn’t be encouraged to experiment with their sexuality before deciding whether or not they’re heterosexual, nor should they be taught about oral and anal sex.  Young girls shouldn’t be given the message that this is a way to avoid pregnancy!

Is this really Secular neutrality fighting to protect children and keep them safe?  No, it’s ideological exploitation and abuse in order to engineer social change. 

Whether parents or teachers, it’s time for us to speak up to protect the nation’s young, and to challenge this diet of lies, misinformation and deliberate distortion before it’s too late.

[1]      “One of our key aims is that the UK should be a secular state guaranteeing human rights, with no privilege or discrimination on grounds of religion or belief…many of the barriers to secularism involve legal privilege for Christian groups in particular, using historical justifications for continued advantage over others. ” https://humanism.org.uk/campaigns/secularism/