Monday 17 July 2023

 

Church of England defends teaching controversial race theory

Teachers at Church of England schools in Suffolk told to teach children lessons on the ‘white supremacy pyramid’ theory

Nigel Genders, the Church of England's chief education officer, said that teaching racial justice in schools 'has never been more important'
Nigel Genders, the Church of England's chief education officer, said that teaching racial justice in schools 'has never been more important' CREDIT: Centre for Chaplaincy in Education

The Church of England has defended teaching controversial race theory, saying children should not wait until 18 to learn about “racial justice”.

Teaching guidance issued by one diocese, which includes lessons on the “white supremacy pyramid”, has been described as “explicitly politically partisan” by the campaign group Don’t Divide Us.

Teachers at Church of England schools in Suffolk have been told to teach children that they benefit from white privilege and the “systemic oppression of People of Colour through racist policies and practices”.

However, in a blog post on the Church of England’s website on Sunday, Revd Canon Nigel Genders, its chief education officer, said that teaching racial justice in schools “has never been more important”.

He said: “In Church of England schools we are committed to addressing the issue. “Not by building up some people at the expense of others or by suggesting children are personally responsible for past injustices; rather we must face our past and by doing so build a more just society for all.

“This includes learning about the enduring impact of slavery and the reality of institutional and systemic racism.”

He added: “The wider Church’s work on racial justice is not an attempt to reflect demographic trends in society, to be politically correct, or to engage in a culture war but rather is fundamental to what we believe as Christians.”

Teaching guidance issued by the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich states that pupils should learn about the “white supremacy pyramid” to show “how bias, stereotypes and prejudice can lead to racist words and actions, leading to physical harm and death”.

It adds: “Systemic racism exists in inequalities of wealth, education, employment, housing and health”.

‘Politically partisan’
 

The diocese’s teaching guidance has emerged as part of a report published earlier this month by the campaign group Don’t Divide Us on how critical race theory is being taught in schools.

Dr Alka Sehgal-Cuthbert, author of the report, told BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme: “The Church of England diocesan board of education, if you look on their education website, you will see an image of guidance to Church of England teachers which is really, frankly, the most explicitly politically partisan guidance that we’ve come across.

“There are images of upraised fists, there’s directions to amplify black voices in the classroom, which frankly I think is really unthinking, because that could be really patronising. I would really hate to think people listen to me because of my skin colour, rather than the efforts and the work that I put into my work and profession.”

Revd Canon Genders said: “There’s not one set of resources that every school uses. “We leave it to the professionals in their local context to be able to decide that but we really are keen that this whole question doesn’t get kind of obfuscated by getting into a technical discussion about which resources and which is the source of different theories.”

He added: “We are driven by our identity in Christ and that desire to really teach that all people are equal in the eyes of God and we want to make sure that everyone has that equal opportunity and we’ll continue to develop resources we are passionate about developing.”

6 comments:

  1. Typical Daily Torygraph and typical Gene Vincent; a heavily slanted and rather dishonest story - in particular, the White Supremacy Pyramid - which Gene has not bothered to look at, naturally - which is here presented as some sort of political policy, which it is emphatically not.

    And typical Gene - picking up any story with which he thinks he can sneer at the Church of England, the kind of story that feeds into his dishonest and nasty bigotry.

    Rather let us ask when Gene's "novel" "Granny Barkes fell in Woolworths" - which he says is "in publication" [sic] is going to be published.

    And typical Gene too in another respect - having once more had his shallow and ignorant grasp of epistemology, theology and logic exposed for the dishonest and nasty bigotry that it is, he rushes to post another unlovely slice of plagiarised crap to push his resounding humilation down the page.

    But then what can you expect from a bigot who arse-creeps a "priest" [sic] in the "Free Church of England" [sic] who allies himself with Ugandan Anglicans who advocate the execution of homosexuals? a man moreover who equates homosexuality with a penchant for mass genocidal murder, and who judges the buggering of small boys and the raping of little girls to be no worse a crime than parking on a double yellow line.

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    1. "And typical Gene too in another respect - having once more had his shallow and ignorant grasp of epistemology, theology and logic exposed for the dishonest and nasty bigotry that it is, he rushes to post another unlovely slice of plagiarised crap to push his resounding humilation down the page."

      Just how dishonest can you get Detterling. You have demonstrated that you have no grasp of Logic nor Epistemology but also that your Theology is non-existent. A man who can state that homosexuality is God-given or that Original Sin doesn't exist knows nothing of Theology.

      The great minds in history, St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, Pope Benedict XVI et al are all wrong and Detterling is right? Have you no shame Detterling?

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    2. "A man who can state that homosexuality is God-given or that Original Sin doesn't exist knows nothing of Theology."

      In which case, demonstrate, from SCRIPTURAL FIRST PRINCIPLES ONLY , the falsity of both these propositions.

      You can't - had you been able to do so, then you would have done so on the dozen or so occasions that I have challenged you to do this.

      As for Augustine, Aquinas, Ratzinger, your argumentum ad authoritorium does not impress, as the first two of them never offered a theology of homosexuality, nor did they prove the existence of original sin from scriptural first principles. This is because there is no scriptural basis for the existence of original sin beyond the creation myths of Genesis - on which authority we ought, by your reasoning, to accept the story of Adam's rib and all the rest of that fable.

      Nor is it a question of my claiming to be right or that St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, Pope Benedict XVI et al are wrong - my beliefs are based in scripture, not on what other minds, great as they may be, have taken scripture to mean. They are entitled to believe what they wish, just as I am, no-one can tell me otherwise. That is all the theology I need.

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  2. In the meantime, let us savour a further extract from the hog-whimperingly dreadful "Gene Vincent - close up on a phenomenon", that literary wankfest in which Robert Willoughby Kennedy achieves the impossible and smothers his own arsehole in kisses.

    "GENE: Well, what can I say? Of course James Joyce is a big influence on my work. I feel flattered that so many have detected this.
    LIBBY: Can you remember your first attempts at writing?
    GENE: As a matter of fact I can. I have been going through some of my juvenalia in recent weeks.

    SEARCHING FOR FLYING SAUCERS 'On Saturday me and my friend Brian Basil Keneally went out to search for flying saucers. We walked along the towpath of the Grand Union Canal and crossed over the footbridge and up to the big high fields in the direction of Hillingdon. We looked right in the sky and we looked left in the sky but we saw no flying saucers. Then we climbed up the bank of the first high field. Then Brian shouted. "Look up in the sky at the top of the field." We saw three flying saucers flying down low. The landed at the top of the field and just stayed there shaking a bit with lights flashing. Then they flew off into the sky over Uxbridge.'

    This second piece is the first verse of a poem I wrote to my first girlfriend. I was in Second Year (Year 8) at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in Holland Park and she was in the First Year (Year 7) at the nearby Sacred Heart Convent in Hammersmith. Her name was Isabelle and she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.

    Isabelle
    I think, I think, that she's the mostest of the lot
    And furthermore she is the only chick I got

    LIBBY: How charming Gene. Wonderful!
    GENE: Sadly not all my writing attempts were wonderful. I wrote my first novel when I was at Oxford. I was about nineteen or twenty. It was entitled Solomon's Portico. It was awful.
    LIBBY: Oh now I'm sure it wasn't that bad. You are just being modest.
    GENE: Libby it was awful. Toe-curlingly, embarrassingly awful. Absolutely pretentious. Thank God nobody will ever read it as I incinerated it.
    LIBBY; You were born here in Uxbridge?
    GENE: Yes, born in Uxbridge in 1957. My earliest memories are of the winding streets and alleyways of the old town centre. My mother was a librarian and worked firstly at Eastcote Library (funnily I passed it just the other day. It's been extensively refurbished) and then at Uxbridge Library in the High Street. She was passionate about education and established a library outreach to travelling children in the late 50s and early 60s. In those days there were quite a number of travellers' camps on waste land and heath land in nearby Cowley and in Iver and Iver Heath.

    LIBBY: Perhaps this was the genesis of your own passion for education Gene?
    GENE: Well, yes indeed.
    LIBBY: How about your father Gene? I seem to remember reading that he was in the RAF?
    GENE: Yes he served as a pilot in WWII. He was staioned in Northern Ireland at St Angelo air field near the border with County Donegal. In August 1943, Coastal Command took over St Angelo Airfield and it became a satellite of the Catalina and Sunderland flying boat base at Killadeas further north on Lough Erne. St Angelo Airfield became the home for Royal Airforce 235 Squadron in October 1943 and they flew the long range torpedo bomber, the Beaufighter, in the ceaseless war against the U-Boat packs who were harrying the convoys fighting their way across the Atlantic with desperately needed supplies.
    Funnily enough I have been thinking a lot about my father in the past couple of days. Triggered by this gay marriage (sic) debate. Was this what my father and his comrades fought for? A Britain where a man can 'marry' another man? No way Jose! My father, God rest his soul, a devout Catholic, would turn in his grave if he knew this was happening.
    LIBBY: Yes I sympathize Gene. It's hard to believe this is happening."

    Christ. Just Christ. Is Gene a fucking awful writer or isn't it?

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    1. "Funnily enough I have been thinking a lot about my father in the past couple of days. Triggered by this gay marriage (sic) debate. Was this what my father and his comrades fought for? A Britain where a man can 'marry' another man? No way Jose! My father, God rest his soul, a devout Catholic, would turn in his grave if he knew this was happening."

      INDEED!!! Just what would my father and his brave RAF companions make of the RAF providing a 'fly past' to honour (sic) Gay Pride?

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    2. Having actually risked his life to defend freedom - which is more than his lazy, posturing ponce of a son has ever done - I daresay that your father would have thought that the freedom to express one's sexuality was something worth fighting for, After all, the enemy he had fought had vowed to exterminate homosexuals - which must mean that your father had fought for their rights.

      And I think that he would have been disgusted and appalled by his son - a bigoted, chauvinist cunt who thought that buggering small boys and raping little girls was no worse than parking on a double yellow line.

      Savour that, and bite on that, bastard.

      Your father would have been ashamed of his younger son. What a horrible thought to try to live down.

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