Open Letter regarding Rev Dr Bernard Randall

It was unsettling to read Jonathan Ames’s article School reported chaplain to terror watchdog after sermon on sexuality, but not surprising.

Mainstream culture, including that of many schools, has moved from being indifferent to Christianity – seeing it as outdated or irrelevant – to now seeing aspects of it as damaging and even dangerous. Admitting to being a Bible believing Christian is hard for an educator, especially when accusations of holding ‘ideologies that want to close minds or narrow opportunity’ abound, and ‘muscular liberalism’ is promoted by Ofsted.  

The Bible teaches that all people are made in the image of God and worthy of respect and love, and preservation of dignity is the aim of the whole anti-discrimination project, comprehensively confirmed in Law through The Equality Act (of which religion is a protected characteristic). There is, wonderfully, now a requirement for schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. In theory. 

In practice, it does appear that some characteristics are more tolerable than others. Christian views are not being tolerated or respected in the name of ‘tolerance’ and ‘respect’. Christian teachers are being excluded in the name of ‘inclusion’.

Dr Randall’s sermon was not persuading children to alter their stance on LGBT issues. It was suggesting that if, (through religious conviction or other reasoning), there was a disconnect between their own stance and the position of the group delivering training, that there is freedom to disagree.

That some progressive ideas are too fragile even to be questioned is revealing. It is deeply concerning that children are being compelled to think in a certain way, with no freedom to express curiosity or respectfully dissent. This is indoctrination, not education.