Benham Brothers: Satan Is Behind Attacks Against Traditional Marriage

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Benham Brothers: Satan Is Behind Attacks Against Traditional Marriage

Christian Post report– David and Jason Benham, the twin brothers who were fired from an HGTV reality show because of their vocal opposition to gay marriage, have said that Satan is behind the attacks against traditional marriage.

Speaking to the socially conservative group American Family Association last week, the Benham brothers talked about the attacks Satan is inflicting on American institutions.

“America has systemically removed God from society, starting in the public schools. He’s been removed from business; he’s been removed from every vestige of society,” said David Benham.

“Do we have any inclination that he’s not going to be removed from one of the three institutions that was in working order before sin entered the world — work, Sabbath and marriage? Those three things God set in place before sin entered the world; Satan is coming after all of them.”

Later in the program, Jason Benham explained that God made man and woman “a perfect physical picture of what happens in the spirit.”

“It’s the same thing that happens in physical intimacy between a man and a woman, and Satan is a big phony, he’s a big counterfeit,” Jason continued.

“He’s always going to attack sex because the goal of sex is life — it’s life in your marriage, it’s physical life with children, it’s offspring. And the devil is making war against the offspring of the woman, which means that the devil hates life.”

Last year, the Benham brothers garnered national attention when their planned HGTV reality television series was canceled before the first episode ever aired after LGBT activists protested against the network for allowing anyone who opposes same-sex marriage to be featured on TV.

Not long after the HGTV cancellation, SunTrust Bank also attempted to sever business ties with the Benham family; however, the bank backtracked in response to conservative outcry.

In a statement, SunTrust spokeswoman Beth McKenna said: “We clarified our policies with our vendor and they have reinstated the listings with Benham Real Estate.”

“While we do not publicly comment on specific vendor relationships, we don’t make choices on suppliers nor base business decisions on political factors, nor do we direct our third party vendors to do so.”

Since the controversy, the Benham brothers have made the rounds in conservative circles and released a book earlier this month titled Whatever the Cost.

“This book follows the story of highly motivated and entrepreneurial twin brothers, David and Jason Benham, from their formative years and ventures into professional baseball to their rise as owners of a multi-million dollar business empire and securing an HGTV reality series,” reads the book’s description on Amazon.

“It’s a journey where the brothers learned how they must die to their dreams not just once, but twice as they walked away from baseball before being called up to the Big Show and later as their TV series was stripped away from them just before airing when the network succumbed to media pressures surrounding their faith.”

Source: Christian Post

 

Obama Needs to Acknowledge Radical Islam and Act Fast, Says Robert Jeffress

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Obama Needs to Acknowledge Radical Islam and Act Fast, Says Robert Jeffress

Christian Post report– Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, joined Father Gerald Murray of New York on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” Tuesday night to encourage Americans of all faiths to contact the White House and demand that the Obama administration call out radical Islam and take action to defeat the Islamic State terrorist organization.

“This is a part of a disturbing pattern,” Jeffress said when asked by Bill O’Reilly what he made of Obama’s initial refusal to call the ISIS beheading victims Coptic Christians [until he publically acknowledged that the 21 Egyptian men were Christians and not just “citizens” in a Wednesday LA Times op-ed].

Jeffress continued, “This president is continually lecturing us that we’re not in a religious war against Islam, and while that’s true, it’s time for the president to get off of his high horse and acknowledge that radical Islam is in a religious war against us. Until we understand that, we won’t understand where this is headed.”

“These Islamists will not rest until they’ve exterminated every Jew and every Christian from the face of the earth,” he asserted. “And if you think that is hyperbole, listen to what they said on that Libyan beach after they butchered those 21 Christians. They said, ‘We are headed to Rome next,’ and while Rome may be their next stop, I guarantee you it won’t be their final stop. They are coming after every one of us as well if we don’t stop them now.”

After O’Reilly reviewed many of the president’s previous comments about ISIS, the host noted that Obama has been “downplaying” the threat, and asked Jeffress why he would do such a thing.

“Well, I think part of it is the influence of Islam on his own life. He sees radical Islam as a tiny minority, and while that’s true, a powerful minority is much more potent than a passive majority, and I just don’t think he can acknowledge this branch of Islam, and I think he’s taking the Neville Chamberlain approach — if we can contain or ignore this threat, it will go away. This is not going away,” Jeffress responded.

Jeffress is not the only one comparing Obama to Chamberlain. U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.), made the assessment after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called “the Winston Churchill of our day.”

“Benjamin Netanyahu is the Winston Churchill of our day, warning the world about Iran,” Pittenger told reporters. “President Obama is the Neville Chamberlain of our day, in seemingly total denial of the enormous risk and … (how vulnerable) we are to their nuclear capabilities.”

Jeffress also noted that he believes in the prophecies of the Bible and that things will indeed get worse before they get better and before the Lord returns but issued a dire warning.

“That is no excuse for fatalism,” the pastor said. “And I believe that Christians ought to be on the forefront of fighting this evil, and this is unmitigated evil … burning people alive … and that is why tonight, I am calling on Christians everywhere, Catholics and Protestants together, to join with our Jewish friends and demand that this president do whatever is necessary, including boots on the ground, to eradicate this cancer of ISIS and radical Islam before it destroys us.”

O’Reilly adamantly agreed and urged viewers to call and contact the White House to make moves against ISIS. He said he would make a call for every cleric next weekend to address this in their congregations and to say “enough” and to tell Obama to “get in gear.”

“We’re with you, Bill,” Jeffress said.

Source: Christian Post

Faith in Politics: Why the Bishops Have got it Right

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Faith in Politics: Why the Bishops Have got it Right

Christian Today report– The Times newspaper has called for the Church of England to stay out of politics after the publication of the bishops’ letter urging involvement in this May’s General Election, saying that’s not what bishops are for.

While at 52 pages I’m not sure I’d describe it as a letter, this is just the sort of thing church leaders should be doing.

I don’t agree with everything the bishops have to say, but then I don’t necessarily agree with everything those in my own church or even my family think about politics. Where I am passionately in tune with my Anglican brothers, and now sister, is that politics is too important to be left to the politicians. It is something where we all have to get involved. And we need to lift our eyes and recapture a vision for what our communities and our country can become.

Too often talk of how evangelical Christians engage in politics suffers from importing assumptions from the United States. It conjures up images of everyone voting for the same party based on a small number of issues of key concern. A couple of years ago the Theos theological think-tank looked into this and found that the prospect of a religious right emerging in the UK was pretty slim, despite what the media might sometimes want to suggest. In fact, it concluded: “While it is not impossible that a co-ordinated religious right evolves in Britain, it hasn’t done so to date and would, if it did materialise, look rather different from the US version.”

The response to the bishops’ letter is certainly not suggesting that the Church of England is turning into some sort of religious right. In fact, it’s been accused of being too left wing and has promptly been slammed by various Conservative politicians (some of whom confessed to not having read it).

Church services in the UK and the US might look similar, we might sing the same worship songs and read the same authors, but when it comes to politics we’re really very different. New research out from the Evangelical Alliance this week shows that UK Christians don’t just vote for one party, and the issues they care about are very distinctive to the general population.

The Faith in politics? report shows that evangelical Christians are doing exactly what the bishops are calling for: they are engaging in politics. Four out of five are certain to vote in May and many, many more than the national average have contacted their MPs, joined a campaign or got involved in a political party. It’s clear we’re taking up the call to show up and engage in politics, and that’s a good thing because politics is in need of all the help it can get. Half of evangelicals are less likely to believe what politicians say than five years ago and even more have less trust in the government. It might be surprising given these findings that interest in politics and an awareness of how to get involved has increased.

The hot-button issues for evangelicals in this country cover some ground that would be familiar in the States, and some that would probably be alien. When it comes to deciding how to vote, protecting religious liberty comes at the top but next up is tackling poverty in the UK, and then come human trafficking, same-sex marriage and euthanasia rounding off the top five. Even when evangelicals agree on the issues that matter – and well over two thirds say protecting religious liberty would affect how they vote – they don’t back the same party, with evangelicals more or less reflecting the voting intention of the national population.

How politics and church mix is also different from across the Atlantic. Only two per cent had been explicitly encouraged to vote a certain way by their church leadership, and fewer than a third had heard direction from the pulpit on a particular policy issue. I don’t think it’s the place of pastors to give political backing to parties or candidates, but avoiding this shouldn’t mean silence in the sanctuary. The Christian faith is not restricted to the private ordering of beliefs or behaviours: it’s about the world we live in and the society we want our children and grandchildren to inherit. And that means politics is unavoidable.

I’m looking forward to more church leaders wading into politics over the coming months. There are issues Christians care about that need to be heard and congregations are determined to turn their disillusionment into political action. Instead of trying to dismiss their concerns, politicians have a chance to win their votes.

Source: Christian Today

 

Evangelical Pastor lost Denomination Support After Accepting LGBT members

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Evangelical Pastor lost Denomination Support After Accepting LGBT members

Christian Today report– A pastor in Oregon has lost the support and funding of the Evangelical Covenant Church because of his acceptance of LGBT persons as church members and leaders.

Rev. Adam Phillips founded Christ Church in Portland in 2013, and believed his acceptance of the LGBT community was allowed by the denomination. He found out earlier this month that it was not, The Huffington Post reports.

“There was a clear red line … in terms of performing gay marriages, and I was more than ready to uphold that,” he said in an interview.

But he also believed in “the invitation and welcome of gays and lesbians into full inclusion of the church, and that includes the invitation to marriage, or the invitation to celibacy.”

Phillips claimed that before and after he became ordained in 2007, he made the Church aware of his beliefs on the matter, and insisted that he was told “that the Covenant was a safe place for me to hold these personal convictions.”

“The Covenant assured me everything was OK, until it wasn’t,” he said in a video posted to the church’s website.

The 35-year-old received notice on February 4 that his church would no longer be supported by the Evangelical Covenant Church because of his “personal convictions and advocacy for the full inclusion and participation of LGBT Christians in the church at all levels of membership and leadership.”

Phillips said he was “heartbroken” that he and his church were no longer “Covenant-compatible.”

“I’ve been on a journey,” he explained. “I once believed that fully welcoming and including the LGBT community into our churches could not be reconciled with Christian teaching.

“These beliefs began to change, however, once I encountered good faithful Jesus followers who happened to be gay.”

The Evangelical Covenant Church is an evangelical Christian denomination with over 800 congregations across the US and Canada.

The Covenant Church maintains that a pastor’s personal beliefs “must never overshadow” the denomination’s policies.

An official Church resolution on human sexuality states: “A publicly declared, legally binding marriage between one woman and one man is the one appropriate place for sexual intercourse. Heterosexual marriage, faithfulness within marriage, abstinence outside of marriage—these constitute the Christian standard.”

The Church has not commented on Phillips’ case.

Source: Christian Today

Ukraine President Calls for UN Peacekeepers as Peace Deal Collapse

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Ukraine President Calls for UN Peacekeepers as Peace Deal Collapse

Christian Today report– Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has called for UN peacekeepers to be deployed to monitor a ceasefire in east Ukraine, a proposal that pro-Russian rebels swiftly said would be in breach of a peace deal.

At an emergency meeting late on Wednesday, Ukraine’s national security and defense council approved Poroshenko’s request, a clear sign of Ukraine’s concerns after pro-Russian rebels seized a town after a ceasefire took effect on Sunday.

“The best format for us is a police mission of the EU,” Poroshenko said according to a statement on his website.

“It will be the most efficient guarantor of security in the situation when the word of peace is not observed either by Russia or by those who are supported by it.”

Ukraine pulled thousands of troops out of the east Ukrainian town of Debaltseve on Wednesday after failing to stop an offensive by Moscow-backed rebels who said the railway hub was not part of last week’s ceasefire.

The rebels denounced Poroshenko’s call for peacekeepers, saying their presence would “violate” the ceasefire, negotiated in marathon talks by France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine in the Belarussian capital Minsk late last week.

“This is an actual violation of the package of measures to implement the Minsk agreement,” Denis Pushilin, a senior separatist figure, was quoted as saying by Russia’s RIA news agency.

“And so we have a very negative attitude to this. Moreover we are ready to address the heads of state who were guarantors that Ukraine would meet its commitments.”

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations was also quoted as saying that Poroshenko’s proposal put into doubt Ukraine’s resolve to fulfill the Minsk agreements.

Source: Christian Today

 

Hong Kong Cardinal Questions Chinese Authorities Over Death of Chinese Bishop

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Hong Kong Cardinal Questions Chinese Authorities Over Death of Chinese Bishop

Christian Today report– A Hong Kong Cardinal is seeking answers to the fate of a Chinese bishop who has been detained by Beijing for more than 60 years for refusing to denounce his Catholic faith.

According to Catholic news agency UCA News, Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of the Diocese of Hong Kong led members of the clergy to a protest on Saturday outside the Chinese government liaison office in Hong Kong, seeking official confirmation from Beijing on Bishop Cosma Shi Enxiang’s alleged death.

“The news of his death had been circulating for two weeks. The government should give us an answer. Is he really dead? When and where did it happen? Will they return the remains to his family?” Cardinal Zen demanded of the mainland government.

Bishop Cosma Shi Enxiang has been arrested by the Chinese government many times since 1954, and was sent to various labour camps and prisons for refusing to submit to religious oversight and denounce his loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church in Vatican.

He was arrested for the last time in 2001 and was not heard of again as he was detained in a secret location until his family received a call from government officials on January 31 announcing his death, although no details were given.

A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told UCA News that officials indeed approached Bishop Shi’s family in January and told them of the bishop’s death. However, other officials denied the news and claimed that they did not know the whereabouts of the bishop nor his current status.

The source also revealed to UCA News that the officials even claimed that the person who told Shi’s family of his death was “drunk,” and that the family were actually being approached to see if they could provide information about the bishop.

“Another (official) said the family had misunderstood, saying that the official approached the family to ask if they knew the recent situation of the bishop. Isn’t it ridiculous that the officials asked information from the family when it was the government who detained him?” the source said.

Source: Christian Today

India Communist Party Asked to Stop Using Images of Catholic Saints to Attract Votes

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India Communist Party Asked to Stop Using Images of Catholic Saints to Attract Votes

Christian Today report– An official from the Catholic Church in Alappuzha has asked the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to cease using the pictures of Indian Catholic saints in an apparent bid to gain votes in the Kerala region.

According to the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), the CPI-M has decorated several roads to Alappuzha in bright red colours and the pictures of two Indian Catholic saints in preparation for their annual state party conference.

IANS reported that the image of India’s first Catholic saint, Saint Alphonsa, had been placed near a church in Aroor, Alappuzha together with recently canonised saint Father Kuriakose.

The usage of the image was not taken positively by the Syro Malabar Catholic Church.

“If this (putting pictures) is a move to get a few votes by the CPI-M, then it would be a hypocritical move,” the Church said through its spokesman, Paul Thelekkat.

Thelekkat also urged the Communist Party to take to heart the teachings of the two saints and learn lessons from them, instead of using the images in a political context.

Senior legislator for the CPI-M Raju Abraham denied the hypocrisy stating that they are only going to have a state party conference and “not an election.”

“We have done this in the past too and nothing more needs to be seen into this,” Abraham told IANS.

Thelekkat, however, noted the improvement in the Communist Party’s policies towards religion. The spokesperson for the Syro Malabar Catholic Church then compared the party with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, stating that the BJP should “evolve in a similar manner.”

The BJP is noted for its hard-line, pro-Hindu stance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been criticised for his lack of action in the wake of radical attacks on Christian churches across India, although the Prime Minister recently spoke to Christians during a gathering to celebrate the canonisation of Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Mother Euphrasia at Vigyan Bhawan, and said that his government will “ensure that there is complete freedom of faith.”

Source: Christian Today

Presbyterian Church (USA) Battles Over Redefining Marriage to Include Same-Sex Couples

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Presbyterian Church (USA) Battles Over Redefining Marriage to Include Same-Sex Couples

Christian Post report– An amendment to the rules of the United States’ largest Presbyterian denomination to recognize gay marriage has gained considerable support in its regional bodies, with 51 of 172 presbyteries already voting in favor of redefining marriage to include same-sex couples. The denomination’s remaining presbyteries having until June to cast their votes to make the final decision.

Over the weekend several presbyteries belonging to Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to approve Amendment 14-F, which would change the denomination’s definition of marriage to include same-sex couples.

By the end of St. Valentine’s Day weekend, the count of presbyteries in favor of the Amendment stands at 51, the number opposed, 23.

“This overt departure from the clear teaching of the Scriptures is tragic, but not surprising,” said Carmen Fowler LaBerge, president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, a theologically conservative group, who expects the amendment to pass.

“The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been actively undermining her own theological foundations for generations. This vote is simply the result of a hundred years of progressive deviation from the Truth,” LaBerge told The Christian Post.

Last June, at the PCUSA General Assembly held in Detroit, Michigan, a majority of delegates voted in favor of a recommendation to amend the denomination’s Book of Order regarding marriage definition.

Currently, the Book of Order defines marriage as being between “a man and a woman;” the new language would remove the gender specific terminology, replacing it with “two people, traditionally a man and a woman.”

“A proposed amendment to change the constitution to include same-gender marriages in the church’s constitution passed the General Assembly but must be ratified by a majority of the church’s 172 regional presbyteries,” explained PCUSA in a FAQ document.

“Presbyteries have one year to vote on the proposed amendment. If a majority ratifies the amendment, it would take effect June 21, 2015.”

This is not the first time that PCUSA has garnered headlines on its internal debate over homosexuality and the Church.

In 2010, the PCUSA General Assembly approved Amendment 10a, a measure that allowed for presbyteries to ordain noncelibate homosexuals.

In response to the passage of the amendment, scores of congregations have voted to disaffiliate from the mainline denomination.

Many of these departing churches came together in 2012 and formed the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, which presently boasts over 180 member congregations.

When asked by CP about whether or not she believes more will leave should Amendment 14-F pass, LaBerge replied that it was likely but will become more challenging due to increased efforts by regional bodies to keep churches in PCUSA.

“As more and more Presbyterians in the pews wake up to the reality that their denomination has abandoned the Bible in exchange for the accommodation of sexual immorality, many of them will leave,” said LaBerge.

“They will either leave individually or they will seek to leave corporately as a congregation. But we are seeing presbyteries constrict the ability of congregations to leave, so many will wake up too late to escape.”

Source: Christian Post

 

World Vision Denounce Criticism on Christian Zionism by Its Vice-President Steve Haas

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World Vision Denounce Criticism on Christian Zionism by Its Vice-President Steve Haas

Christian Today report– World Vision has dramatically distanced itself from an article by its vice-president criticising Christian Zionism.

Steve Haas wrote All of Me: Engaging the World of Poverty and Injustice for the Lausanne Movement’s website. The paper deals with Christian engagement in issues of poverty and injustice and uses examples from Rwanda, HIV/Aids and Palestine.

Haas said that many evangelicals for more than 60 years had “clung to a very narrow theological narrative that weds Christian theology with a political ideology known as Zionism”. He added that “This theological position has backed the largest and longest occupation of another people group in modern history, an oppressive Israeli legal system which [Archbishop Desmond] Tutu and many other church leaders have called ‘apartheid on steroids’.”

The paper was savaged by pro-Israeli commentators including Robert Stearns, director of Eagles’ Wings, who wrote for the Jerusalem Post that the article was an example of “the toxic mix of lies, ignorance, and half-truths that drive the global movement to delegitimise Israel. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre accused Haas of making comments that “that malign Israel and undermine her very right to exist”.

Now World Vision has issued a statement saying that the paper “does not accurately reflect World Vision’s position and views toward the State of Israel and the Palestinian people and was published without proper World Vision approvals”. The organisation is “concerned about the conclusions drawn from the article by some readers”, it said.

World Vision says that “broad statements such as those in the Lausanne piece oversimplify issues at hand, limit meaningful dialogue, and harden staunch perspectives toward the conflict”. The comments about Christian Zionism in the article were “unhelpfully simplified and combative” and “limit meaningful dialogue between people who care about peace in the region”.

It also indicates a withdrawal of its endorsement of the film “With God on Our Side”, to which Haas does not refer. The film has been criticised for being anti-Israeli. World Vision’s statement says: “While it does a good job of illustrating the plight of Palestinian children and families, the film should have done a better job in presenting the Israeli perspective. It is important that both sides of the conflict be understood and presented.”

While the statement is critical of Haas’ comments on Christian Zionism, it reiterates the core of his arguments in All of Me, saying: “We also believe that sustainable peace cannot be fully realised under the realities of military occupation, as it is a key contributor to poverty in the Palestinian territories and a source of fear and oppression for people there.”

It says that “all Israeli and Palestinian children have the right to live in safety, free from violence, fear and want”, and while it affirms the right of Israel to exist it says: “We also acknowledge the historic connection of Palestinians to the land and affirm a political solution that recognises the right of the Palestinian people to have a state of their own.”

The announcement was described by the chief executive of UK-based charity Embrace the Middle East as “deeply puzzling”. Jeremy Moodey told Christian Today: “In now adopting what it presents as a more even-handed and neutral approach, World Vision is effectively retreating from its long-standing position of bias towards supporting Palestinian demands for justice and an end to occupation.

“This position, which was endorsed by senior World Vision executives and not just Steve Haas, was reflected in several high profile advocacy campaigns which attracted significant criticism from Israel’s supporters. These campaigns seemed to acknowledge the massive asymmetry of power in the Israel/Palestine dispute and challenged the constant abuses of that power by Israel, whether in Gaza or through the illegal military detention and mistreatment of Palestinian children from the West Bank.

“One can only speculate as to the cause of such a disappointing volte-face, but perhaps worries about losing support from American evangelical donors were a factor.”

The controversy represents the second time World Vision has been forced to back down in the face of an adverse reaction from evangelicals. Last year it performed a U-turn after announcing that it would accept same-sex marriage among employees. A backlash from conservatives threatened to deprive it of much of its support base and of large amounts of revenue.

Source: Christian Today

 

Catholic Groups Reject MP’s Call for Sex Education Programme from Age of Five

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Catholic Groups Reject MP’s Call for Sex Education Programme from Age of Five

Catholic Herald report– Catholic groups in Britain have criticised MPs for demanding that children as young as five be given sex education lessons.

Responding to the Education Select Committee report Life Lessons: PSHE and SRE in schools, Antonia Tully of SPUC’s Safe at School campaign said: “Parents constantly find themselves having to battle with schools in order to protect their children from inappropriate sex education. The recommendation from the Education Committee that parents can continue to withdraw their children from sex education isn’t addressing this problem.”

She added that new guidelines weren’t needed.

“We already have guidelines for schools which repeatedly stress that parents must be involved,” she said. “What is missing is a robust mechanism to ensure that schools really do engage with parents. Parents are the primary educators of their children, they are natural sex educators of their children and they are the experts on their own children.”

In a statement the Catholic Education Service, which acts on behalf of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, said: “Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) is essential for young people to learn about the nature of marriage, family life and relationships, taught in an age-appropriate way. In Catholic schools RSE must be taught in the context of Church teaching and with the full consultation and involvement of parents.”

The CES submitted written evidence to the Education Select Committee inquiry on PSHE and SRE and representatives were called to give oral evidence.

In its statement the CES said: “We welcome the Committee’s support for the role of parents in RSE. This is shown in their recommendations that all schools should be required to run a regular consultation with parents on the school’s RSE provision and that the parental right to withdraw their child from elements of RSE should be retained.”

The CES added that schools should be able to decide which resources are appropriate.

Sarah Carter, a trustee of the Family Education Trust and the trust’s nominated spokeswoman at the Education Committee’s evidence session, said: “There have been serious concerns raised over the appropriateness of the resources for teaching SRE that are being endorsed by the Education Committee’s recommendation.

“The Committee’s report supports the right of parents to be consulted and to withdraw their child from ‘elements’ of SRE. However, actively promoting classroom resources published by Brook, Sex Education Forum and PSHE Association to schools and governors will undermine the wishes of the parents in favour of so-called experts.

“Most of the components of PSHE are the primary responsibility of parents and by placing the subject on a statutory footing there would be a very real danger that parents would consider themselves less responsible for these aspects of their child’s physical, emotional and social development.

Catholic former headmaster Eric Hester questioned the need for government interference.

He said: “I was for 24 years a headmaster of schools – comprehensive and independent grammar. In addition, I led the inspection of over 50 independent schools and wrote the reports. Why are the independent schools so good on this matter as on everything else? The reason is obvious: the independent schools are not controlled by the politicians but by the parents.

“If parents do not like the sex education in an independent school they can withdraw their children, not just from sex classes, but from the school: they can take their children elsewhere. If parents in the state sector had the same choice of school, then education would improve at once.”

Source: Catholic Herald

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