Stonewall: Political & Attacking Christian Values

Society is changing under the influence of a highly organised and well connected lobby who are promoting homosexuality as the benchmark of a fair progressive society.

Parents expect school to provide an education for their children, but would they accept their children being subjected gay propaganda? My experience is that even very progressive parents baulk at the idea of their children being subjected to detailed accounts of homosexuality as normative. And this is understandable on many levels. Homosexuality is not normative and has been consistently condemned throughout history by cultures all over the world.

If you think there's nothing to be worried about, perhaps a first hand account of what it is to be homosexual might enlighten you, if you have the stomach.

However, the Catholic Education Service seem to think the best way to deal with this aggressive attack on the family and, let's face it, objective reality, is to get into bed with one of the most aggressive advocates of this agenda, Stonewall.

Banned pseudo Catholic group New Ways Ministry have an interesting perspective on the CES guidelines which they have posted here.

Bear in mind that Francis Cardinal George stated the following about New Ways Ministry in 2010:

‘I wish to make it clear that, like other groups that claim to be Catholic but deny central aspects of Church teaching, New Ways Ministry has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church and that they cannot speak on behalf of the Catholic faithful in the United States.

‘No one should be misled by the claim that New Ways Ministry provides an authentic interpretation of Catholic teaching and an authentic Catholic pastoral practice. Their claim to be Catholic only confuses the faithful regarding the authentic teaching and ministry of the Church with respect to persons with a homosexual inclination’.

See:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/new_ways_ministry_not_approved_by_catholic_church_cardinal_george_states/

You will note the comment under the piece from Terence Weldon (I've screen shot it in case the significance of these comments inspires anyone to remove it):

Here is a transcript of the above comments along with my emphasis in bold and comments in dark blue:

“As one who has (twice) participated in Stonewall training to combat HBT (homophobic/biphobic/transphobic) bullying in English schools, I can confirm that much of this material (of Made in God’s Image) is not just “similar” to the Stonewall material – it’s identical to some of what was used in Stonewall’s own training. Other material consists of direct quotes from Stonewall publications in the public domain. 

The desire to combat bullying is in fact clearly required by Catholic teaching, which insists on the obligation to oppose “violence or malice, whether in speech or in action”. It is for this reason that Quest (the British association for LGBT Catholics) has partnered with Stonewall to deliver their well-established training to Catholic schools, funded by the UK government Department of Education. [So is this where the funding referred to by the CES has come from?] What is helpful in this document from the Bishops, [It is from the CES, but of course for Weldon to claim it is from the bishops is to add authenticity to his position which doesn't actually exist. In fact, it has already been rejected by a number of diocese as it is not faithful to Catholic anthropology] is that it provides useful faith-based material which will be helpful in adapting the standard Stonewall material, to make it more directly relevant to Catholic schools. [As CC Father remarked to me, the idea that this is Catholic is ridiculous, as is event to anyone giving the document even the most perfunctory of readings. Yes, it has been baptised by the addition of a few paragraphs of Catholic doctrine, but they are incongruous and awkward in the context of the whole document.]

What I find particularly striking about this initiative, [this is the most shocking bit:] is that deliberately or not, the English bishops have in effect entered an informal partnership with Stonewall. Not long ago, there were widespread perceptions (on both sides of the divide) that Stonewall and the churches were necessarily in opposition to each other. From Stonewall’s side, under the leadership of the current CE Ruth Hunt, Stonewall is actively promoting alliances with faith-based LGBT groups. Now it seems that Catholic bishops too, are seeing value in Stonewall’s work to combat homophobia and bullying.”

Surely this should give the bishops huge cause for concern, if this is the perception this document gives? If this is how this is being represented?

Christians everywhere recognise how problematic & anti-Christian Stonewall's radical agenda is. This recent article in Christian Concern highlights many of the obvious problems. Every day Stonewall works to push an unmistakably political agenda. 

As with the martyrs in the early Church, today we are being asked to burn incense to the pagan gods. They are different gods these days, but the reality is precisely the same.

Perhaps a basic reminder of what Christians believe is necessary?

I have long believed our schools have a powerful role to play in evangelisation, but for some reason we seem utterly incapable of capitalising on the advantage they present.

It seems that if we will not use them to further our agenda of equal dignity for every human being, others will, and the political agenda they want to feed to our kids is far more poisonous than one that states every human being is made in the image and likeness of God.