Gateshead Re-visited March 2006

(Dispatches: The New Fundamentalists – Channel Four, 8.00pm, Monday, 6 March 2006)

On 6 March 2006, Rod Liddle and Channel Four visited ‘Kensington Gate Temple’ and three Reg Vardy Academies, Trinity Academy in Doncaster, Kings Academy in Middlesborough and Emmanuel College Gateshead. The purpose? To ask why Evangelical Christianity is growing. Are people looking for moral anchors? Church leaders, school staff and children were interviewed, including the Vardy School’s co-ordinator, Nigel McQuoid.

Rod Liddle found it hard to believe that people should believe in the Bible these days – words written 2000 years ago. (Yet Rod Liddle is of Anglican background).

Liddle did his best to find disaffected teachers – he found two – and two disaffected students - what is surprising is that there were not more, given the way many teenage children feel about school these days. But there was a lot on the positive side about their schools that was surprising to Rod Liddle.

For Liddle, faith is seen to be versus science – while others see both Christianity and evolution as faith positions.

The programme’s advertising in the Radio Times told us of Liddle’s intentions in the programme: “Today, religious fundamentalism is an ethos usually associated with Islam, but journalist Rod Liddle challenges this belief in a polemical documentary. He examines the extreme principles held by some Evangelical Christians, such as the denunciation of homosexuality and sex outside of marriage, and unquestioning acceptance of creationism. Evangelical Christianity and its literal interpretation of the Bible is on the increase, but does its growing influence clash with Britain’s typically liberal values?”

Here is a quote from a critique of Rod Liddle’s presentation found on John Ray’s Diary. It is by Rupert Kaye, the Chief Executive of the Association of Christian teachers (ACT).

“Poor Mr Liddle! He could hardly believe his ears when he heard someone telling teenagers that the only way to be 100% sure of preventing pregnancy and protecting themselves from catching a sexually transmitted infection is to abstain from sexual intercourse. So, imagine his surprise – and obvious discomfort – when an evangelical Christian said that God's pattern for human sexuality is faithfulness within monogamous marriage and celibacy for everyone not married. For Mr Liddle, this stance was clearly a bridge too far. (Perhaps he knows lots of parents who advocate 'sleeping around' to their teenagers. Perhaps he sees promiscuity as one of our country's proud liberal democratic traditions. Who knows?)”

Rupert Kaye remarks, “Rod Liddle's thesis went something like this: the growing impact of evangelicalism (my word) /fundamentalism (his word) on the educational experiences of pupils in UK schools is a threat to the country's liberal democratic traditions.”

Rod Liddle’s exploration into Christian teaching in three of the government’s new academies indicates how important is the issue of belief in creation or evolution.

Christian values differ greatly from liberal secular values. The latter lead us to say “I am my own person to do what I want while I live in this world”.

But what are the social consequences of adopting these secular values? Rupert Kaye’s statement with regard to Rod Liddle’s disbelief in the teaching of no sex before marriage was followed a couple of months later with an article in the NEWS section of The Times of the 22 May 06, which gave a report on Social affairs by the correspondent, Alexandra Frean. The report was titled, “Children as young as 12 feel the pressure to have sex.”

The information from the charity Childline, which has merged with the NSPCC, showed that it was all down to peer pressure with most children of that age, who lack the knowledge or the confidence to refuse or to keep themselves safe.

The ChildLine report was based on 5,843 calls ChildLine had received from children about pregnancy in 2005. Three quarters of the callers were under the age of 15 with most being girls. The ChildLine Director said that, “callers to the charity spoke of lives in which sex and alcohol were far more readily available than information on how to deal with them.”

Although they are shown in biology classes how to use contraception, there is confusion about ‘safe sex,’ its expense, the health risks of taking the Pill, or just plain how to go about it. The Director of ChildLine, Anne Houston, believes that the children who called ChildLine were representative of the population.

The report considered that the current laws on personal, social and health education in schools are confusing. Schools are only required by law to teach the biological aspects of sex and sexually transmitted infections. Since these are often covered in science lessons anyway, the aspect of relationships and the choices young people make with the possible risks (STD and of pregnancy), are not statutory requirements.

The article reported that, “rather than wait until they are emotionally prepared for sex, youngsters are turning to alcohol to get them through the ordeal. Most are too embarrassed, confused, drunk or ill-informed to think about the risks of pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, so contraception is barely even considered, a report from the charity says.”

One must ask, is Rod Liddle’s opposition to biblical principles related to the subject of sexual promiscuity and its social consequences? Is he not concerned with the rest of the nation that, “The UK has the highest teenage birth rates in Western Europe - twice as high as in Germany, three times as high as in France and six times as high as in the Netherlands.” The result is that many single parents begin adult life disadvantaged economically, and find themselves dependent on parents or/and dependent on the state.

Why would Rod Liddle feel comfortable about teenagers experimenting with sex and risking becoming pregnant before they are ready to stand on their own feet economically? And, does he approve of the right of schools not to inform parents of a child’s right to abortion? There are parents who go through that experience.

The Guardian (Saturday March 9, 2002) told us that, “Emmanuel College in Gateshead is oversubscribed, with three children applying for every place. Parents are impressed by its excellent Ofsted reports and good results. The achievements of this city technology college have rightly been acknowledged by the Labour government and it has won beacon status.”

One can only conclude that Rod Liddle’s liberal values have no sympathy with the many parents who place their children on the long waiting lists for schools that have the same reputation as Emmanuel College, Gateshead.

Revised 18/03/07