Summary:
Simon James Green was due to address pupils at John Fisher School in the London borough of Croydon but the visit was cancelled by the local Catholic diocese
Last month a campaign by Christian homophobes, supported by a Muslim psychologist, succeeded in having Simon James Green, an award-winning British writer LGBT+ fiction, banned from addressing pupils at two Catholic schools.
According to Church Militant, Green intended discussing one of his books, Noah Can’t Even, which it claims is “blasphemous” and akin to “child porn.”
The book, it points out, contains a parody of The Lord’s Prayer.
Let us pray. Our Father, who art the gay boy? Noah be his name. He makes Harry come. He gives him one. On earth as it is in Heaven … And lead him straight into temptation. Right into a gay bar …
Church Militant explained that the decision to have Green banned was made by archbishop John Wilson, above, who is now being “smeared by the author and LGBT activists.”
The piece was written before teachers at one of the schools—John Fisher School in Croydon— voted overwhelmingly last week to go on strike to protest against Green’s banning.
Ninety percent of National Education Union members supported strike action on a 76 percent turnout, comfortably clearing the thresholds legally required for a strike.
The union said it would not:
Stand by and watch those who identify as LGBT+ be singled out for adverse and degrading treatment.
Green had been invited to visit John Fisher in March for a talk and book signing to commemorate World Book Day.
However, a few days beforehand, the Education Commission of Southwark Archdiocese published a statement saying it had recommended the school’s leadership cancel the visit, because it fell “outside the scope of what is permissible in a Catholic school”.
But the school’s leadership team and governing body voted to go ahead with the visit, prompting an intervention by the diocese, which cancelled the event and removed a number of governors.
In a letter to the sacked governors, the Education Commission of Southwark Archdiocese said the visit was “potentially offensive to parents, past pupils and wider members of the Catholic community” and had “brought the school, the Church and all its historic legacy into disrepute”.
The diocese’s intervention has caused turmoil at the school, with the local MP and a number of London councils raising concerns, parents launching a campaign to reinstate the governors and Ofsted undertaking a snap inspection.
The two unions represented at John Fisher—the NEU and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT)—have passed motions condemning the diocese’s actions.
Pauline Buchanan, the London regional secretary for the NEU, said:
The result of the ballot today shows that our members will not stand by and watch those who identify as LGBT+ be singled out for adverse and degrading treatment. We will continue to challenge this unfair and draconian decision and fight for respect for all.
Church Militant quoted “well-known Muslim psychologist” Dr. Kate Godfrey-Fausset, above, as saying that literature such as that written by Green:
Is primarily about sexualizing children and should raise multiple red flags regarding child protection issues.
Godfrey-Fausset, “a leading British campaigner against the LGBT+ indoctrination of children,” elaborated:
The content of these and similar books appears to be targeting young impressionable minds through sexual innuendos and descriptions that form sexual associations in the mind that will inevitably awaken, sexualize, and/or promote sexual curiosity and experimentation.
The fact that much of the sexual content and messaging is implied or subliminal makes it no less harmful. What is of extreme concern is that in the literature on child sexual abuse, exposing a child or young person to sexually suggestive material and/or talking to them about sexual matters is one of the key stages of grooming. It serves to normalize and desensitize the child or young person to sexual acts in preparation for the final abuse.
The editor of Catholic Truth added:
Hosting such an event where young people—in this case young boys—are being misled into accepting, as normal and good, sexual behaviour which is condemned by Christ’s Church is a major problem today.
The case of The John Fisher School in Surrey is not unique in that there are other instances where Catholic schools are failing in their mission, which is not to put the world to rights, but to pass on the Catholic Faith as it has been handed down to us from the Apostles.
The John Fisher School is not remotely achieving this key task—as even a passing glance at its scandalous “Transgender Policy” (would you believe it) reveals. Click here to read that “policy” but take a deep breath first …
It’s understood that the strike is due to take place over a three-week period starting on April 28, with teachers set to walk out for six days in total. The NEU intends holding a public meeting before its first day of strike action “to highlight this shocking behaviour.”
At the NEU’s annual conference in Bournemouth on Tuesday, delegates said the cancellation of Green’s visit was a return to “Section 28 by stealth.”
Section 28 was the infamous law introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government which banned councils from “promotion of homosexuality”. The law was in effect from 1988 to 2000 in Scotland, and until 2003 in England and Wales.
The Tories aren’t called “the nasty party” for nothing. Their latest Big Idea is to bundle asylum seekers off to Rwanda, a country known for “arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and torture in official and unofficial detention facilities,” according to Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
But in announcing this “unworkable, expensive and unethical” plan Prime Minister Boris (Partygate) Johnson lied when he claimed Rwanda is “one of the safest countries in the world” and “globally recognized for its record of welcoming and integrating migrants.” The plan will initially cost taxpayers $158 million.
The Old Kingdom of Rwanda, according to Wiki, was pretty tolerant of homosexuality—but societal acceptance quickly disappeared after the arrival of the European colonialists and Christianity.