Environment Agency drops ‘mother’ and ‘father’ from policies

Source: GOV UK

 

From Coalition for Marriage:

Dear marriage supporter,

The Environment Agency has removed the words ‘mother’ and ‘father’ from its staff policies.

The quango said it has instead started using “primary carer” in its maternity, paternity and shared parental leave policies to make them ‘gender-neutral’.

The revelations come in the agency’s 2020 application to LGBT lobby group Stonewall to be included in its list of “top 100 employers”, recently seen by the Times (£).

The agency also said it had told workers they can request “more than one passcard... in order to be able to express different identities on different days”.

A staff survey was also said to have asked employees to confirm whether their gender identity matched the “gender I was assigned at birth”.

The public sector agency added that it brought these ideas to bear on procurement, stating that for all relevant contracts, “we ask potential suppliers to submit details of their EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion] policy as part of their submission”. It is a fair bet the agency will be looking for similar transgender-friendly policies from its contractors and suppliers as it has introduced internally. If so, it is using public funds as leverage to spread contentious gender ideology among private companies.

The latest revelations add to a picture of the crucial differences between men and women being erased as gender ideology spreads unchecked through public and private institutions. What kind of twisted ideology is it that sees mother and father as problematic concepts to be expunged?

Taxpayer-funded institutions like the Environment Agency should not be wasting public money on trying to erase basic facts about human biology or spreading nonsense about people changing sex, perhaps depending on the day of the week!

Much more needs to be done to stop this absurd ideology from doing any more harm than it already has. At C4M, we continue to fight against anything which undermines real marriage.

If you would like to support us financially, you can do so using the button below.

Please Donate

Yours faithfully,

(Signed) Colin Hart

Chairman

Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

See also

 Environment Agency goes woke for Stonewall from The Christian Institute.

and 

'Stonewall still receiving £1.2m in taxpayer subsidies' {16 January 2023}

Diversity, equity and inclusion gone mad.

Lowlights: GB September 2023

Governing Body voting                                              Source: Church in Wales

The Church in Wales goes green is the main message to come out of the meeting of the Governing Body (GB) earlier this month.

Attendance may be in crisis but was not mentioned, apart from a brief reference to decline in one of the reports. That is despite the GB's guiding notes which state:

"Every year, a report on the current membership and finance statistics of the Church in Wales is presented to the meeting. This covers key information such as: church attendance, the level of financial giving towards the work of the church, details of what parishes are spending their money on."

Session Three was about 'Priorities, Growth and Resilience'. One of the items covered in discussion groups was "What stops us from growing?"

The Church in Wales, like the Church of England, The Episcopal Church in the US and others have become self-centred rather than God centred, using the name of Jesus as a passport to earthly desires. - Jesus loves me, therefore I do as I please.

The secularisation of the Church in Wales was made obvious by the archbishop of Wales when he commented on the recently announced 'historic appointments of Canons at Bangor Cathedral'. 

He said, "It is a real joy to be able to announce the appointment of eight new Canons to the Cathedral, five Honorary Canons and three Foundation Canons. .... Together they bring with them an enormous breadth of skills and experience to their new roles, enabling the Cathedral’s common life and witness to be a place where all can come and experience faith, hope and love. Each of these new Canons has been invited in recognition of the significant contribution they have made, and continue to make, within their field of expertise, and I invite you to join with me in praying for them as they take up their new positions and responsibilities."

The Canon Preacher's experience of the Anglican Church is short. He was ordained Deacon in 2021 after becoming an Anglican in 2020 but more importantly for the archbishop he becomes the "first gay, black Canon to serve in a Church in Wales Cathedral, a pioneering moment that highlights its commitment to diversity and inclusivity." 

Just the sort of experience the Church Wales has come to value above all else. But there is more.

'Glastonbury priest'         Sourcee: CinW

A new priest welcomed to the diocese of St Asaph by bishop Gregory is "part way through a professional doctorate exploring better ways for neo-Pagans and Christians to have open conversations about faith." 

 She should receive a good welcome from the Peace Mala while the Church in Wales struggles with its identity.

As the decline of the Church continues more senior executives are hired. The latest is a Director of Mission and Strategy on a salary of up to £70,000 p.a.

On the plus side, perhaps the archbishop of Wales feels better able to cope with his workload having sanctioned all these appointments. 

Last year he felt the need for someone to share the leadership of his Bangor diocese with while serving as Archbishop of Wales as if that were an onerous task. He appointed an assistant bishop who has since been appointed bishop of Llandaff with no replacement assistant bishop. Perhaps he discovered that he is not that busy after all being responsible for the souls of less than 1% of the population of Wales.

What about the souls of Anglicans in Wales? Pew sitters have been led astray by their bishops while others have simply been abandoned in the shift to secularism.

A timely reminder of the dire situation Anglicans in the Church in Wales find themselves comes from Bishop Stuart Bell a former Church in Wales priest who was ordained as an Assistant Bishop in The Anglican Convocation in Europe in March after serving in the Church in Wales for 51 years.

In an interview with Dr Tony Rucinski of Coalition for Marriage (C4M), Bishop Bell said the Church in Wales’ 2021 decision to bless same-sex partnerships was "hugely significant". He told Dr Rucinski that "substantial" numbers have left the Church in Wales, following its decision to turn its back on the Bible and go with contemporary culture.

He rebuffed claims the Church’s move was compassionate, saying: "Justice and compassion are not rootless, they are rooted within truth and they are rooted within Christ and they are rooted within an authority that is completely unchanging."

The Bishop warned that we are being seriously misled by people whose hearts are set on "anarchy and nihilism". That voice is growing stronger by the day and is being promoted at government level and  by the media, he said.

He urged Christians and traditional marriage supporters to be absolutely resolute in the face of LGBT activists’ attempts to push the country into a state of "total gender confusion and sexual confusion".

Full details of the Christian Institute interview can be found here. 

The response of the Church in Wales was: Clergy told to keep breakaway bishop at arm’s length. "No ministers affiliated with the Anglican Convocation in Europe should exercise ministry or leadership in a Church in Wales context, unless the explicit written permission of the appropriate Church in Wales diocesan bishop has been given."

That came as little surprise to the many Anglicans abandoned by the handful of heretic bishops in the Church in Wales for keeping the faith as received in common with millions of Anglicans around the world.

This is the legacy handed on by a former bishop of Bangor, later archbishop, Barry Morgan who decreed after the retirement of Bishop David Thomas that there would be further alternative Episcopal oversight 'over his dead body'.

Now in comfortable retirement Morgan's legacy lives on. He continues to meddle in Church affairs showing no shame for leaving so many faithful Anglicans who had been in his care in a spiritual desert, a situation perpetuated by the bench of bishops to this day to their utter shame.

 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IS ‘MASSIVE SOCIAL REENGINEERING’

From C4M

 Dear marriage supporter,

Redefining marriage to include same-sex couples constitutes a “massive reengineering of our social life” by the state, an influential Christian scholar has said.

Kevin DeYoung, a pastor, theologian and popular author, wrote that redefining marriage has a huge impact across swathes of areas because of the gender-neutral assumptions it enshrines. Same-sex marriage falsely assumes “the indistinguishability of gender in parenting, the relative unimportance of procreation in marriage, and the near infinite flexibility as to what sorts of structures and habits lead to human flourishing”.

Same-sex ‘marriage’ enshrines in law a “faulty” view of marriage, “one that says marriage is essentially a demonstration of commitment sexually expressed”, DeYoung writes.

But marriage isn’t just about commitment and sexual expression. It is about the union of a man and a woman, and is a pre-political institution which predates the state and exists independently of it. The state recognises this marriage relationship and gives it legal standing, “for the common good and for the well-being of society”. Foremost in its purpose in doing so is the “well-being of the child” which is the natural fruit of the marital union, for: “Kids do better with a mom and a dad. Communities do better when husbands and wives stay together.”

The problem is that by expanding the definition of marriage, the whole institution is weakened as the meaning of marriage is changed: “same-sex unions cannot be accepted as marriage without devaluing all marriages, because the only way to embrace same-sex partnerships as marriage is by changing what marriage means altogether.”

DeYoung speaks wise words. Too many people, whether Christian or not, slip into the trap of thinking that while they are personally opposed to same-sex marriage, they ought in fairness to support the ‘right’ of gay people to marry one another. But this fails to understand that redefining marriage weakens all marriages and thereby harms us all.

At C4M we urge those who know same-sex marriage to be wrong to have the courage of their convictions and insist that the definition of marriage should not be changed.

If you would like to support us financially, you can do so using the button below.

PLEASE DONATE

Yours faithfully,

Colin Hart

Chairman

Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

100+ genders!

The Department for Education last year told schools to take care when teaching children about
gender  issues    Source: Mail Online

From Coalition for Marriage:

Good news: BBC caught out again, pulls 100 genders video

Dear marriage supporter,

Back in September 2019 we wrote to you about a BBC Teach video series which told 9-12-year-olds there are “over a hundred” genders.

The controversial series was back in the news this week as journalists discovered the BBC was still promoting the video to teachers as part of its Relationships and Sex Education package.

This was despite Government guidance published last year advising schools to exercise caution and balance when teaching children about gender issues. Resources should always be “age-appropriate and evidence-based”, it said.

It also came as the NHS Tavistock Centre, which treats children for gender issues, was last week branded “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission. Among the problems was staff not keeping basic records on vulnerable children given hormone treatments.

As Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price said: “Telling children there are more than 100 genders is nonsense, and potentially harmful as it risks normalising something which is extremely rare.”

It is likely to create a generation of confused and angry young adults who will ask us: ‘How did you let this happen?’

Thankfully, the BBC has now “made the decision to retire the film”. It’s good news for vulnerable young people that this dangerous resource has been withdrawn.

But the BBC has done the right thing only grudgingly. It says the video has been “wilfully misinterpreted” and that the “original purpose and intention has been overshadowed”.

The BBC’s intention has been exposed rather than overshadowed. Our national broadcaster continues to promote radical transgender ideology to children.

At Coalition for Marriage we stand for the truth about men, women, and marriage.

If you would like to support us financially, you can do so by clicking HERE.

Yours faithfully,

Colin Hart

Chairman
Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

Something interesting

From: Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

Dear marriage supporter,

Something interesting is beginning to happen…

Travelling around the country in recent months, I’ve met over a thousand Christians, Jews and Muslims, atheists and agnostics, young people and old, men and women.

There aren’t many areas in life these days where such a diverse group of people can sit together and agree on one thing. But when that one thing is restoring the importance of real marriage to society, it turns out that the unlikely just keeps on happening.

Ignoring the recent inclement weather, supporters joined us on our northern tour which took in Chester, Sheffield, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. And we’ve been invited to speak to yet more groups around the UK.

It is wonderful to present people with the evidence and arguments for one man, one woman marriage. But what's even more amazing is peoples’ desire to spend a considerable time after each session asking questions and discussing together the need and means of restoring this bedrock in our society.

Whether the issue is rising teenage pregnancies, knife crime figures, inappropriate sex education in schools or the gender confusion seemingly prevalent in our culture, we all know the key answers are to be found in supporting and promoting marriage.

We are the only organisation in the UK that reaches so many different kinds of people up and down the country with that one clear message: marriage matters.

So, if you or anyone you know, would like us to come and give an engaging and completely FREE talk on the arguments and evidence supporting traditional marriage, please get in touch. We would love to bring the message to you also.

Yours faithfully,

(Sgnd) Dr Tony Rucinski

Dr Tony Rucinski
Director of Supporter Strategy
Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

Government’s attack on the family

From: Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

The Government’s LGBT Plan is an attack on the family

Dear marriage supporter,

This week the Government announced a package of measures which amounts to an assault on marriage following a taxpayer-funded survey only open to homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals.

Proposals include:

Spending £4.5m of your money on an LGBT Action Plan which will promote the acceptance of homosexual adult relationships and transgenderism in schools, usurping the role of parents who may wish to teach their children the primacy of real marriage between a biological man and a biological woman.

Confirming that forthcoming compulsory relationships education for primary school children will be used to promote “LGBT+” issues, despite the fact that real marriage is strongly correlated with better outcomes later in life and should be taught as a priority instead.

Consulting on allowing anybody to change gender without seeing a doctor first, removing an important provision against bad faith in current law and undermining the idea that male and female are fixed biological realities and not a matter of choice. These plans are a sinister assault on women and children which should never have been put forward.

This Government has consistently bullied and ignored supporters of real marriage, choosing instead to pursue a path of indoctrination in schools and intimidation in the courts.

Real marriage supporters are often libelled as extremists by the press and politicians, but the reality is that it is the Government’s policy which is extreme and out of touch: a poll published this week found that only 18% of the general population agreed with Theresa May’s proposals to amend the Gender Recognition Act.

At a pivotal time for the future of the country it beggars belief that the Government should concern itself with attacking parents, children and biological reality in this way. In doing so they have proven themselves extreme, arrogant and totally out of touch.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) Thomas Pascoe

Campaign Director
Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

DONATE

Coalition for Marriage letter

From: Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

WHERE IS DAVID CAMERON’S PROMISE NOW?

Dear marriage supporter,

In February 2013, David Cameron wrote to a constituent who was concerned about the redefinition of marriage:

“You raise particular concerns about the role of teachers. Teachers will continue to have the clear right to express their own beliefs, or that of their faith, in a professional way. This includes the belief that marriage should be between one man and one woman.

No teacher will be required to promote or endorse views which go against their beliefs.”

But now, David Cameron’s assurance is being flatly contradicted by draft Government guidance for England.

An independent school is to be failed if its curriculum “suggests that same-sex marriages or civil partnerships should not be recognised as being lawful unions under civil law”.

If schools have that threat hanging over them, it’s inevitable that teachers who believe in traditional marriage will be prevented from expressing their beliefs. The same goes for pupils. Debate will be shut down.

Many of those who voted in favour of same-sex marriage weren’t expecting disagreement to be forbidden. They weren’t voting for traditional marriage supporters to be gagged. They took promises about free speech – including David Cameron’s – at face value.

But it seems the Department for Education has forgotten those assurances.

We need to remind the Government to keep its promises.

Yours sincerely,

(Sign'd) Colin Hart

Colin Hart
Chairman
Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

Schools and Same-Sex Marriage

From: Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

SCHOOLS TO BE ASSESSED ON

 SUPPORT FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Dear marriage supporter,

Ofsted could fail a school if a teacher says they back the repeal of same-sex marriage.

That’s the effect of new guidance the Government is consulting on right now. Initially it just applies to independent schools, but it’s only a matter of time before it is applied to all schools in England through Ofsted’s common inspection framework.

The proposed guidance says it will be a breach of the school standards if a school curriculum “suggests that same-sex marriages or civil partnerships should not be recognised as being lawful unions under civil law” (see the draft guidance, para. 20).

Teachers will be gagged. Children will be indoctrinated. Even teachers who give views for and against could fall foul of this approach. This will dramatically escalate the high-profile clashes between Ofsted and schools with a Christian or Jewish ethos.

This is an outrageous proposal. Politically-correct Whitehall bureaucrats are testing our defences. This is the most audacious attack on supporters of traditional marriage since same-sex marriage was legalised in 2013. If ever there was a case of LGBT overreach this is it.

By standing together we can defeat this proposal. And we will defeat it. Next week we’ll let you know what you can do. But in the meantime, please consider making a donation to our work.

With your help we can take a stand for marriage and back people like us who believe marriage is between a man and a woman.

You can donate securely by clicking the button below:

Donate

Yours sincerely,

(Sign'd) Colin Hart

Colin Hart
Chairman
Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

Illiberal liberals

Christian Tim Farron pushed to resign leadership of the LibDem Party. Source BBC

It has been widely reported that Tim Farron resigned as the leader of the Liberal Democrat party because he could not continue in the face of continuing questions over his faith. He said that he had been torn between his Christian faith and serving as a political leader. 

Earlier it was reported that former gay bobby, now Liberal peer Lord Paddick had quit as Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson following the "furore" over leader Tim Farron's views on gay sex. Intentionally or otherwise Paddick's action put enormous pressure on an "honourable and decent" man - the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

During the General Election campaign journalists continually baited the Lib Dem leader over his Christian faith implying that the lifestyle of 1.7% of the population was far more important than the faith which not only underpins British society but on which our system of government is based. Tolerance and fair play has no place in the politically correct world of people who have nothing to offer but political correctness and their constant cries of '....phobia' to curtail any rational discussion.

Since the election government talks with the DUP have been dogged by complaints that the DUP is against same sex marriage as if it were the Holy Grail. As an example the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, among others was quick to distance himself from the DUP policies on last Sunday's Andrew Marr TV show.

This has prompted the Coalition for Marriage (C4M) to protest that there has been a sustained attack on DUP MPs simply because they are socially conservative. "Two issues are always quoted – their opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion":

The BBC in particular has seemed far more interested in pursuing this than asking about the DUP’s policy on Brexit or the economy. Even if, like C4M, you are not party political, I expect you are outraged by the media’s actions.

John Humphrys laughed on Monday morning when a former DUP assembly member explained they are a compassionate party. Humphrys immediately claimed that “most people” think their stance is “intolerant”, citing opposition to same-sex marriage as an example. And yesterday, the BBC reproduced a long series of satirists’ cartoons lampooning the DUP.

In response to the whole controversy, Roman Catholic commentator Dr Tim Stanley (who does not support the DUP in general) defended the DUP’s right to hold religious beliefs and argued “it has become politically toxic to be a Christian”.

So dominant has the issue become that the Scottish Conservative leader who plans to marry her same sex partner soon has been told by the Prime Minister that any Conservative deal with the Democratic Unionist Party will not affect LGBTI rights as though there is something intrinsically wrong in the traditional belief that marriage is the union of one man with one woman.

We are supposed to be a Christian country but Christian values based on biblical teaching are ridiculed. Christians are mocked for their faith. Lord Paddick's sexual preference is his own affair but as a liberal one would have thought that he would regard Tim Farron's faith as his affair. Instead he chose to advance the LGBT agenda at the expense of the leader of his Party. How very illiberal.

"There are no atheists in foxholes" still holds true when tragedy strikes. Whether the merciless attacks on innocent people or events such as the tragic London tower block blaze, in times of need people expect the church to be there. But how much longer? Christianity in this country is under threat. Where will people turn when it has been extinguished by illiberal liberals and their like?

Postscript

Former Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Yeovil, David Laws, claims that Tim Farron was right to resign because "he held prejudiced views". He said, " As a gay man, I do not wish to be 'tolerated'. I wish to be respected for who I am. And I want a party leader whose respect for human equality comes before outdated and frankly offensive religious views."

Mr Laws would earn more respect if he did not misrepresent the meaning of human equality and the views of opponents of same sex marriage. Many of us welcomed civil partnerships but gay marriage is a red line. Frankly, it is Mr Laws' prejudiced views as a gay man which are offensive but opponents of same sex marriage are no longer expected to hold a contrary view.