Banning AD and BC isn’t just bonkers, it’s an insult to minorities

As schools replace Christian date system with ‘Common Era’ . . .

Agrowing number of educational authorities in this country are ditching the use of the traditional calendar terms BC and AD in favour of the more bland and neutral BCE and CE.

Their anxiety is that the older terms might upset ‘non-Christians’.

BC stands for Before Christ and AD for Anno Domini — Latin for ‘Year of our Lord’. The new terms stand for Before the Common Era and Common Era.

You can spot immediately what a silly and bogus move this is by our educational apparatchiks. only the letters are being changed, as if to disguise something shameful. The date — 2017 — will still mean 2017 years after the birth of Christ, as calculated by the Church.

So the new terms really alter nothing. what they do indicate are some quite absurd preconceptions and delusions on the part of those decreeing the changes.

Enslaved as they are by the dictates of that pernicious form of ideological idiocy known as Political Correctness, the guidelines for schools in East Sussex, for instance, state that ‘BCE and CE are now used in order to show sensitivity to those who are not Christians’.

This throws up any number of questions, the first of which is: what about those who are Christians? what about their sensitivities, and perhaps their preference for terms which reflect their own faith in a supposedly Christian country? why should their sensitivities be secondary to those of other religions?

And what members of other religions are actually offended anyway?

ibrahim Mogra, a Muslim leader from Leicester and assistant secretary general to the Muslim Council of Britain, says of the use of the Christian calendar in Britain: ‘i don’t believe it causes Muslims offence.’

Similarly, a spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews says: ‘i don’t think anyone would mind if in mainstream schools they use BC and AD.’

well, we seem to have rubbed along with those terms for several centuries well enough.

So who are these mysterious people who might take offence at these time-honoured Christian terms, which have been around since at least the time of the Venerable Bede? he used them throughout his wonderful Ecclesiastical history of The English People, writing in the early 8th century AD. if a system has lasted well for some 1,300 years, why change it now?

And if no one actually is offended by these terms, why are our schools fiddling around with them? Shouldn’t they be concentrating on larger issues — such as the fact that so many school-leavers are functionally illiterate?

Behind this move to abolish BC and AD is a much wider crusade to rid Britain of any Christian echoes whatsoever: a task that is of course impossible, even if it were desirable, which it is not.

Christianity runs through British history and identity like a golden thread, giving us everything from mince pies to Easter eggs, the majority of our most beautiful and historical buildings, and many of our Christian names — sorry, first names.

To eliminate all traces of the faith of our British ancestors would be effectively to strip away our history altogether: something which at times it really does seem our schools and universities are actively seeking to do.

Yet this intolerant and sinister move to de-Christianise our culture meets with barely a murmur from our Church establishment, more concerned as it is with global warming or social justice.

A rare exception is Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, one of the staunchest defenders of our religious traditions. he has spent much of his life meeting members of other faiths, and says: ‘i have never met a Muslim or Jewish leader who is offended by the gregorian calendar.’

of course not. The idea is absurd. But what a shame that it is only an Archbishop who has retired from the front line who feels compelled to speak out.

Another prominent voice raised against this latest attempt at the abolition of Christianity is radio 4 and Mastermind presenter John humphrys. ‘i can’t stand BCE and all that sort of stuff,’ he says in his usual forthright manner. Everyone knows where we are when we say BC and AD — and that is how i want to keep it.’

he said this in response to the fact that he inadvertently used the term ‘BCE’ when reading out a question on Mastermind.

in fact, Mr humphrys’ employer has been leading the way in this eradication of the Christian calendar for some years. it was accused of ‘absurd political correctness’ in 2011 after dropping the terms BC and AD, and employing the trendy replacements on programmes such as University Challenge and radio 4’s in our Time, hosted by Melvyn Bragg.

The Beeb’s response at the time might have come straight from the mouth of the spoof head of inclusivity in the TV satire w1A: ‘As the BBC is committed to impartiality, it is appropriate that we use terms that do not offend or alienate non-Christians.’ The supposed ‘offence’ caused by these perfectly innocuous terms is entirely confined to the warped imaginations of the Left-wing establishment, terrified that anything, anywhere in Britain might appear to be … well, British.

of course much of the world also now uses the BC/AD system for practical purposes. otherwise there would be chaos. But for religious purposes, there are many variations — with none of the others feeling that they have to conceal or ‘apologise’ for their faith.

in the hebrew calendar, we are currently in the year 5778. in the islamic calendar, it is now 1439, since Muslims calculate the date from the year Mohammed left Mecca for Medina, in our own 622 AD. in nepal it is 1134, while trying to work out how the traditional Chinese calendar works will give you a better mental test than a cryptic crossword.

Yes, the world is full of a wonderful richness and diversity, but for major historical reasons, most agree to use the western standard of 2017 in all things secular.

But it is this very ‘western-ness’ which worries the arbiters of what is and is not acceptable in Britain. Because according to them, the west is sinful and oppressive. Barely a day goes by without some jaw-dropping new example of western apology for past sins or current offences.

Perhaps the most fashionable is to do with slavery: that is to say, people who have never enslaved anyone, apologising to people who have never been enslaved.

MEAnwhiLE the rest of the world looks on in bafflement, as western countries like modern Britain tie themselves in knots trying not to give offence where none is taken. Just as with an individual, a country so delusional could well be classed as mentally ill.

But while there is a certain bitter comedy in the absurd spectacle of po-faced PC educationalists promulgating their deluded and loony views, there are serious issues here as well.

Squirming over ‘BC’ and ‘AD’ only fuels the sense — mistaken, but understandable — that there are indeed numerous vocal, ‘difficult’ religious minorities in our country, demanding that we, the native British, continually make way, self-abdicate and surrender to their delicate sensibilities.

Yet no such demands are being made. Britain’s minorities continue to call the year 2017 in all but religious matters, to enjoy Christmas just as much as the rest of us, eat mince pies, and not resent one whit our fondness for bacon butties and sausage rolls.

Muslims continue to revere Jesus as a major prophet, and Britain’s hindus love a knees-up at Christmas just like the rest of us.

in other words, by worrying needlessly that terms like BC and AD might be offensive to nonChristians, our thought-police are actually painting those very minorities as being far more intolerant and prickly than they really are.

is that really contributing to our national harmony? or is it, by a terrible irony, genuinely insulting to our minorities to represent them as being so hyper-sensitive and hyper-critical of our traditions and customs?