Christianity’s hidden enemies

THE louder they squawk about ‘Islamism’ and ‘radicalisation’, the more the British state seek to crush Christianity in this country. And once it’s crushed, what do you think will take its place?

A Christian JP is suspended and ordered to undergo re-education after daring to speak in favour of traditional Christian marriage. A Christian nurse is accused of ‘bullying and harassment’ for praying for a Muslim colleague. And now, in a development that seems quite scandalous to me, that horrible Stalinist organisation Ofsted (which permits the continued existence of hundreds of the worst schools in the advanced world) has turned its fury on, yes, a Christian school in Sunderland.

You know the one, where Ofsted apparatchiks asked puzzled children what lesbians did. Well, it’s much worse than that.

Soon after the inspection (on November 26 and 27 last year), and well before the resulting report was published, Grindon Hall Christian School’s head, Chris Gray, wrote to Ofsted. He complained that the tenor of the inspection was negative and hostile at every stage, ‘as if the data collected had to fit a pre-determined outcome’.

He referred to ‘intrusive and deeply personal questioning of children’. Positive comments by children were ignored. One sixth-former complained the inspector ‘seemed very negative’, adding: ‘Most of the questions that were asked were related to bullying/homophobia/ racism/extremism… She seemed to have the view that since we are a Christian school we don’t respect other religions and views.’

And a few weeks later, out came the report which, as Mr Gray described it, ‘grades the best performing secondary state-funded school in Sunderland (latest published GCSE results) as the worst’.

All of this material, as well as the report, is displayed on the school’s website. All I can say is that, while the Home Secretary claims to be defending us against Islamist extremism, another equally dangerous anti-Christian extremism has infiltrated much of the British state, where it rules unchallenged.

It’s odd that bishops, so vocal on the welfare state and other Leftist topics, do not seem interested in defending their faith against this sort of thing.