Displaying items by tag: Children

‘Peace is the wish of everyone in Kadugli,’ says Bishop Hassan James. The area suffered decades of civil war and has recurrent tribal violence, cattle theft, murder, intimidation and displacement. Against this volatile backdrop a symbol of hope for the present and future has risen and flourished - the Peace Episcopal Primary School, supported by the diocese. ‘We started the school as the society needed more options for affordable children’s education; especially orphans, poor families and Christian children,’ said Hassan. ‘It’s called The Peace School because living in a war zone, needing peace, we must teach children about peace.’ Over 480 pupils from ages 6 to 15 attend, with a separate kindergarten for 80 children. Bishop Hassan works hard to promote peaceful relationships between the Christian and Muslim communities. He regularly speaks on the need for peace via local radio and advocates for peace and reconciliation efforts with local authorities.

People across the United Kingdom have voiced their concerns about age-inappropriate LGBT teaching. The government has responded to a parliamentary petition that has now gained over 200,000 signatures. The clear request from those signing is in response to the aggressively promoted LGBT content which schools are now using. The numbers are so high that a parliamentary debate is now planned.

Tate Britain will host a drag queen story hour in half term hosted by ‘queer hero of literature’, neuro-divergent drag queen Aida H Dee. Catholic commentator Caroline Farrow has launched a petition for the Tate to stop ‘promoting gender ideology to children’ through its half-term free event. Her petition received over 8,000 signatures on its first day. She said drag queens are a form of adult entertainment mainly found in gay nightclubs, presenting a highly demeaning and distorted vision of women, which many find offensive. Drag acts do not constitute education and do not teach tolerance. Their aim is to expose children to sexualised and political messaging regarding the LGBTQ+ movement. Caroline is also concerned that the Tate produces a teaching and guidance resource for teachers and schools. It is co-authored with a transgender lobby group, is full of gender ideology, and encourages educational professionals to break the law.

Due to conflict, abuse, or persecution, large numbers of children are in need of hope and healing. This is why SAT-7 KIDS is creating a new programme, due to be broadcast in early 2023, to help children suffering from trauma. ‘Basically, if a child (or anyone) has not addressed their trauma, they cannot connect with their family, with others, or with God,’ said the president and CEO of Life Focus, with whom SAT-7 Egypt have produced the programme. ‘So, if you want someone to know Christ, you need to address trauma.’ The thirteen-part series addresses trauma caused by poverty, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and religious persecution, through drama, entertainment, and Bible verses. This aims to show young viewers that healing is possible and available for all broken hearts. It is not only for children; hopefully parents will watch and see the effect of their actions on their children.

New plans to change the online safety bill will see the UK come one step closer towards making the internet a safe place for young people by preventing access to content that promotes suicide, eating disorders and self-harm. The amendment will give the act additional teeth to deliver change and ensure that people are held to account if they fail to properly protect children. Christian charity CARE welcomed the amendment but said further action still needs to be taken. They would like to see the government go further to protect children from the specific harms caused by pornography and for children to be afforded the same protections in the online world as they are offline.

Golden Hills Elementary School in California is facing backlash from parents after promoting an after-school Satan club aimed at children as young as five. The controversial club is scheduled to hold monthly meetings starting in December. It was created by the Satanic Temple - not to be confused with the Church of Satan - as an antidote to the evangelical Christian groups cropping up in public schools. The organisation’s website states, ‘The Satanic Temple does not advocate for religion in schools. However, once religion invades schools, as the Good News Clubs have, the Satanic Temple will fight to ensure that plurality and true religious liberty are respected.’ In this instance, the after-school club was created in response to the Good News Club, a weekly Christian programme for 5- to 12-year-olds at the school. Many parents believe the Satan club is a Trojan horse to promote devil worship in schools.

Suicide is the biggest killer of people aged under 35 in the UK. ‘However bad you feel, this will pass. You are not alone, things will look different tomorrow.’ That is what Pete would have said to his only child, Jamie, if he had been able to read his suicide note before he died. Jamie was one of 1,621 young people under 35 who took their own lives in 2019. After Pete had struggled to cope with his death for two years, he read about three fathers going through the same thing. Known as the ‘Three Dads’, Andy, Mike and Tim walked 300 miles, in memory of their three daughters, to raise £3,000 for suicide prevention charity Papyrus. They eventually raised over £800,000. Over 200 school children commit suicide every year. They say we are doing nothing to equip young people with understanding and skills that could allow them to save themselves.

In July furious parents stormed a Drag Queen Story Hour for three- to 11-year-olds in Reading central library, the first venue in a UK-wide two month library tour. The event descended into chaos after the parents broke in and screamed abuse in front of the children. As they threatened to perform a ‘citizens’ arrest’ and accused the drag queen of paedophilia, the police had to step in to bring calm. The final story hour, in Cardiff, was also targeted by protesters with placards and banners, saying it was inappropriate for children. Many people came to support the event, wearing clothes adorned with the rainbow flag. Sab (drag character Aida H Dee) says the stories provide a positive experience about queer culture and deliver a positive role model for people to look up to. Sab moved to Cardiff to capitalise on its flourishing LGBTQ community. and thinks it wouldn’t have thrived without the support Wales gives to that community. Cardiff councillors received 143 letters of complaints about these story times.

Parents have concerns over ‘highly inappropriate’ drag queen story time sessions for children as young as three. The Story Hour summer tour starts next week, performing to as many as 3,000 three- to eleven-year-olds at sixty public libraries in England and Wales. The sessions include reading children’s books about same-sex relationships. Outraged parents wrote to their local councils expressing their concerns about the highly sexualised events. Their letters, co-ordinated by the Family Education Trust, say, ‘Drag shows are adults-only entertainment and not suitable for school-age children’. The letters also criticised promotion of radical gender ideology and stated, ‘To try to blind children to a most basic fact of human existence is a form of child abuse. Children who experience gender identity issues need careful and sensitive care, not wholesale indoctrination.’ In response Drag Queens organised online fundraising for ‘Mermaids charity’, which promotes puberty-blocking drugs and surgery for children who are confused about their gender.

The Church of England has urged the Government to ensure age verification systems are put in place to protect under-18s from online pornography. The widespread availability of porn to children means they are growing up in a culture where violent, degrading and harmful sexual activity is being normalised. In 2017, porn checks were approved by Parliament under the Digital Economy Act but plans to implement them were abandoned in 2019 when the Government claimed they would be covered by future legislation. The abandoned Online Safety Bill stated, ‘pornographic websites could face large fines and risk being blocked if they do not have age verification systems in place to prevent children from accessing content.’ But now the Government announced, ‘further parliamentary consideration of the Bill is delayed until after the summer recess.’