(CP) In schools across Northern Ireland, students are finding it more difficult to disclose their Christian faith than their sexual orientation, in response to testimony provided during an ongoing inquiry into Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) at Stormont.
David Smyth, a representative of the Evangelical Alliance Northern Ireland, told the Education Committee that some young people find it “rather more difficult now to come back out as an Evangelical Christian at school than it’s to come back out as LGBT,” according to the BBC.
Smyth’s comments got here as a part of a discussion on the content and delivery of RSE in Northern Irish schools, Premier Christian News noted.
Smyth said the Evangelical Alliance had concerns over the content being provided but clarified that this was not a confrontation between religion and RSE.
“We’re not trying to fight a culture war where children are the casualties,” Smyth told the BBC. He added that there is a need to seek out common ground between Christians and non-Christians regarding the teaching of healthy relationships, consent and stopping violence against women and girls.
The Evangelical Alliance Northern Ireland, which represents a spread of churches and individuals, addressed specific issues inside RSE which have raised concern amongst parents and members of the religion community.
Smyth referred to a report by Conservative MP Miriam Cates on RSE in England and Wales, citing examples of “age-inappropriate material being taught in RSE on issues like sexual practices which could also be dangerous and even illegal, like chocking or chem [drugs] sex.” He identified that some RSE materials also contained “scientifically inaccurate content which confuses and conflates biological sex with gender identity.”
Smyth expressed additional concerns that the Christian perspective is becoming increasingly marginalized at school environments. He said “there are some specific areas where the views of Evangelical Christians, and plenty of Catholics and Muslims, are very distinctive, for instance abortion.”
The teaching of access to abortion and prevention of early pregnancy is ready to turn out to be compulsory for all post-primary schools in Northern Ireland, following regulations laid in Parliament by former Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris in 2023.
During questioning, Nick Mathison, the committee chair, asked Smyth if he believed that teachers may be attempting to “effectively change kid’s minds to push an agenda of some sort.” Smyth responded that his concern lay in ensuring that the teaching of sensitive issues, equivalent to abortion and differing sexual identities, allows for space where students aren’t subjected to ideological pressures.
“Is it secular blasphemy to imagine that a person cannot biologically turn out to be a girl?” Smyth asked the committee members.
