A U.K.-based Christian rights group has accused the Church of England of promoting “woke indoctrination” through newly revised anti-bullying guidance for its schools, drawing sharp criticism for allegedly replacing biblical principles with progressive ideology. The Church, however, defended the guidance as a biblical call to treat all children with dignity and compassion.
Christian Concern denounced the newly updated guidance, Flourishing for All, which was released last month and applies to Church of England schools, calling it an unbiblical “apologetic for woke indoctrination.” The Anglican body, however, maintains that the document offers a biblical framework for preventing bullying.
In a press statement issued Monday, May 13, Christian Concern claimed the guidance serves as a vehicle for critical theory—an ideology that challenges traditional social power structures and is often associated with cultural Marxism—“rather than a biblical worldview.”
The group further argued that the Church’s approach is “built on a foundation of intersectionality rather than biblical equality.”
According to Christian Concern, the C of E guidance defines human flourishing as allowing children to fully “explore and experience” aspects of their protected characteristics, such as sexual and gender identity—an approach the group says is incompatible with Christian ethics.
“The guidance assumes that we are all marginalised or privileged by the intersection of multiple aspects of our personal characteristics and identities such as class, religion, or ethnicity,” Christian Concern claimed.
“A Christian definition of human flourishing would be to live out God’s purposes for our lives, which includes living a holy and pure lifestyle. It does not include encouraging children to live out identities and desires which run contrary to biblical morality and to their best interests.”
The Church of England’s latest guidance "once again shows its failure to uphold biblical morality in the 4,500 schools under its care, said Andrea Williams, chief executive officer of Christian Concern.
"The previous Valuing All God’s Children guidance was even cited in court against faithful Christians who simply expressed biblical beliefs—a deeply troubling reflection on the direction the Church is taking. This is a shocking indictment against the C of E.
Williams said the new Flourishing For All guidance follows the same concerning trajectory, advancing a secular and ideologically driven agenda instead of upholding authentic Christian principles on equality and morality.
She urged Christian teachers to reject the Church of England’s guidance and hold out to “remain faithful to biblical truth, which is what children need to hear.”
"We stand ready to protect Christian teachers and chaplains should they get into trouble in C of E schools for expressing their Christian beliefs," Williams vowed.
However, when presented with the full set of allegations from Christian Concern, a spokesperson for the Church of England responded to Christian Daily International that "Flourishing For All sets out a clear biblical approach to the prevention of bullying which is rooted in an understanding that all children are made in the image of God and should be treated with dignity and compassion."
Section 3.2.1. of the revised guidance narrates the legal requirements of The Equality Act 2010, which protects people “from discrimination (both direct and indirect), harassment and victimisation based upon an actual or perceived protected characteristic.”
These nine protected characteristics under the Act are listed as age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation.
The C of E document emphasizes that it is unlawful for a school to discriminate against, harass, or victimize a pupil or prospective pupil in areas such as admissions, access to any “benefit, facility or service,” the manner in which education is provided, or by "subjecting a pupil to any other detriment.”
Christian Concern in its statement interpreted this section (3.2.1.) as suggesting that chaplains should “never express authentically Christian views about Christian sexual ethics in absolute terms, and that should they discuss such subjects, they should always qualify them by making it clear not all Christians adhere to such beliefs.”
The case of Rev. Bernard Randall serves as an illustration of how such a suggestion could play out in reality, according to the rights group. Randall suffered a dismissal and he was reported to terrorist watchdog Prevent after he preached a sermon inviting pupils to determine their own views about LGBT ideology.
“They did not have to subscribe to it,” added the Christian Concern statement. “This sermon was preached in 2019, and the C of E continues to brand Dr Randall a safeguarding risk for a sermon which merely raised questions about LGBT ideology. This shows how intolerant the C of E can be to any questioning of contemporary sexual ethics—even when that questioning is in line with its own doctrines.”
Furthermore, the right group noted that the C of E had changed its definition of pupils termed “transgender” to “LGB/GQ”, meaning “gender questioning” and inferred this followed a widely publicised recent Supreme Court decision defining biological sex.
“The fact that it took a secular government (the courts and the Department for Education) to push the Church’s guidance towards a slightly more Biblically accurate pastoral approach, is damning,” the Christian Concern asserted.
It then cited several cases supported by its partner organization, the Christian Legal Centre, involving parents who challenged Church of England school authorities over policies allowing children to socially transition their gender. One example is Nigel and Sally Rowe, who raised concerns after their son’s Anglican school supported a six-year-old in undergoing a social gender transition.
“The Rowes were called transphobic by the Diocese of Portsmouth, but have now been vindicated by the Supreme Court,” added the Christian Concern statement.
Another example is Christian teacher Glawdys Ledger fired from her employer, a C of E school, for expressing biblical beliefs about transgenderism and homosexual behavior during a religious education lessons—she has also been supported by the Christian Legal Centre.
Christian Concern believed these and other examples “show how far from sharing a Christian vision for education the C of E is.”
“The newly updated anti-bullying guidance shows that the C of E remains resistant to the teaching of Christian values in C of E schools,” the rights group opined.
