An Anglican vicar in England has resigned from his position after a dispute with his bishop over the handling of an 8-year-old student’s gender change, citing concerns that a transgender advocacy group misled school staff.
According to the Daily Mail on Sunday, the Rev. John Parker, a governor at a Church of England school in Essex village, where he served as a vicar for 14 years, resigned in protest after the school “silenced” him when he voiced concerns about parents and students being kept in the dark about their child desiring to change genders. He supported the 8-year-old student’s desire to identify as the opposite gender but took issue with the school’s refusal to keep parents apprised.
The Daily Mail did not name the school citing privacy concerns.
Parker, 49, reportedly also feared that Mermaids, a transgender advocacy group that had been invited to advise the school, had misled the governors.
He believes, as he wrote in his resignation letter, that children are being “sacrificed on the altar of trans ideology” even in Church schools.
The vicar told the Daily Mail: “I was basically told by my bishop that if I wished to faithfully follow the teachings of the Bible then I was no longer welcome in the Church. It felt very much like I was being silenced by the Church and the school.”
Parker asked if the child had seen a psychologist or a medical professional to make sure his desire to live as the opposite sex was genuine or possibly pushed by the parents. Those inquiries were dismissed as were his questions about “pastoral provisions” made for Christian parents and children who might be confused about what was happening at school. The head teacher to whom he presented his concerns told him that they were simply his “personal views” and that she was legally bound by the Equality Act to not inform the student’s parents about the gender-transition.
“After the head told us about the plan to allow the pupil to transition, the school suddenly turned into a place where you did not even have the freedom to question things. I felt it was no longer a Christian place of grace and truth — it was a place of oppression,” Parker said.
The vicar, who is a scientist by training, was also concerned about a two-hour presentation a Mermaids trainer gave at the school which addressed a wide range of topics. This trainer asserted that it is against the law to deny anyone the use restrooms or changing rooms for the gender with which they identify and that using incorrect pronouns for a trans-identifying child constitutes a “hate crime.”
“The presentation was so full of factual inaccuracies,” Parker said.
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Brandon Showalter
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