Parents facing prosecution after removing their children from school in protest at 'Romeo and Julian' performance

Parents who pulled their children out of school in protest at lessons about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history fear they will be prosecuted after education bosses pledged to take 'action' against them.

Some 30 primary pupils are thought to have missed school during the week of special lessons which included secondary school pupils performing Romeo and Julian, an adapted version of the Shakespearian classic love story.

Council bosses said the protest resulted in 'unauthorised absences' and had 'taken action' against parents who pulled their youngsters out of George Tomlinson School in Leytonstone, east London, but refused to state what sanctions are being taken.

Pervez Latif, a 41-year-old accountant whose children Saleh, 10, and Abdurrahin, nine, attend the school, said his wife Shaheen, 38, was worried they could be taken to court.

He said: 'My wife is very concerned she might be prosecuted.

'As yet we haven't heard anything from the council about whether they are taking action.'

Schools across the country took part in events to mark LGBT History week, including a performance of Romeo and Julian by secondary school pupils at Leytonstone School. Read more
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Sufi Shrine 'blown up by Taleban'

Suspected Taleban militants in north-west Pakistan have blown up the shrine of a 17th Century Sufi poet of the Pashtun language, police say.

No casualties are reported but the poet Rahman Baba's grave has been destroyed and the shrine building badly damaged.

Rahman Baba is considered the most widely read and poet in Pashto speaking regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Taleban had warned they would blow up the shrine if women continued to visit it and pay their respects.

Historic popularity

Literary experts say the poet's popularity is due to his message of tolerance coupled with a powerful expression of love for God in a Sufi way.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that his lasting appeal reflects the historic popularity of Sufism in South Asia. Read more
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What is happening in the evangelical world today? I

‘Change is on the way, nonetheless. The refusal of a mature debate on sexuality is being questioned and jettisoned in many parts of the evangelical world: among young people involved in fresh "emerging" forms of church life, in discussions at festivals like Greenbelt, and even in the counsels of the heartlands.’ Simon Barrow Ekklesia

If readers have been tracking the latest ideological trajectories in blogworld and on news sites, they well might wonder at what is occurring in the wider evangelical world today. A very important article (’An evangelical change of heart on sexuality’) was written last week by Ekklesia’s Co-Director, Simon Barrow, which signalled the enormity and seriousness of the issue.

A version of the Ekklesia article was also reproduced in the Guardian and can be viewed here (’Evangelicals who love their gay neighbours’). Along with countless others, many ex-evangelicals have changed their sexual ethics and it would appear that not a few evangelicals are joining them. Simon is transparent about what his concept of ’love’ actually entails - which is very illuminative - and not what historic Christianity has maintained over the millenia. Using as his springboard the EA’s press release, Simon goes on to say (and I quote from the Ekklesia article)

This week, four [sic] evangelical organisations joined together to remind their fellow "Bible people" that opposing hate speech and hate crimes against homosexual people – in this case the antics of the bizarre Westboro Baptist sect – means too little if you are simultaneously defending forms of prejudice and discrimination within your own communities.

The prime mover in this, Accepting Evangelicals, is a network of Christians who take the Bible with great seriousness, but who argue that what the handful of verses deployed by anti-gay campaigners address is not modern same-sex relationships built on mutual commitment and self-giving love, but practices of pederasty, cultic prostitution and abuse in very different cultural and religious contexts.

They are supported in this view by considerable biblical scholarship and by Christians of other stripes who share the conviction that being followers of Jesus in the modern world involves responsible freedom not backward-looking fear.

The recent statement was also signed by the Network of Baptists Affirming Lesbian and Gay Christians, the Evangelical Fellowship for Lesbian and Gay Christians, Ekklesia (which has many evangelicals on board), and by Courage UK – an organisation that started out as an "ex-gay" ministry but which has now shifted towards acceptance and inclusion as a Gospel imperative …

It is strange indeed that opposition to same-sex relationships has become a litmus test for a certain kind of orthodoxy in some evangelical circles, despite the fact that Christ said nothing about it. On the contrary, he deliberately breached religious taboos against groups ostracised by the establishment, and he upheld actions like forgiveness and economic sharing as signs of authentic discipleship – not culture-based religious restrictions.

Change is on the way, nonetheless. The refusal of a mature debate on sexuality is being questioned and jettisoned in many parts of the evangelical world: among young people involved in fresh "emerging" forms of church life, in discussions at festivals like Greenbelt, and even in the counsels of the heartlands.

Read more
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