Bishop denounces culture of ‘flawed, secular equality’

The Bishop of Shrewsbury, Mark Davies, has told head teachers to reject “false notions of equality” promoted by a secular culture that protects the dignity of transgendered people but fails to protect the unborn, writes Liz Dodd.

He told primary school headteachers gathered at a diocesan conference in Shrewsbury that Christian values far surpass those British values that are “ambiguous or arbitrary”. Christ’s command of perfect love called Catholics to reject every form of bullying and unjust discrimination, he said.

By contrast, he argued, “flawed, secular equality” taught that right and wrong, truth and error were subjective, and that “being male or female are interchangeable personal choices”.

“We cannot fail to note that we are living in a society which does not accept human equality when it comes to the right to life itself, legally sanctioning as it does the killing of millions of the unborn,” he continued.

Cultural equality was driven by ideological groups and their agendas, he said, and was to blame for the closure of Catholic adoption services in England and Wales following a government ruling that found it was discriminatory for an agency to refuse to place a child with gay parents.  

He urged headteachers to stand firm “in the face of passing squalls and storms, which may increasingly assail schools in this diocese and beyond”.