After a campaign of complaints from one set of parents, St Lawrence College, Ramsgate has dropped its support for the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse.

The parents claimed that the charity’s president, Franklin Graham, is homophobic and that those who share his beliefs are a “danger to children”.

What does he believe? That marriage is between one man and one woman.

This is a standard Christian belief, held by virtually all Christians throughout history and throughout the world.

Samaritan’s Purse is a highly effective emergency relief organisation. Operation Christmas Child is its important initiative that allows Christians to share the love of God with children in a practical and personal way. For example, in March, Samaritan’s Purse delivered some 660,000 Operation Christmas Child gift-filled shoebox to Ukraine, in partnership with more than 3,200 churches.

But because Samaritan’s Purse and its president Franklin Graham are wholeheartedly Christian, they have become a target for secularists. Humanists UK wants to “eradicate faith schools”. The group claims to have supported the parents who raised an objection to St Lawrence College supporting Samaritan’s Purse. It seems to be trying to use St Lawrence College’s to strongarm other Christian schools – state-funded or private – into ending their support for Samaritan’s Purse.

If diversity means anything, it must allow space for Christians to think, speak and act like Christians. The ability of Samaritan’s Purse to bring humanitarian aid and practical love shouldn’t be jeopardised by ideologues who are ultimately aiming to rid schools of Christian influence.

Christian Concern is in contact with parents at the school. One anonymous parent told us:

“I feel very let down as the school has failed to stand with Christian children and parents on this issue. It is a betrayal of the purpose for which the College was founded.

“Many Christian parents, especially in Africa, have spent vast amounts of money sending their children to board at the school because of its Christian ethos. They would expect their children’s faith to be respected and not for support for a charity to be dropped on these discriminatory grounds.

“The school is trying to have a foot in both the secular and Christian world, which just won’t work.  

“If the school does not reverse its decision, it will embolden the complainants and the governors who support them to go further.”

A Christian school should be free to support a Christian charity, whose leader holds to Christian beliefs. Please sign the petition to show St Lawrence College - and other schools that may be watching - that it is not right to eliminate Christian beliefs from schools and charities.

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