Ideological activists ratchet up the game

In its infinite wisdom, the BBC has apparently issued a directive to all departments saying that job applicants who are “dismissive” of diversity and inclusion should not be hired.  Applicants must also be asked at interview, it states, their precise understanding of the meaning of ‘diversity and inclusion’ and the ways  they think they could promote, celebrate or encourage such values, should they be offered the role.

Those who disagree with the policy, show what is called ‘no understanding’ of the issues, or display an unwillingness to receive appropriate education, are dismissed wholesale as unsuitable.  In other words, ideological activists, who have managed to worm their way into positions of power at the BBC, are now actively seeking to exclude all those who might have different views.  Which means, of course, that, for those who hold traditional conservative values, it is simply pointless to apply.  Instead of education, ability, or suitability for the job on offer, people are to be hired now on how ‘woke’ they are.
 
This comes on the back of news in November, following a freedom of information request, that the BBC is spending £600,000 a year on staff responsible for the application and enforcement of its diversity, equality and inclusion policies.  Well, it would seem the people in this role are taking their responsibilities extremely seriously! But, on top of that, Director-General Tim Davie is said to have ring-fenced £100 million of the BBC’s commissioning budget for the next three years for what he calls ‘diverse content’.  Which means that, for the foreseeable future, programmes promoting multi-culturalism, ethnic minorities, LGBT behaviours and life-style choice, non-Christian religions etc, etc, will all take priority, while programmes espousing a more traditional view will not make it to our screens.
 
Is the BBC biased?  Is it attempting to marginalise and undermine the UK’s traditional values, while embedding cultural change?  You bet it is, and your money as a licence fee payer is allowing this to happen!  
 
THE BBC IS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.  ITS STATE FUNDING STREAMS 
MUST BE STOPPED.
 
Yet the gangrene affecting our country runs deeper, and also needs urgently to be removed.  The latest panel hearing for CIDAC heard testimony from Revd Keith Waters, who, to supplement his income as minister of a newly planted church in Ely, took a job as caretaker at a local primary school.  At first, the school appeared overjoyed to have him on the staff.  They asked him to lead morning assemblies and to help with teaching religion – they even asked him to preach at the school Carol service.  But then, unwittingly, Keith crossed the line.  In 2019, when Cambridge was set to hold its first ever Pride march, in his capacity as a Christian minister, Keith tweeted a warning to Christians not to attend the event; because it promoted sexual behaviours contrary to the Christian faith and morals, that were especially harmful to children.
 
A not unexpected Christian response, you might think – exactly the sort of comment, in fact, that you would expect a minister to make.   But all hell broke loose.  LGBT+ activists picked up on the tweet and started a vicious local campaign of abuse and harassment directed against Keith and his family – which even included a visit from a local firm of undertakers to arrange his funeral!
 
As part of this, complaints were also made to the school where he worked, and, even though the comments he had made were in no way connected to his work as a caretaker – and the school up to then had been 100% supportive of his role as minister of a local church – he was put under investigation and summoned to appear before a disciplinary panel. Which found him guilty of discrimination and of bringing the school into disrepute.  So, even though there was no evidence for this, a small but determined group of LGBT+ activists had been allowed to pressure the school into saying, in effect, that Keith could keep his job only if he shut up!  
 
The same pattern is being repeated throughout the UK and across all sectors.  The NHS, for example, penalises those who offer to pray with patients, while on its official website the army proudly states, ‘Every unit in the British army has a trained D&I advisor who ensures that their unit has an inclusive culture…’.  In similar fashion, the Church of England’s Foundation for Educational Leadership states that it is ‘passionate’ about Diversity, and that the aim of the Foundation is to be ‘scandalously inclusive’.

The wolves really have got in amongst the flock!  What this all means, in practice, is that Bible-believing Christians are being increasingly gagged and driven from the public arena.  And it could well mean in the future that we will be prevented from holding employment, from having a bank account, from getting insurance … from being able in fact to function in this brave new world of intolerant tolerance.  And it’s worth pointing out that, though Christians protest the celebration and promotion of ‘sin’, all the aggression comes from the other side.  Yes, believers condemn sin (because it causes harm), but we do not condemn the sinner – indeed, how could we, given that we are all sinners? 
 
The truth is, calls for enforced ‘diversity, equality and inclusivity’ are profoundly dishonest and discriminatory.   Despite what they claim, they do not embrace, but actively exclude and suppress traditional – in particular Christian – viewpoints.  They are a form of ideological totalitarianism, which will brook no dissent.  These activists don’t just want recognition and to live in harmony with the rest of society.  They want total domination.  And the majority of the population seem either not to understand this, or are running scared.  Which is why Christians must now make a stand and defend the right to manifest and express our faith.  
 
And the BBC, which in recent years has fought so hard to impose social and cultural change, must especially be called to account.  It must no longer be allowed to impose its woke agenda – an agenda that is overtly seeking to reconfigure society and is so profoundly hostile to the Christian values on which our nation was founded, and on which we grew strong.