Bernard Randall: 'The culture war is far from over'

Dr Bernard Randall, the Christian teacher who was sacked and reported to terrorist watchdog Prevent by his school for preaching a moderate sermon on identity politics, has responded to the Charity Commission’s decision to permit the dissolution of Educate and Celebrate (E & C).

E & C was the scandal-hit charity whose extreme gender identity teaching at Trent College, Nottingham led to Dr Randall's dismissal. He has not given a sermon or been able to work in Christian ministry since, a situation he continues to challenge.

E & C’s purposes, as stated on the Charity Commission’s website, included being 'For the public benefit the promotion of equality and diversity of the LGBT community (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) through; (a) the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation or religion; (b) advancing education and raising awareness in equality and diversity; (c) promoting activities to foster understanding between people from diverse backgrounds.'

The Charity Commission told en that it allowed E & C to cease operations because it had 'submitted a dissolution form to the Commission with a declaration that the charity had fulfilled its purpose and had applied all of its remaining funds in furtherance of its objects'.

'They haven't eliminated discrimination - in fact, they have provoked it'

Dr Randall commented: 'I don't for a moment think that they have achieved their stated purposes. They haven't eliminated discrimination - in fact they have provoked discrimination against people of religious faith, myself included. There was never any attempt "to foster understanding between people from diverse backgrounds." Instead, by pushing one particular view of the world at the expense of most people's common sense, they have stoked conflict between "trans rights activists" and all those who see through gender identity ideology. If they have "applied all their remaining funds" that really means they have run out of money.

Part-funded by the government, E&C’s teaching in schools has included actively promoting Queer Theory and the ‘Gender Unicorn’ which presents multiple genders children can identify as. It also told hundreds of primary schools that they ran an Ofsted-recognised “best practice” programme. However, this was untrue and the Schools Inspectorate subsequently ordered E&C to remove any reference to Ofsted from its website.'

Dr Randall added: 'It would seem people have woken up to Educate and Celebrate's false idea of "diversity", and they've had enough - they won't support it any more. I won't be sorry to see them go, and I'm glad if telling my story has contributed to that, but there are other similar groups out there. The culture war is far from over, even if this has been a small victory.'

So far, Dr Randall has been cleared of any wrongdoing by Prevent, the Disclosure and Barring Service and the Teaching Regulatory Authority. That leaves the Church of England as the only public body that has blacklisted him as a safeguarding risk - for expressing the CofE's own teaching on marriage and human sexuality in a CofE chapel in a CofE school. 

en asked Derby Diocese why he has not been reinstated. Its spokesman, Dave King, said 'Due to ongoing legal matters, the Diocese of Derby is unable to make any comment regarding Mr Randall'.