Evangelical Alliance Responds to 'Extremist' Label in UK

By Myles Collier, Christian Post Contributor Monday, July 23, 2012

In response to an article recently published in The Telegraph U.K., the Evangelical Alliance has expressed concern over the mentality of governmental officials towards faith schools and those who support them when they cautioned the public about "evangelical Christians."

In the article, Alan Judd, an advisor for the Secretary of State for Education, explained that while schools with a religious perspective may be created in the U.K., some are viewed as extreme.

"To ban believers from setting up free schools would be to exclude a large number of able, well-meaning and experienced people who can do much to raise levels generally," Judd said, adding: "The trouble is, as always, when it's taken to extremes, whether it's evangelical Christians, totalitarian Muslims or segregationist Jews."

In a single sentence, Judd was able to classify evangelical Christians as "totalitarian" and "segregationist" and in doing so cast a heavy shadow over the entire U.K. Christian population. One of the largest Christian organizations took offense to the comments and considered them ignorant of the current state of positive religious engagement in the U.K.

"There are approximately 2 million evangelical Christians in the UK, the fastest growing part of the church worldwide. They take their faith seriously, but that does not make them extremist. To suggest it does demonstrates a woeful lack of religious understanding at the heart of government," Steve Clifford, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance, said in a statement.

The comments made by Judd come as the debate over implementing free schools in the country begin to heat up after claims the government had imposed too strict of guidelines, slowing the creation of free schools throughout the U.K. Another aspect of the creation of free schools is that according to reports, nearly a third are faith-based, leaving the secular community to question the goals and intentions of these schools.

Even with the hostility surrounding the creation of faith-based free schools, Christian leaders insist that those involved in their church and community do a greater service and provide assistance to their surrounding neighbors.

"Evangelical Christians are at the heart of their community. The churches that are members of the Evangelical Alliance contribute half a million hours of service a week to their communities. In fact, the more important a Christian thinks their faith is, the more likely they are to engage with the world around them. Evangelical Christians work hard to alleviate poverty, counter injustice and care for the vulnerable," Clifford said.