Sex Education
The preoccupation of Educationists with Sex Education in schools has been taken a stage further by the preparation of a Sex Education film, “Growing Up”, designed to be shown to children in the Birmingham area but intended ultimately to embrace the rest of the country. The work of a 39 year old lecturer in genetics at Aston University, Birmingham, and a divorcee, the film deals with the whole physical side of the sex relation and lasts for about 20 minutes. The reactions to the film vary from the censure passed on the film by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Ramsay, as being unsuitable for use in schools to the forthright condemnation of the whole work by the Birmingham Education Committee who have banned the film from their schools, and by a split vote recommended that the lecturer who prepared the film, Dr. Coles, be referred to the Aston University authorities, to consider whether the University should take action about the activities of this teacher. They have also suspended a young female teacher for her part in a nude scene in the film, and will try her case with the possibility of dismissal. Sir Gerald Nabarro, Conservative M.P. for Worcester South, has also asked the Home Secretary to arrange for the Director of Public Prosecutions to see the film with a view to legal proceedings for obscenity and pornography. The Minister of Education, Mrs Thatcher, has strongly condemned the film, and amid loud cheering in the Commons recommended to all local authorities, governors and teachers that they oppose any suggestion to show the film in their schools.
Those members of the Birmingham Education Committee who have seen the film have left no doubt of their feelings of disgust and outrage at this particularly obnoxious piece of work. Of the film itself an alderman declared it “a totally unnecessary, destructive, debased film”, “a horror film”; and of the author, “a depraved spectacle coming from the mind of a man who must be totally obsessed by sex”. There seems to be some ground for this estimate of the author, from the activities in which he is engaged in this special field. He has intimated “that he supported the principles of wife swapping”; that he is preparing a film on homosexuals to be shown to children with the purpose of overcoming prejudice against this misunderstood body of men whom he regards as suffering from “some sort of illness”; and he is planning another film on contraception and venereal disease, also as part of Sex Education for children. Dr. Coles is also connected with the Calthorpe Nursing Home, a private abortion clinic, in Birmingham. Pornography is already a growing menace and is causing a deep disquiet and alarm in the country and in Parliament. The strongest measures must be adopted to enforce the laws against pornography both in the press and radio and films, and especially our children must be protected from teachers who do not scruple to make use of the cause of Education to spread grossly immoral and debasing teaching among our people. And no time should be lost in removing from all places of influence over the young such men as Dr. Coles. and in many quarters the words of Alderman Sir Francis Griffin, of Birmingham, will receive immediate support when he said: “I cannot help thinking that Birmingham would welcome the absence of Dr. Coles”. It is deplorable that our schools should be open to films which actively promote sexual license and promiscuity.
Professor Barclay on the Resurrection
In a recent so called “Easter” radio broadcast Prof. Wm. Barclay, who holds a Divinity chair in a Church of Scotland College, spoke of the Resurrection of Christ in hazy, philosophical terms to the effect that the Bible teaches not a “physical Resurrection but a spiritual Resurrection”. When challenged to explain himself the Professor made some extraordinary statements which reveal in this modern teacher of the Christian Faith a cynical freedom in the treatment of scriptural doctrines that would do credit to an avowed humanist. “There is”, he said, “a subjective element about the Resurrection and I think that the Resurrection stories don’t teach a physical Resurrection — they teach a spiritual Resurrection”. Asked to explain what he meant he went on: “Quite definitely Christ came back from the dead, and as to whether it was physically or spiritually I don’t think it matters. I’m not saying what happened. Something happened beyond all possible doubt, but it is now impossible to tell what happened. I don’t think you can prove it. But I would say that Jesus only appeared to those who loved him. He might be seen by one man and not by another, because the second did not love him.”
Dismayed by public reaction to these heretical views, coming from a professor whose prolific writings and commentaries on religious subjects have won for him more than national prominence, Prof. Barclay made a further attempt to make his meaning clear, which appeared in the Daily Express as a “personal testament”, but with no more success. This testament of belief is characterised by the same subjective element which enters into Prof. Barclay’s attitude to the doctrine of the Resurrection, and is instructive in explaining the professor’s religious and spiritual outlook. The doctrines underlying his beliefs are reduced to the bare minimum of the facts of Christ’s life; repentance is nothing more than sorrow for sin. The spiritual Resurrection of Christ is explained by Christ’s 3 post-Resurrection appearances, advanced as reasons for believing not in a physical but a spiritual Resurrection; to his disciples on the way to Emmaus, Luke xxiv, v. 31; in the closed chamber on the evening of the same Sabbath, John xx, v. 19; and to Paul on the way to Damascus, I Cor. xv, v. 8. And finally, the professor states that his belief in the Risen Christ rests not on the Bible or on Church creeds, but virtually on intuitive, personal knowledge. In highly emotional words, he says: “For more than 50 years, through sunshine and through shadow, I have known the Risen Presence. To me the fact of the Risen Christ is not a theological dogma; it is a fact which I know”. Every believer knows that the complex person of Christ is more than human, but the Deity of Christ does not overshadow his humanity, the physical Resurrection of Christ is as certainly a doctrine of the Bible as is his spiritual Resurrection. That the Saviour withheld from all but his own people the sight of his post Resurrection presence was simply in fulfilment of his promise: “Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me; because I live, ye shall live also” — John xx, v. 19. It is little wonder that Prof. Barclay when asked to clear up the contradictory and heretical remarks he made on this doctrine of the Resurrection, should have taken refuge in the words: “I would need to write another book”. If this modern divine were to spend less time turning out a prodigious volume of religious writings, many of which contain highly questionable statements such as these made above, and devoted the time to the prayerful study of the Bible, he might perhaps produce less disturbing work.
Sabbath at Edinburgh
Increasingly as the flood of Sabbath desecration pours through our land, more sections of our people are becoming involved in the guilt of secular and heaven-provoking activities on the Sabbath which cast a revealing light upon the religious state of our nation. Now it is the turn of Aberdeen. It must have grieved all who love the Lord’s Day to read that the annual sports day at Aberdeen University, held this year at King’s College, at the end of April, was turned into a carnival of Sabbath desecration. A full programme of out-door and indoor sport was laid on; outdoor track and field events, weight-lifting, hockey, football and rugby, etc.; and indoor boxing, karate, fencing, table-tennis, etc. And in the King’s College Pavilion a swimming gala, water polo, canoeing, etc. were held. Other Scottish and British Universities contributed competitors, and in all some 500 competitors were thought to have taken part. The Aberdeen University Rector, Mr. J. Grimond, was chosen to present the prizes. As a Christian land we have enjoyed the Lord’s blessing in the past because the Sabbath was honoured among our people. Today, however, a full sports programme can be arranged by one of our leading Scottish Universities on the Sabbath without evoking surprise or comment. As the Lord has a zeal for his own Sabbath Day, and will bless His people who keep it holy, so he will express His displeasure all the more severely upon a nation that once loved but now despises His Holy Day. “Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?”—Jer. v, v. 9.