NSPCC attacked for helping gay kids
PinkNews.co.uk Exclusive
A charity claiming to protect the interests of children has launched a bizarre attack on Childline and the NSPCC.
Despite advertising Childline on their website, the National Society for Children and Family Contact claim the well-respected charity is abandoning the religious views of its founders.
In a poorly-drafted statement to PinkNews.co.uk, the chairman of NSCFC, Mike Ellis, used language that would not be out of place in a Christian revivalist meeting to refer to the vulnerable children who contact Childline.
All spelling mistakes are those of Mr Ellis:
“Yet again it would appear that the NSPCC have faltered in its founders principles in relation to the traditional family and how best to sustain it , for here we see yet again that in opposition to its founders religious beliefs it wholeheartedly embraces that which befell Sodom and Gomorrah as if the norm.
“When in reality it should be upholding the principles which brought it to bear and as such challenging those who appose it.”
NSCFC claims to be working to ensure “that welfare organisations and the courts serve the best interests of the child.”
However, a quick examination of its website exposes it as obsessed with the rights of fathers, and opposition to the family court system. It emphasises the belief that children are better raised by both parents, yet there is no reference on their website to the fundamentalist Christian views of its chairman.
NSCFC has been granted meetings with Conservative party frontbench spokesman on children, Tim Loughton, in what will be seen as an embarassment to David Cameron’s party.
The Tories have recently attempted to rid themselves of their homophobic image.
A press statement about the key aims of NSCFC makes no reference to Sodom and Gomorrah: “Above all the NSCFC promote the concept that generally the children love both of their parents and that they, as much as (if not more than) anyone suffer when parents go to war.
“Notwithstanding any dispute between the parents, a loving parent will use their best endeavours to encourage a meaningful and on going relationship between the child and both parents this to include the extended family.”
A NSPCC spokesperson said: “The NSPCC wants to see a society where all children are loved, valued and able to fulfil their potential. Our Royal Charter of 1895 requires that we ‘undertake and carry out publicity and educational work of all descriptions for making known the objects of the Society’.
“We also support the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which says that children should be protected from all forms of discrimination.”
The NSPCC was founded in 1884, and was responsible for getting Parliament to pass the first legislation to protect children. It spends £60m a year on services for children and young people.
Childline became part of the NSPCC in February 2006. The charity supported the equalisation of consent. It has consistently opposed the idea that both parents have an automatic right to access to children, regardless of the wishes of the child, which may explain today’s statement from the NSCFC.
