Kindness should be at the heart of Christian teaching
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Kindness should be at the heart of Christian teaching – including towards LGBTQ+ students (Guardian)
Jesus was constantly attacked for his love of outcasts: sex workers, adulterers, people with leprosy and tax-collectors, to name just a few. He synthesised his entire doctrine for his followers: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you”... Much has been written about the trauma LGBTQ+ students have suffered – and continue to suffer – at many schools, including religious ones. We should not minimise the very significant impact of that mistreatment for a moment. For there is another path, much truer to the way of Christ, which is already being trodden by some religious schools. On a recent trip to England to tour high-performing schools, I had the pleasure of revisiting Brighton College, where I began my teaching career back in 2008. A Church of England school, Brighton was recently named “UK School of the Decade” by the Sunday Times. When I first arrived as a 25-year-old starting out in the profession, what struck me most was headmaster Richard Cairns’s myopic focus on kindness. Cairns, who still runs the school, would tell pupils: “Being kind is better than being smart. Being kind is better than being sporty. Being kind is better than being beautiful”. In assemblies and in chapel services he would ask pupils to “look to the boy or girl to your left and your right. If, for one moment, you think you are better than them, that very thought demeans you”... The sacred texts of all major religions are complex, in parts problematic, and of their time. Yet there’s more than enough in them that is timeless and inclusive. By expecting teachers to model love and acceptance, while encouraging a strong work ethic in their pupils, Brighton is exhibiting what I would argue is a true Christian ethos. Of course, that will greatly benefit its LGBTQ+ pupils. It’s also what Jesus would do.
Jesus was constantly attacked for his love of outcasts: sex workers, adulterers, people with leprosy and tax-collectors, to name just a few. He synthesised his entire doctrine for his followers: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you”... Much has been written about the trauma LGBTQ+ students have suffered – and continue to suffer – at many schools, including religious ones. We should not minimise the very significant impact of that mistreatment for a moment. For there is another path, much truer to the way of Christ, which is already being trodden by some religious schools. On a recent trip to England to tour high-performing schools, I had the pleasure of revisiting Brighton College, where I began my teaching career back in 2008. A Church of England school, Brighton was recently named “UK School of the Decade” by the Sunday Times. When I first arrived as a 25-year-old starting out in the profession, what struck me most was headmaster Richard Cairns’s myopic focus on kindness. Cairns, who still runs the school, would tell pupils: “Being kind is better than being smart. Being kind is better than being sporty. Being kind is better than being beautiful”. In assemblies and in chapel services he would ask pupils to “look to the boy or girl to your left and your right. If, for one moment, you think you are better than them, that very thought demeans you”... The sacred texts of all major religions are complex, in parts problematic, and of their time. Yet there’s more than enough in them that is timeless and inclusive. By expecting teachers to model love and acceptance, while encouraging a strong work ethic in their pupils, Brighton is exhibiting what I would argue is a true Christian ethos. Of course, that will greatly benefit its LGBTQ+ pupils. It’s also what Jesus would do.
