About 1,000 people gathered in Dublin last week [1] to hear concerns about the Government’s proposed new Social Personal and Health Education course for secondary school students.
One of the speakers at the National Stadium, Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín TD, said there was a broad mix of different faiths, communities and groups who attended. “There is significant concern over the extreme nature of the Government’s new curriculum,” he told The Irish Catholic.
The draft senior cycle SPHE programme aims to teach about gender ideology, gender identity, abortion, ‘white, male or Irish privilege’, among other topics.
Pastor John Ahern of All Nations Church, Dublin told the Irish Catholic: “People are concerned about their children, irrespective whether it’s Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Muslims or Jews, nobody wants their children indoctrinated, particularly regarding the teaching of beliefs that are completely contrary to their faith.
“This is the bottom line. It doesn’t matter how the Government dresses this up, it is indoctrination and it is a violation of many of our deepest convictions regarding marriage, sexuality, gender etc. This is the problem many of them live in this progressive bubble where they feel that everybody has bought into this but that is far from the case,” he added.