Pupils play truant in protest against climate change
Thousands of children are set to walk out of school today in a nationwide protest over ‘climate change’.
Militant eco-warriors have apparently fuelled this bizarre action which seems to have the unofficial support of many teachers and even Christian charities.1
So while parents are fined for taking their children out of school during term time, usually for the understandable reason of avoiding the high cost of holidays when schools are normally closed, teachers are given a free ride. Or will they too be fined? We shall wait and see.
One teachers’ union initially backed the idea by suggesting it would be “a valuable life experience”2 before re-thinking its position along the lines that missing lessons would be detrimental to children’s education.
But both statements miss the point, which is that by letting pupils become obsessively politicised in this way undermines the entire structure of society and is tantamount to inciting rebellion, not to say revolution.
Exceptional Circumstances?
Our charge is to “train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov 22:6). Discipline is essential, but now we have children being encouraged to call the shots – all in the name of equality, I suppose. Leaving such ‘decisions’ to impressionable youngsters is a gross abdication of our responsibility. But it’s an upside-down world.
Discipline is essential, but now we have children being encouraged to call the shots.
The Department for Education said it was a matter for individual schools, but stressed that pupils could take time off only in ‘exceptional circumstances’ – apparently including illness, a family funeral or a religious day of observance – and then only when authorised by a headteacher.3
As Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn put it, “if parents can be punished for taking children out of school, then why can’t those we entrust to act in loco parentis?”4
The question is surely whether such a strike falls into the above ‘exceptional’ category, though Littlejohn, with tongue in cheek, suggests it is “undoubtedly a quasi-religious event”.
Teaching Rebellion
It would be a little more reasonable if they were being urged to protest over child abuse, or some other issue that affected pupils directly – although I can already hear a wailing chorus declaring that they are marching for their future under a carbon-free sky.
In reality, supporting such outright rebellion against authority is a recipe for disaster that could lead to widespread anarchy and chaos. In the words of the 16-year-old striker from Sweden who started the campaign, “We can’t save the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change”.5
As for the issue itself that has gripped their attention, it is a classic example of the fake news that has swamped the media and political environment in recent decades.
And it was shocking to witness the laid-back attitude to these protests displayed by media commentators on Sunday morning TV as they swapped nostalgic anecdotes of similar action they took when young.
Supporting such outright rebellion against authority is a recipe for disaster that could lead to widespread anarchy.
Spiritual Vacuum
A key factor in all this is the spiritual vacuum into which such political activity is being played out. With depression and suicide rife among young people living in a make-believe world awash with dark messages of hopelessness, and all too few evangelists available to point them to a Saviour, it is entirely understandable that they should feel the need to be part of something meaningful.
They are thus easy prey for the false gospel of man-made global warming, based on the humanistic idea that everything depends on us because, with this thinking, God did not create the world. And if we want to save the planet, we must do everything we can to preach the need for humans to do what God is apparently incapable of doing.
I believe it is not only a gigantic hoax, but a massive distraction from the real problems facing our world – like the crisis in the Middle East which could well lead to World War III, or the torture of Christians in Muslim nations which provokes little sympathy or action from the West.
I also believe that much of the stress of today’s society – which results in millions of working days lost each year – is down to the same humanistic ideology trapping people into believing there is no way out of their fearful predicaments; that there is no-one to call on for help.
Who Do We Trust?
But there is a God upon whom we can depend and in whom we can trust for our lives and our futures. The Book of Proverbs also says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him; and he will direct your paths” (Prov 3:5f).
Trusting in God is not an abrogation of personal responsibility, but provides you with the ability to act with true wisdom. As the Bible also says (on several occasions), “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
Trusting in God is not an abrogation of personal responsibility, but provides you with the ability to act with true wisdom.
This doesn’t mean the Bible has nothing to say about climate change. For it was when Jesus was asked about the signs that would indicate his imminent return that our Lord replied: “There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.”
And he added: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:11, 25-28).
Clearly, from that last comment, we should be looking to God at this time, and not to man’s inadequate solutions.
References
1 Christian Aid: Let's hear the voices of schoolchildren striking over climate change. Christian Today, 15 February 2019.
2 The Times, 11 February 2019.
3 Ibid.
4 Daily Mail, 12 February 2019.
5 School strike for climate. TedxStockholm talk.