Sir – Not living in the Crescent Road, Cowley area, where it is planned to open the Christian free school (Report, November 29), I cannot comment upon potential traffic congestion.
But I feel that I must take issue with the views expressed by John White of the Oxford Humanists. He seems to associate the word ‘Christian’ with dogmatic bullying, which is pure secularist prejudice.
A ‘Christian ethos’ is not the same as having religion stuffed down your throat, especially as 70 per cent of the school’s places are intended for children of any or no faith background. It amazes me how humanists and secularists pride themselves on their open-mindedness, only to lurch into ‘evangelical’ anti-religion mode at the mention of the word ‘Christian’.
Yet John White should remember where the values of fair play, public honesty, helping the distant stranger and the nurturing of a peaceful, loving, and caring society come from.
They certainly don’t come from secularist ideology, except when secularists pilfer them without acknowledgement. Rather, they come from the ‘Christian ethos’, which underpins our civilisation and is intended to underpin the new school.
Dr Allan Chapman, Oxford
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