IN DEPTH: Church of England Schools Teaching ‘Pyramid of White Supremacy’ Theory

Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, waits to hear the results of a vote on the ordination of women bishops during the General Synod at Church House in London, England, on Nov. 20, 2013. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

An investigation into anti-racist third-party organisations has found that some Church of England schools have issued the “pyramid of white supremacy” theory model to educators, raising major concerns about the propagation of critical race theory (CRT) in such an ancient institution.

Last week, Don’t Divide Us (DDU), an organisation set up to take a stand against the UK’s “divisive obsession with people’s racial identity” released a report focused on third-party organisations promoting radical political beliefs in schools.

It said that 48 third-party organisations working in English schools promoted CRT as fact.

“Once CRT is accepted as a basis for school policies, it becomes easier to treat groups of pupils differently according to skin colour, and an important part of schools’ traditional socialising role, to create a common culture through a shared effort to realise educational aims, becomes very much harder, if not impossible,” wrote the DDU.

The report claimed that third-party organisations “erode the necessary boundaries between knowledge, belief and opinion in the curriculum, making indoctrination easier; they also embed a relationship between schools and ideologically motivated businesses.”

‘White Supremacy Pyramid’

However, the report author, as well as Christian clergy, expressed major concern to The Epoch Times at how such a traditional ancient institution as the Church of England (CofE) is embracing the disputed ideology CRT as fact across its schools. They also examined why they believe this has happened.

The report noted that teachers across CofE schools in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich have been given materials that say they “benefit from the systematic oppression of People of Colour through racist policies and practice“ and that ”white privilege is perhaps the most enduring throughout history. “

There are currently 87 church schools, 85 of which are primary and two of which are secondary under the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.

The document showed the “white supremacy pyramid” based on materials from the US-based global feminist agency Equality Institute, which claims that “indifference to politics” leads to genocide.

The document also used the Allport Scale of Prejudice in Society, which is based on a theory of escalating hate as set out by American psychologist, Gordon Allport, in 1954. The Allport Scale has five stages: antilocution, avoidance, discrimination, physical attack, and extermination. Hate speech is included in the antilocution stage.

According to its history, the roots of the CofE go back to Roman Empire when a Christian church came into existence in what was then the Roman province of Britain.

Activists lay on the road outside Nottingham Theatre Royal to protest for the social justice movement Black Lives Matter in Nottingham, England on Aug. 5, 2016. (Edward Smith/PA via AP)

‘Total Lack of Thinking’

DDU Director and report author Alka Sehgal Cuthbert told The Epoch Times that she thinks it is part of a wider trend in public, cultural, intellectual and academic institutions that are “embarrassed about their traditions.”

She said she was very surprised regarding the partisanship of materials on the website, which also had explicit references to Black Lives Matter.

“What has been concerning is the shallowness and total lack of thinking and what it reveals about the Church Of England education board,” she said.

“What you have here is one of Britain’s oldest and most traditional institutions with incredible responsibility, with diocese and school boards across the nation, and they see no problem at all in endorsing this highly partisan political view, ” she added.

Mrs. Cuthbert said that in a BBC recent interview, she challenged Nigel Genders, chief education officer for the Church of England, who told her that he and the church were just trying to provide an “inclusive education” for everyone.

But she added that she questioned how he could at the same time be endorsing materials that teach “white privilege.”

“That is hardly inclusive, that is highly divisive. And it baffles me when the CoE itself in its own doctrine and in its own resources have such a rich supply of material to which the kind of values of tolerance and equality and compassion could be taught beautifully,” she added.

“They are just abandoning that, it’s like they just don’t care about that or they think it’s inadequate, it just shows the total lack of confidence,” she added.

The report called for an independent review of third-party organisations that provide lessons on race.

A worker cleans the Churchill statue in Parliament Square that had been spray painted with the words "was a racist,” in London on June 08, 2020. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Racial Justice

Some critics of CRT call it an outgrowth of Marxism, associated concepts such as  “white privilege,” “unconscious bias,” or “systemic racism,” three concepts associated with CRT.

Prominent American CRT advocate Ibram X. Kendi says there is no such thing as being non-racist or race-neutral. In other words, one must support “anti-racist” policies and actively identify and confront perceived racism in everyday life in order not to be a racist.

The leading researcher into cancel culture in the world of academia, Professor Eric Kaufmann has previously told The Epoch Times that young people who were taught such concepts are also significantly more likely to endorse political correctness than those who were not.

He also warned that unless politicians begin to take these issues more seriously it seems likely that “cherished values” such as “free speech, scientific reason, and national heritage” will lose ground in the years to come.

‘Racial sin’

Founded in the 16th century, as an institution now under the archbishop of Canterbury’s leadership Justin Welby, the CoE has made several high-profile statements that show its full commitment to “Racial Justice.”

In 2020, Mr. Welby said he was “sorry and ashamed” for racism in the church.

“I have a white advantage. Educational advantage. Straight advantage. Male advantage,” he said.

In a statement echoing Kendi’s anti-racism worldview in 2021, the CofE said that “decades of inaction carry consequences and this inaction must be owned by the whole Church. A failure to act now will be seen as another indication, potentially a last straw for many, that the Church is not serious about racial sin.”

The church has stated that it has a goal of having a 30 percent ethnic minority within its ranks and has allocated £100 million to compensation for historic links to transatlantic chattel slavery.

The CofE has called for mandatory training in all dioceses to embed anti-racism practices, and for full-time racial justice officers to be employed in every diocese for a five-year term.

In its full report on its links to slavery (pdf), the CofE said that the decision to “embark upon this journey of understanding was timely.”

“Less than a year later, George Floyd was murdered and churches, institutions and corporations throughout the country and wider society developed a heightened interest in developing an understanding of our past in order to create a more just future for us all,” it added.

Calvin Robinson in an undated file photo. (Courtesy of Calvin Robinson)

‘Inherently anti-Christian’

Last year Reverend Calvin Robinson joined the breakaway conservative Global Anglican Future Conference after he was cancelled by the CofE because white senior clergy were fearful that he refuted claims that Britain is “institutionally racist” even though he is black.

“This is the primary reason I left the CofE,” Mr. Robinson told The Epoch Times.

“We had a disagreement about CRT. They actively want to embrace the neo-Marxist ideology, whereas I think it’s inherently anti-Christian,” he said.

“They want to be seen as modern. They’re appealing to the world with the values of the world: diversity, inclusion and equality. Instead, they should refer back to the Bible for our values: faith, hope and love,” said Mr. Robinson.

He said that on the surface, CRT “seems innocuous” but he believes it is not.

“‘Whiteness’ or ’white privileged' is a new inherited sin, replacing that of original sin. Unfortunately, there’s no repentance, no forgiveness, no regeneration. In CRT there is no way to escape your inherent sin of whiteness. There’s no saviour coming to free you from white privilege. You must spend the rest of your life atoning. It is an ideology void of mercy, which makes it wicked and to be avoided at all costs,” said Mr. Robinson.

“Shame on the CofE for getting caught up in it,” he added.

BLM activists in Los Angeles on Dec. 30, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

In July, Reverend Brett Murphy announced he was leaving the CofE and his church in the Diocese of Leicester as he claimed it has stepped away from the “historic truth of the Bible.”

“I think fundamentally the CofE has abandoned the Bible, and that’s the root cause of all of the issues it’s facing,” Mr. Murphy told The Epoch Times.

“When you cast off from the safe harbours of Christian orthodoxy and you push away from the Scripture, then you get caught on the prevailing winds of the culture,” he said, adding that he believed that the CofE is devolving into a sort of “woke wellness cult.”

“Anything that is woke or liberal at the cutting edge of this cultural war, the CofE has no foundation to resist it. There is literally no foundation to turn and say, well, we don’t believe in that we don’t go along with that, because they don’t have any objective standards anymore,” he said.

He said that when he saw the “Pyramid of White Supremacy” he was shocked, but “not shocked by any.”

“There’s no room for racism in a biblical worldview, effectively, because we’re all created from Adam and Eve, and we’re all created in the image of God,” he said.

“We’re not really fighting against flesh and blood, but we’re fighting against powers and principalities of darkness in the spiritual world. So it is a spiritual battle. I think as well, there is just a fear of being rejected by the culture,” he added.

‘Risk That Schools Could Lose Courage in Their Commitment to Teaching Racial Justice’

When approached for comment, a CofE spokesperson forwarded The Epoch Times a recent statement by Nigel Genders that said that “contrary to the reports, there is no single approach to addressing racial justice in Church of England schools.”

He added that the resource in question “was not a national Church publication.”

The statement, titled “Children must not wait until 18 to learn about racial justice,” said that decisions “on the best resources for different age groups and contexts are taken by each school with advice from their diocese” and that it trusts “the judgement our teachers and school leaders to do this.”

“However, in the face of polarised commentary, there is sadly a risk that schools could lose courage in their commitment to teaching racial justice at a time when it has never been more important.

Mr. Genders wrote that the wider Church’s work “on racial justice is not an attempt to reflect demographic trends in society, to be politically correct, or to engage in a culture war but rather is fundamental to what we believe as Christians.”

“Our mandate comes not from identity politics but from our identity in Christ. That all people are created equal, and in the image of God, and it is our call to love one another,” he added.

The Epoch Times contacted the Diocese of Edmundsbury and Ipswich for comment.