Evangelicals get £1.3m from Government for youth work
-11/04/05
Evangelical Christian groups have been given more than £1.3m by the Government to work with young people, challenging previous suggestions that they are being discriminated against in funding decisions.
Christian organisations, including the Crusaders, have been given grants by the Department for Education to run courses for children and teenagers and run youth support groups.
The grants, from the Government’s National Voluntary Youth Organisation funding scheme, far outstrip cash to Muslim or secular ethnic minority groups.
Figures released by the Government show Youth for Christ, which supports abstinence programmes for young people and whose aim is “taking good news relevantly to every young person in Britain” received £235,461 to support its work in young offenders institutions.
The Message Trust, which proclaims it “has a vision to give every young person in the Greater Manchester region repeated and relevant opportunities to accept Jesus” gained £168,201 for a joint venture with Project Caleb, which works with young people released from prison.
The news comes after a 2002 survey by the Faithworks campaign, which recently invited the main party leaders to address Christians in the run up to the election campaign, that suggested Christians felt they were being discriminated against because of their faith in funding decisions.
Oasis, the charity behind the Faithworks campaign, has also received millions of pounds to set up several of the Governments new flagship city academies.
But black leaders questioned why evangelical groups have received so much cash while youth groups working with disaffected young people in rundown black areas have not been supported.
Muslim organisations, with the exception of the Muslim youth helpline which received £150,000, gained hardly any of the £21m youth work grants despite the Government’s stated wish to promote the inclusion of Muslim young people.
“Given the fact that there are so many challenges in black areas, particularly with black youth, it is particularly disappointing these revenues are not being afforded to the many groups working in these areas,” said Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote. “There should be an audit of how these decisions have been made or a review of how the money has been allocated.”
The cash for evangelical groups comes on top of about £1.3m given to non-evangelical Christian groups.
Joel Edwards, general director of the Evangelical Alliance said he “understood the concern” that government-funded youth projects could be used as a route to convert young people but urged “secularists … to calm down a bit and become less cynical” reports the Independent newspaper.
“We understand the concern but it is not borne out of any sort of fact. Churches do this work out of a world view influenced by the scriptures. We will talk about coming together through Christ but they also have to give us credit for non-evangelistic activities for the rejuvenation of society,” he said. “We are not preying on vulnerability.”
The Baptist Union of Great Britain received £317,866, the African & Caribbean Evangelical Alliance £150,000 and the Crusaders gained £294,258. But the Woodcraft group, a youth organisation linked to the peace movement which supported the anti-Iraq war demonstrations, had its grant cut.