Revealed: Pro-smacking lobbyists funded by Christian fundamentalists

The Christian Institute has thrown their considerable financial heft behind blocking a bid to ban smacking in Scotland - hailed by many as a watershed progressive policy.

The Institute is “committed to the truths of historic, biblical Christianity” according to its website. They believe the Bible was inspired “in its entirety by God’s Spirit through the human authors” and is “without error” including “when it speaks of history and the cosmos”. Christians must submit to the Bible’s “supreme authority” it states.

The institute also believes Jesus will “raise the dead and bring salvation and judgment to final completion” meaning “evildoers will suffer eternal punishment”.

The Be Reasonable Scotland campaign is also backed by the Family Education Trust, which has campaigned against the named person scheme, the promotion of same sex marriage, sex education and the morning after pill.

The campaign sprung up north of the border when Scottish ministers endorsed a bill brought forward by Green MSP John Finnie to remove the defence of justifiable assault which allows parents to use physical punishment to discipline a child.

The public face of the Be Reasonable Scotland campaign, Lowri Turner, 32, is from Wales. Turner claims the pressure group, which began in Wales, is “expanding” to cover Scotland but she was unable to say how many people are involved north of the border.

She said they turned their attention to Scotland “a couple of weeks ago” and are trying to “get the grassroots campaign off the ground”. An Edinburgh conference chaired by Turner is planned for December 8.

She said: “At the moment it’s the same sort of team that’s been working with Be Reasonable Wales and we are in discussions with other people about coming on board and helping us and supporting us in different ways, but it’s very much an early stage grassroots organisation at the moment.”

When asked whether she had a budget provided by well-financed backers the Christian Institute and the Family Education Trust she said: “That’s not, kind of, my function in the campaign. I’m the, sort of, face and voice. There are other people who deal with it. There’s Tom [Hamilton, former Daily Record and Sunday Mail journalist] who does the PR. There’s other guys who deal with the kind of bigger things like the policy and budgets, that kind of thing.”

However, she did confirm that the campaign in Scotland is being paid for by The Family Education Trust and The Christian Institute. “Yes, yes,” she said. “They are the main supporters behind it.”

Turner, a member of the Free Church of England, said: “My connection to the campaign has come through the Christian Institute. I am a Christian. They’re an organisation I’ve supported for some time.”

Turner, who describes smacking as the “best method” of disciplining children, said: “I was smacked when I was a child and although I didn’t enjoy it at the time I look back now and think I’m glad my parents did that. I knew what was right and wrong, what I should and shouldn’t do, and it was for my own good.”

She has a baby daughter and fears parents “will be criminalised” by proposals for a smacking ban, admitting that she plans to smack her child “when she gets to an age that it’s appropriate” - but underlined that she has not yet smacked the infant.

Turner initially refused to discuss the “appropriate” age to smack a child before stating that it would not be appropriate to smack teenagers.

She said: “I imagine at the age of 15 a smack probably wouldn’t be as effective a method. The purpose of smacking is to teach a child not to do something again…you shouldn’t have to keep smacking them.” Turner said it would be more appropriate to “ground” teenagers.

When asked the youngest age that a child should be smacked she admitted “it’s difficult to say because each child and each parent is different”.

She would not be drawn on whether parents should be permitted to use implements - such as a belt - to discipline children. “We’re not trying to prescribe an exact method,” she said.

Turner, however, did admit: “I don’t think it’s Christian to hit children”. She went on to make a distinction between hitting and smacking.

“I think my Christian beliefs support the view that I can discipline my child using reasonable chastisement,” she added. “I don’t think it’s right for anyone to hit a child.”

Green MSP John Finnie said: “I think it’s fair to say concerns have been raised with me [about the funding of opponents of the bill]. The challenge that lies with them is the basis for their objections, which sometimes people would take exception to. I think people are wary of the basis for some of the views that have been expressed.”

Finnie questioned the view that there may be a “theological basis” to arguments against a smacking ban.

He said: “If people would profess there’s a theological basis to this, that’s counter to some of the positions of some of the mainstream religions. I don’t want to get involved in dispute about theological teaching. I’ve been described as a man with no faith. I have great faith in humanity and that appropriate judgements will be made.”

The former police officer also revealed his office has received sinister anonymous phone calls and letters since he began his campaign. Finnie did not name any groups but added: “I’ve certainly had some interesting correspondence sent anonymously to me. My office has received anonymous phone calls from people unwilling to say who they are.”

The Sunday Herald asked Tom Hamilton to reveal the number of people involved in Be Reasonable Scotland and the budget the organisation has been given by funders the Christian Institute and the Family Education Trust.

He said the campaign is “a loose, non-party political alliance of religious and non-religious people from across the philosophical spectrum with the single goal of preserving the current law on smacking” and all funding comes from “UK donors”.

Hamilton said it will be “formally launched” at the Edinburgh conference and criticised the Scottish Government for backing Finnie’s bill which he said is “well out of touch with the views of ordinary mums and dads across Scotland and threatens to ruin the childhoods of children from well-adjusted families”.

The Sunday Herald also contacted the Christian Institute and the Family Education Trust but both organisations said no one was available to comment.

MEET THE CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE: AGAINST SAME SEX MARRIAGE AND ABORTION, BUT FOR SMACKING

The Christian Institute – one of two organisations behind pro-smacking pressure group Be Reasonable Scotland - was founded in England in 1991 and first appeared on the Scottish Charity Register in 2008.

Its key objective is the furtherance and promotion of the Christian religion and a “Biblical worldview”. It aims to influence debate about issues including the family, education, medical ethics, drugs and the constitution, according to the most recent annual report for 2016.

It is entirely funded by donations which totalled £2.8m in 2016, and around £2.6m in each of the previous two years. Although the ten trustees (which include five reverends) are not paid, there is a staff of around 50 people, including a chief executive, two directors and an “in-house solicitor”.

Among its achievements listed in the report is speaking to 14,000 people at 251 meetings and church services across the UK. There were 67 meetings in Scotland attended by around 1,700 people. This outreach programme is aimed at setting out “biblical principles” and how they should affect Christian involvement in modern society. It also has a mailing list of 55,000 people, including 4,400 church leaders, half of whom “financially support” the charity.

The Newcastle-based charity’s key achievement in Scotland last year, according to its annual report, was a judicial appeal against the Scottish Government’s Named Person scheme which put the brakes on a plan to give every child a single point of contact if they want to talk about any worries and seek support. The scheme was intended to improve child protection. Institute representatives attended 36 “roadshows and action days”.

The charity has previously campaigned against gambling, abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality, opposing same sex marriages and seeking to raise the age of consent. The charity once produced an organ-donor style plastic card that read: "In the event of my death, I do not want my children to be adopted by homosexuals".

The charity paid the legal costs of a registrar in England who was disciplined for refusing to process paperwork pertaining to civil partnerships and two Christian hoteliers who refused to allow a gay couple in a civil partnership to stay in a double room.

Its “Legal Defence Fund” also paid for the appeal by the family which owns Ashers Baking Company in Belfast when the firm refused to decorate a cake saying Support Gay Marriage for a male couple's wedding.

In Wales the Institute has been a vocal critic of a proposed smacking ban, claiming it would “criminalise loving mothers and fathers”. It has been writing to supporters urging them to “pray and speak out against the plans”.

FAMILY VALUES CAMPAIGNERS OPPOSED TO SEX EDUCATION AND CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

The Family Education Trust is a Middlesex-based charity whose objectives are to promote “the family founded on marriage”. It also claims to investigate the “social, medical and psychological consequences of sexual behaviour”, according to last year’s annual accounts.

The organisation was a co-applicant in the appeal to the Supreme Court against the named persons scheme proposed by the Scottish Government and supported the Say No to the Named Persons Scheme campaign.

It has also campaigned against same sex marriage, statutory sex education, promotion of the morning after pill to under 16s, and criticised the UK’s four children’s commissioners when they called for a UK-wide smacking ban, accusing them of “championing a radical children’s rights agenda”.

The Trust’s director Norman Wells said: “The use of a moderate disciplinary smack is perfectly consistent with respect for a child’s human dignity and physical integrity. The commissioners seem to have lost sight of the fact that parents are authority figures in their children’s lives, charged with the responsibility of caring for their children, nurturing them, and correcting them where necessary.”

The Trust’s annual report states that it continues to advise parents and teachers “particularly in relation to growing concern about the character of sex education provision in schools”.

The organisation funds its activities with “donations, legacies, membership, subscriptions and covenants, as well as the sale of educational literature”, according to a report by its treasurer. It was handed around £150,000 in 2015 and a further £121,000 in 2016, including a single donation of £47,000. Sales of videos and publications brought in a further £151,000 in 2015 and £122,000 in 2016.

The treasurer also has an endowment fund of £721,000 “comprising investments and certain long-term deposits”.