The Emmanuel Foundation are lying to us

Allow me to be flippant for a moment. In the King James Bible, Mathew 5:38-40 reads thus:

Now this is one of the 1100 or so places where the Bible is supposed to contradict itself, (this conflicts with Exodus 21:24, for instance) but that isn't the point.

Who among us could honestly claim to be a Christian and follow this teaching to the letter, I know I couldn't even when I was supposed to be one! King's Academy forever trumpets about having a Christian Ethos (ethic) yet their reaction to this very passage is made quite plain in the document prospective parents are requested to sign; specifically that a physical assault on a member of staff will be dealt with by expulsion.

How do I feel about that? Well, personally, if I was in their position and some little sh!t clobbered me, I'd think they were perfectly within their rights to do so. But then, I don't claim to follow a strict Christian ethos.

Surely, the Christian answer to this most abhorrent and digusting behaviour is to learn from it and fix things so it doesn't happen again. Take the offender to one side and deal with him (or her) in a manner befitting the truly faithful. But throw them out of school, where are they going to go? If a teacher/pupil confrontation has escalated to such a degree that violence ensues, then something is seriously wrong: and, based on my own observation of several incidents, not always just with the pupil!

"The plain instruction is, Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord's keeping. And the sum of all is, that Christians must avoid disputing and striving. If any say, Flesh and blood cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and those who act upon right principles will have most peace and comfort."

Excuse me for being a pedant, but expulsion doesn't seem to follow that interpretation.

In fact, when I visited one of the schools that's forced to take on King's Academy rejects I watched while a teacher deal with a potentially nasty verbal confrontation. Let me get this into context, this is a big, muscular lad of about 15. He wears a scowl and a Burberry baseball hat - a direct contradiction of the uniform code. The teacher by comparison is a slight man of maybe 5'8" - 5'10" in his mid-forties. (King's Academy, rightly or otherwise, would not tolerate this sort of offence and, it's been alleged, some kids have been expelled for wearing their ties incorrectly. Even I find that a little hard to believe.)

There follows a brief verbal volley where the kid starts to back-chat and the teacher refuses to bite. My hackles are up; I'd like to see the little twat sent to the Headmaster and dealt with properly; but I'm only a parent-observer. In seconds, the situation is defused, not that anyone wins and when I comment on the kids behaviour, the teacher points out that "He's a difficult lad. He's not going to leave school with good grades and he needs a lot of attention. In a few years, I'd like to think he'll reflect on his time here and think 'I was a bit of a swine then.'"

Make no mistake - this exchange happened; it is not a work of fiction or allegory. This begs the question, who is following the Christian ethic more carefully? The devoutly Christian Principal or the even-tempered, religiously non-descript teacher from an inner-city comprehensive?