An atheist group is planning to recruit school kids to teach them how to damage religious activity in schools.
Children will be encouraged to undermine the role of Christian assemblies and the way RE is taught. They will also be trained to lobby local authorities about these issues.
The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (AHS) will launch the recruitment drive in the summer. It will coincide with an atheist summer camp for kids.
The move has the backing of prominent atheists, Richard Dawkins and AC Grayling.
News of the atheist recruitment drive was broken by The Sunday Telegraph’s religion correspondent, Jonathan Wynne-Jones.
Richard Dawkins attacked the story on his blog, richarddawkins.net, accusing Mr Wynne-Jones of “Lying for Jesus. Not for the first time.”
He said he could find no evidence that the AHS were launching an initiative in schools.
But later, the AHS confirmed that they were intending to target schools. To which Mr Dawkins said he was “delighted”.
The AHS is also actively working on University campuses. The group claims to be aware of 25 atheist societies at colleges – up from seven a year ago.
Chloë Clifford-Frith is press officer of the AHS. She is concerned that Christian Unions in schools and universities are teaching young people about creation and saying homosexuality is wrong.
She said: “We want to point out how silly some of these beliefs are and hope that these groups will help to do that.”
AC Grayling, the philosopher and writer, said: “As well as making the case for reason and science, it is great to know that the AHS will be standing up against religious privilege and discrimination.
“The AHS shows that increasing numbers of young people are unwilling to put up with it.”
The Christian Institute’s Simon Calvert responded: “Atheists are becoming increasingly militant in their desperate attempts to stamp out faith.
“It is deeply worrying that they now want to use children to attack the Christian ethos of their schools.
“Many parents will also be anxious at the thought of militant atheists targeting their children.”