Christian Action, Research and Education

CARE began in 1971 as the Nationwide Festival of Light, but was renamed in 1983 to reflect a substantial shift in emphasis. Over the following decades it established the following departments, in the belief that Christians should show active care as well as campaigning for moral standards in society:{{cite web |url=http://www.care.org.uk/about/our-story |title=Our Story |website=CARE |accessdate=15 December 2011 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111218214344/http://www.care.org.uk/about/our-story |archivedate=18 December 2011 |url-status=dead}}

• Care for the Family, a registered charity now independent of CARE,{{cite web |url=https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/3943053/charity-overview |title=Care for the Family |website=Charity Commission |access-date=4 October 2022}} initially established in 1988.
• Care Confidential, which runs pregnancy counselling centres and became independent in July 2011.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/28/christain-activists-grab-moral-agenda |title=Christian activists poised to win concessions on abortion after 40 years |newspaper =The Guardian |date=28 August 2011 |accessdate=15 December 2011 |location=London |first=Ben |last=Quinn}}
• Caring Services (defunct).
• Care for Education (defunct).
• Fostering, long term and remand care (defunct).
• Evaluate, CARE's sex and relationships education programme.{{cite web|url=http://www.evaluate.org.uk/ |title=Evaluate Informing Choice |publisher=Evaluate.org.uk |date= |accessdate=2014-03-18}}
• Leadership Programme, an internship programme securing placements for graduates. Some work as researchers for MPs, and MSPs, and members of the House of Lords while others work in Christian NGOs.{{Cite web |title=Leadership Programme |url=https://care.org.uk/about/leadership-programme |access-date=2024-03-30 |website=CARE |language=en}}

Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) Trust (registered charity number 288485, registered 12 January 1984) ceased to exist on 30 September 2008. CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) (registered charity number 1066963, registered 18 December 1997) is still operational.{{cite web|url=https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/3947174 |title= CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) |publisher=Charity Commission |date= |accessdate=2022-10-12}}

Ross Hendry has been CEO of CARE since 2021 when he took over from co-founder of the organisation Lyndon Bowring who moved into the role of Chairman.{{Cite web |title=Leadership Team |url=https://care.org.uk/about/leadership-team |access-date=2024-03-30 |website=CARE |language=en}}

CARE's annual income to March 2021 was over £2 million, mostly from voluntary donations.

CARE has been described as "an evangelical charity that promotes traditional family values".[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DAUuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=c9MEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1258%2C2250277 "In bad taste?"]. (4 October 1988). The News-Journal. p.2A. The organisation has actively campaigned against LGBT rights, abortion, stem cell research and assisted dying bills.

Labour Party insiders credited CARE with significant influence in support of Section 28 regarding education and homosexuality.{{cite news |last=Merrick |first=Jane |date=30 March 2008 |title=Right-wing Christian group pays for Commons researchers |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-rightwing-christian-group-pays-for-commons-researchers-802607.html |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091124091518/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-rightwing-christian-group-pays-for-commons-researchers-802607.html |archivedate=2009-11-24 |accessdate=22 March 2012 |newspaper=Independent |location=London |quote=CARE connections (list of MPs)}}

CARE is listed in the UK Parliament's register of all-party groups as the secretariat of the All-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade, a pressure group to encourage 'government action to tackle individuals who create demand for sexual services'.{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/register/prostitution-and-the-global-sex-trade.htm |title=House of Commons - Register Of All-Party Groups as at 28 February 2014: Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade |publisher=Publications.parliament.uk |date= |accessdate=2014-03-18}}

In 2015, CARE backed a private member's bill to prohibit the advertising of prostitution,{{cite web |url=http://www.care.org.uk/news/latest-news/time-ban-prostitution-adverts |title=Time to ban prostitution adverts |last1=Mildred |first1=James |date=5 Jun 2015 |website=care.org.uk |publisher=Christian Action Research and Education |access-date=8 November 2015 |quote=Leading Christian charity CARE (Christian Action Research & Education) is backing an historic attempt by a senior Peer to ban prostitution adverts from newspapers and online sites across England and Wales.}} the Advertising of Prostitution (Prohibition) Bill 2015–16, which was introduced by Lord McColl of Dulwich in the House of Lords.{{cite web |url=http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/advertisingofprostitutionprohibition.html |title=Advertising of Prostitution (Prohibition) Bill [HL] 2015-16 |author= |website=parliament.uk |publisher=UK Parliament |access-date=5 June 2015 |quote=A Bill to prohibit the advertising of prostitution; and for connected purposes.}}

CARE's 2010 report on taxation claimed that the tax burden had moved from single people with no dependants into families with two adults but only a single earner in them.{{cite news|url=http://www.economicvoice.com/christian-charity-care-claims-single-earner-families-worst-off-in-uk/50017150 |title=Christian charity claims single earner families worst off in UK |date=7 March 2011 |first=Jeff |last=Taylor |newspaper=Economic Voice |accessdate=15 February 2012 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315073607/http://www.economicvoice.com/christian-charity-care-claims-single-earner-families-worst-off-in-uk/50017150 |archivedate=15 March 2012 |url-status=dead }}

CARE's work has been described as "propaganda" in the House of Lords.

In 2000, MP Ben Bradshaw accused CARE of being "a bunch of homophobic bigots".{{cite news |last=Ahmed |first=Kamal |date=2000-07-30 |title=Onward Christian lobbyists |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jul/30/religion.uk |accessdate=2014-03-18 |work=The Observer |location=London}}{{cite web |last=Reid-Smith |first=Tris |date=2012-03-16 |title=UK MP cuts ties to Christian gay 'cure' charity |url=http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/uk-mp-cuts-ties-christian-gay-%E2%80%98cure%E2%80%99-charity160312 |accessdate=2014-03-18 |work=Gay Star News}} CARE has also been criticised for its opposition to abortion and gay rights.{{cite news |last=Smurthwaite |first=Kate |date=19 April 2012 |title=Anti-abortion CARE and campaigns to MPs |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/19/extreme-anti-abortion-groups-infiltrate |accessdate=20 May 2013 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London}}

In 2009, CARE had a stall at an event run by Anglican Mainstream called 'Sex in the City'.[https://www.thepinknews.com/2009/04/20/gay-cure-conference-to-be-held-in-london/ "'Gay cure' conference to be held in London"]. PinkNews. Retrieved 30 Jan 2023. The organisers claimed the event was "about the plethora of sexual issues confronting us in today's society, including mentoring the sexually broken, the sexualisation of culture, pornography, the Bible and sex, and marriage, the family and sex". Speakers included founder of National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), Joseph Nicolosi, and co-founder of Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality, Arthur Goldberg, both of whom have been described as advocates of harmful conversion therapies.{{cite web |last1=Booth |first1=Robert |last2=Ball |first2=James |date=13 April 2012 |title='Gay cure' Christian charity funded 20 MPs' interns] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/13/gay-cure-christian-charity-mps-interns |website=The Guardian}}Joseph Patrick McCormick. [http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/07/14/mp-who-took-interns-from-gay-cure-event-sponsor-appointed-as-welsh-secretary/ "MP who took interns from 'gay cure' event sponsor, appointed as Welsh Secretary"]. PinkNews. 14 July 2014, 11:16 PM. CARE subsequently stated that it opposes abusive conversion therapy practices, while wanting to make sure that prospective laws do not impede religious liberty.[https://care.org.uk/news/2022/11/conversion-therapy-plan-delayed/ "Conversion therapy plan delayed"]. CARE. Retrieved 30 Jan 2023.

CARE's funding of political research assistants by a "right-wing Christian" lobby group has attracted controversy, although CARE has stated that its graduates are not permitted to lobby on behalf of CARE, and that it is a purely educational programme.{{cite news |last=Modell |first=David |date=17 May 2008 |title=Christian fundamentalists fighting spiritual battle in Parliament |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1975933/Christian-fundamentalists-fighting-spiritual-battle-in-Parliament.html |accessdate=15 December 2011 |newspaper=Daily Telegraph |location=London}} In 2022, an investigation by openDemocracy revealed that 20 British MPs had taken staff members from CARE since 2012.{{Cite web |title=20 MPs took staff provided by anti-abortion charity |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/christian-research-action-education-leadership-scheme-mps-anti-abortion-roe-wade/ |website=openDemocracy}}

CARE has funded the network of CareConfidential crisis pregnancy centres in the UK, some of which came under criticism in a 2014 investigation by The Daily Telegraph when counsellors were filmed undercover claiming abortions would increase chances of breast cancer and could predispose women to becoming child sexual abusers.{{cite news |date=10 February 2014 |title=Abortion scandal: women told terminations increase chance of child abuse |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/10622815/Abortion-scandal-women-told-terminations-increase-chance-of-child-abuse.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210224945/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/10622815/Abortion-scandal-women-told-terminations-increase-chance-of-child-abuse.html |archive-date=10 February 2014 |accessdate=11 February 2014 |newspaper=Daily Telegraph |location=London}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{Official website|http://www.care.org.uk}}

{{Abortion in the United Kingdom}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Anti-abortion organisations in the United Kingdom

Category:Christian organisations based in the United Kingdom

Category:Christian political organizations

Category:Evangelical parachurch organizations

Category:Lobbying organisations in the United Kingdom

Category:Organisations based in the City of Westminster

Category:Organizations established in 1971

Category:Religion in the City of Westminster

Category:1971 establishments in the United Kingdom

Category:Organisations that oppose LGBTQ rights in the United Kingdom