Evangelical Alliance rallies its members against The Sun newspaper

The Evangelical Alliance, which represents two million evangelical Christians across the UK, has announced its support for the No More Page 3 campaign which is asking The Sun newspaper to remove its topless page three model.

It comes a day after the tabloid newspaper stepped up its defiance against the campaign by putting a page 3 girl on the front page in the name of breast cancer awareness.

“There is no way having naked women featured in a ‘family’ newspaper can be seen as good for society,” said Steve Clifford, the general director of the Alliance whose membership includes more than 3,500 churches representing more than two million evangelical Christians across 79 denominations.

The Sun says its new Check ‘Em Tuesday campaign will save lives.

The Alliance’s head of supporter relations Sue Wilmot, who will shortly be undergoing reconstructive surgery following successful treatment for breast cancer, said: “As a breast cancer survivor, I am passionate about raising awareness among women both within and outside the Church of the importance of performing regular checks.

“While I hope many women will be reminded of this through The Sun’s campaign, I am concerned about the tactics the newspaper has used and their attempts to re-brand their increasingly unpopular page 3 girl feature. I hope that they might respond to the reaction from our members and thousands of others by no longer using these over-sexualised images of young women.”

Today Steve Clifford has written to every single church leader in the Alliance’s membership asking them to sign the No More Page 3 petition.

 “As evangelical Christians we believe that we are all made in the image of God and that our bodies are a product of God’s amazing design, not to be ogled at or objectified,” he added.

“We recognise that historically the Church has not always been great at advocating for women, but given its recent defiance it is a time for us to tell The Sun newspaper that enough is enough. We believe in the inherent dignity of all human beings and are passionate about working together for a society that says no to objectification.”  

The Evangelical Alliance is joining more than 135,000 people and organisations who have signed the No More Page 3 Campaign petition, which started in August 2012, calling for the newspaper to “take the bare boobs out of The Sun”.

Alliance member organisation The Girls’ Brigade has previously written to David Dinsmore, editor of The Sun, following a survey which found 70 per cent of their members thought Page 3 had a negative impact on their self-esteem.

Ruth Gilson, executive director of Girls’ Brigade International and vice-chair of the Evangelical Alliance board, said: “We dream of a day in which girls and women are not objectified and where they are not measured solely on how ‘sexy’ they are. We call on The Sun to ditch its poor attitude towards women and commit to highlighting the equality of the sexes.”

Steve Clifford added: “As the largest organisation representing evangelical Christians in the UK we are rallying our troops to lend their weight to the campaign.”