Heather Bellamy spoke with Simon Calvert, the Deputy Director for Public Affairs at the Christian Institute, about the turnaround, and whether it has any impact for wider religious freedoms.

Simon: We do understand, as I said at the beginning, the Government's problem with tackling that tiny number of people and places in which children are being taught violence. So they are going to continue to try and tackle that. They need help to focus on that specific problem.

I think they are bound to come back with more ideas and schemes that go too wide. And so as Christians we're going to have to continue to be vigilant and we're going to have to continue to point out when they are overreaching themselves. But for now I think we can be thankful and I think that we must use the freedom that we have while we have it.

We don't know the future, but right now there's huge freedom across the United Kingdom for Christians and churches to run youth groups and to teach children and young people about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I think we must use that freedom while we have it, and pray that the Lord would bless it and prosper it.

Heather: Are there any wider implications of this change of heart, in relation to religious freedom and the Government's desire to see adherence to what they're calling 'British values'? Or is this just going to be an isolated incident?

Simon: I think there is a real clash of views within Government. There are people who understand the problems with what the Government has proposed in the past, and they would be sympathetic to defending religious freedom and civil liberties in general. There are other people who do not understand, and they have this idea that secularism is somehow neutral, and that the solution to all of the problems in the world is to enforce secularism - by legislation and by the actions of Government departments and governmental organisations. Those people are always going to be pushing for more of the same, and for more enforcement of their own particular view of the world. So this isn't just a one off incident, let's call it an ongoing dialogue between the churches and the Government, and we're going to have to continue to be alert.

If I may encourage people to follow the Christian Institute on social media, so they can see when these issues are coming up and when they have opportunities to pray, and when they have opportunities to take action.

Heather: What do you think the Church at large and Christians individually can do to help alleviate those concerns from secularists and from authorities, to demonstrate to society that they are a force for good?

Simon: That's an excellent question, and the answer is just to be bold and to speak out. One of the problems is that if we don't speak to MPs and civil servants and local government about who we are and what we believe and what we're doing, other people will talk about us to them. And that is what has been happening. So very often you will find that equality and diversity trainers, LGBT groups, humanist and atheist groups are talking to the Government about us, and what they are saying about us is not correct. They are misrepresenting us sometimes. So we need to be willing to speak up boldly about what we believe, but of course, also wisely. We're not crossing the street for a fight. We are seeking simply to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have to explain what that means to people.

We should take opportunities to engage in the public square with politicians and others when we have the chance. Certainly lots of churches across the country make an effort to get to know their local MP, invite them along to church, go along to their surgeries, take a group of people along, tell them that they are praying for the MP and take the opportunity to talk about some of the areas of concern that they have. That's the kind of thing we can do. And of course we must, must, must pray. We recently encouraged Christian Institute supporters to join us in a week of prayer for these issues and others. It is so important that we remind ourselves that the great thing we can do in the midst of all of these challenges is to pray to a God who hears.