In the United Kingdom, homosexuality has gone from being the sin that dare not speak its name to the behavior that some people aren’t allowed to not talk about–and only one perspective is permitted, according to the Daily Mail:
They are devoted foster parents with an unblemished record of caring for almost 30 vulnerable children.
But Vincent and Pauline Matherick will this week have their latest foster son taken away because they have refused to sign new sexual equality regulations.
The Mathericks are both Christians ministers. They apparently do a wonderful job performing deeds of mercy for children that no one else wants. As foster parents, they are helping to fill a gaping void in the social safety net for kids at a time when the UK needs thousands more such parents. But none of that matters if they refuse to toe the line on what has become, by government fiat, society’s most important standard for acceptability: rightthink on gayness.
The 11-year-old boy, who has been in their care for two years, will be placed in a council hostel this week and the Mathericks will no longer be given children to look after.
Earlier this year, Somerset County Council’s social services department asked them to sign a contract to implement Labour’s new Sexual Orientation Regulations, part of the Equality Act 2006, which make discrimination on the grounds of sexuality illegal.
Officials told the couple that under the regulations they would be required to discuss same-sex relationships with children as young as 11 and tell them that gay partnerships were just as acceptable as heterosexual marriages.
They could also be required to take teenagers to gay association meetings.
Mrs Matherick, 61, said they had asked if they could continue looking after their foster son until he is found a permanent home, but officials refused and he will be placed in a council hostel on Friday.
Said regulations may be found here, and my prior discussion of them is here. Presumably the pre-teen boy will be required to go to sexuality indoctrination classes at the hostel, which is the only reason I can think of why it was necessary to pull him out of a home in which he’d been living for two years so quickly.
Religious campaigners say the couple are the latest victims of an equality drive which puts gay rights above religious beliefs.
Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have complained that the rules force them to overturn long-held beliefs.
It isn’t simply a matter of “gay rights,” of course. No gay person would be deprived of any rights if the Mathericks weren’t required to talk about issues of sexual orientations and preferences with pre-teen children. This is far more punitive, and has to do with a government that has decided that it must impose a specific view of sexual morality on those who refuse to believe the new sexual orthodoxy. Local governments in scattered places in the U.S. are starting to do the same thing.
Traditionalists beware.
(Via T19.)
October 25, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I believe that persecution of faithful Christians is coming! I praise God for this faithful couple who did not compromise what they believed. May God protect this child whom the State removed!
October 25, 2007 at 3:39 pm
That poor kid. Nobody except the foster parents seem to be thinking about what is best for him.
October 25, 2007 at 10:14 pm
I hate to beat a dead horse but Dr. Gagnon at my seminary ( http://www.robgagnon.net ) has spoken about this in several of his works which are available on-line. Believe this type of thing is already happening in the US. See the Boston Dioceseof the RCC v. State of Massachussetts….
October 25, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Here is the specific article I referenced
http://www.robgagnon.net/ENDA.htm
October 27, 2007 at 11:04 pm
I strongly support rights for homosexuals, but clearly forcing parents to teach a positive view of homosexuality is wrong. They can propose to teach it public schools if they like; they can put together advertising campaigns if they like; but taking kids out of their homes because their parents are unwilling to teach a particular view of morality, no matter what that view is, should inspire outrage in everyone who values freedom.
October 28, 2007 at 6:38 am
Well put, Ryan.