England is totally gay

UPDATE: Be sure to read this thorough reading of the verdict from Peter Ould.

Wow. It’s a bad time to be a Christian in England.

A couple in England. A Christian couple. Who have fostered a bunch of kids. Have lost the right to do so in the future because the believe homosexuality is wrong and will tell the children they foster that this is the case.

This is like reverse gay-adoption. Now Christians can’t adopt. Essentially. Wow.

From the BBC:

“At the High Court, they asked judges to rule that their faith should not be a bar to them becoming carers, and the law should protect their Christian values.

But Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson ruled that laws protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation “should take precedence” over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds.

They said that if children were placed with carers who objected to homosexuality and same-sex relationships, “there may well be a conflict with the local authority’s duty to ‘safeguard and promote the welfare’ of looked-after children”.”

Here’s the response from the Derby City Council. Bolding mine.

A spokesman said the authority “valued diversity and promoted equality” and “encouraged and supported children in a non judgmental way, regardless of their sexual orientation or preference”.

He added: “The court confirmed that the local authority is properly entitled to consider a prospective foster carer’s views on sexuality when considering their application to become a foster parent and in fact, failure to do so would potentially leave it in breach of its own guidance as well as the National Minimum Standards.”

This is why I think we need to move the goalposts on the debate surrounding homosexual marriage. Here’s a good post (and discussion) from Michael Jensen on SydAng. Here are some thoughts of mine on the homosexual debate from Venn Theology. Here’s a similar story coming out of the UK from a little while ago. And here is a post where Mark Baddeley and I thrashed out the question. This is really an issue we need to get our heads around for the sake of our freedom to proclaim the gospel and call sin “sin”…

March 1, 2011

In Christianity, Culture

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Comments

RodeoClown says:
March 1, 2011 at 11:45 am

Hey Nathan,
I read through that SA thread – I think you have done a great job of outlining an appropriate course of action.

Well done.

AndrewFinden says:
March 2, 2011 at 5:25 am

To be a little pernickty (thanks for the excellent links)

This is like reverse gay-adoption. Now Christians can’t adopt. Essentially.

Not quite.
According to Wikipedia:

Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a “foster parent”.
The state via the family court and child protection agency stand in loco parentis to the minor, making all legal decisions while the foster parent is responsible for the day to day care of said minor. The foster parent is remunerated by the state for their services.

That’s different to adoption when the couple become the legal parents / guardians.

Nathan Campbell says:
March 2, 2011 at 7:52 am

Yeah. ‘Twas hyperbolic. But it does make an interesting parallel with the anti-gay-adoption campaign Christians have been running.

The update on the top of the post makes this all seem a little like a storm in a tea-cup too, but coupled with that other story from the UK about the lady who used to work for the adoption service, but who no longer can, it’s still an indicator of a worrying trend.