Christian Couple With Anti-Gay View Banned From Fostering Go To High Court
OWEN and Eunice Johns are Pentecostal Christians from Derby who are not longer allowed to foster children because they hold “traditional” views on homosexuality. They are appealing, legally. At the High Court, sitting at Nottingham Crown Court where the Christians couple are fighting for “Christian freedoms”.
The Johns, both in their early 60s, have cared for 15 children in the past. After a break, they applied to be foster parents for Derby City Council. But they were refused. Would they be able to tell children in their care that homosexuality was fine? Says Mr Johns:
“The council said: ‘Do you know, you would have to tell them that it’s OK to be homosexual? But I said I couldn’t do that because my Christian beliefs won’t let me. Morally, I couldn’t do that. Spiritually I couldn’t do that.”
Paul Diamond, representing the Johns via the Christian Legal Centre, said they were “doomed not to be approved” as foster carers because of their views.
“I will be submitting that the promotion of values is something that the court should be protecting and promoting especially when these religious values are recognised as giving a moral framework to values in our country. No-one is disputing that the duty of every public authority is to safeguard and promote the welfare of a child. It is conceivable if there was an extremely vulnerable adolescent practising (homosexuality) child, who may be placed in a certain familial relationship that was disapproving, that may not be a sensible placement. Likewise, religion or moral values should not be singled out for this consideration.”
So. It’s not bigotry. It’s not personal preference. It’s tradition. Do you see..?
Posted: 1st, November 2010 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
