Wednesday, July 21, 2010



Christian bigotry

The Press reports that a sports coach has been sacked from a Christchurch Christian school because he is gay:

[The coach] was later told by the principal that the school's Board of Trustees has decided his homosexuality was a problem and he could not continue in the position.

The newspaper reports today that the decision was made based on Christian beliefs that homosexuality is a sin.

When are Christians going to learn? It is unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation, and it has been now for almost twenty years. Religion, even running a religious school, is not a licence to discriminate on this front, any more than it is a licence to be racist. The only exemption for religious schools allows them to discriminate on the basis of religion to ensure they have appropriate teachers; they don't get to panty-sniff everyone to ensure they conform to their weird little moral strictures.

As I said, this has been the law for almost twenty years; you'd think the bigots would have caught up with it by now. But I guess the whole problem is their failure to adapt themselves to the modern world...

Update: More here. The good news is that staff and parents at the school did not support the board's bigotry. At least some of them understand that that sort of institutionalised hate is not acceptable.