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British City Council Says Christian Views Opposing Gay Rights Disqualifies Couple As Foster Parents

By Howard M. Friedman

In Britain, a High Court hearing is scheduled to begin on Monday in a challenge to action taken by the Derby City Council to disqualify as potential foster parents a Christian couple who believe that homosexuality is unacceptable. Today's London Telegraph reports that the action was taken after a social worker discovered Eunice and Owen Johns' views. Those views would mean that the Johns could never tell a child that homosexuality is acceptable. In the past, the Johns have acted as foster parents to nearly 20 children. The gay rights group, Stonewall, backs City Council's action, saying that it is the interests of the child, not the prejudices of the parent, that count.  However the Christian Legal Centre that represents the Johns says that

One of the issues before the Court is whether Christian couples, who have traditional views on sexual ethics, are ?fit and proper persons? to foster - and, by implication, adopt. That the Court even needs to consider this is a remarkable reversal in the concept of the public good and the traditional definition of sexual morality.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on October 30, 2010 (boomark / email).