Catholic Church Promotes Anti-Gay Message in Schools

[Clinton Huxley]

Saw this on the Guardian yesterday. The Catholic Church has written to every Catholic school in the land (note for Seth - these schools are mostly state-funded) urging every pupil to sign an anti-gay marriage petition

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/ap ... y-marriage

This is almost certainly against the law (maybe Rum would know more?) but not exactly surprising. Nice to note the reaction of pupils at some schools - getting Gay Pride badges to pin to their uniforms. An example, perhaps, of the RC Church being out of step even with its own younger members.

[Rum]

I do know as it happens and if the strategy is as baldly anti-gay as the article suggest it breaks a number of rules which all schools are required to adhere to concerning discrimination - or rather discouraging it.

My guess therefore is that the strategy is probably rather more diluted than the article suggest and perhaps promotes the value of heterosexual marriage or else they are after the publicity and will quietly back off once the hoped for storm in a teacup subsides.

Good to see kids protesting though!

[Ronja]

The text of the petition (which according to The Guardian is not by RCC but by an organization calling themselves "the Coalition for Marriage"):

I support the legal definition of marriage which is the voluntary union for
life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. I oppose any
attempt to redefine it.

Ready-to-print signature lists can be downloaded here: http://www.c4m.org.uk/downloads/petition.pdf

Without knowing very much about the UK school system, my guess is that this would fall into what Rum said about breaking a number of rules which all schools are required to adhere to concerning discrimination.

The wording of the petition is pretty pathetic, because the "for life" part has already been redefined, and way back in the last century, too. Eedjuts!

.

[Rum]

I should perhaps have quoted a source. If you are interested in digging around (there's a lot of it!) you might want to look here:-http://www.csie.org.uk/inclusion/legislation.shtml

[Rum]

Some developments!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17883093

[Seth]

Saw this on the Guardian yesterday. The Catholic Church has written to every Catholic school in the land (note for Seth - these schools are mostly state-funded) urging every pupil to sign an anti-gay marriage petition

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/ap ... y-marriage

This is almost certainly against the law (maybe Rum would know more?) but not exactly surprising. Nice to note the reaction of pupils at some schools - getting Gay Pride badges to pin to their uniforms. An example, perhaps, of the RC Church being out of step even with its own younger members.

The thing about the Catholic church is that it's, well...catholic. It is the church which remains stable in the face of changing social mores which a good many people believe are detrimental to the betterment of society. Whether or not they are correct in this is a matter of debate, but the whole point of a Catholic church that is obedient to it's own religious beliefs is that it doesn't pander to the parishioners by changing the precepts of the religion in response to popular social opinion, it expects parishioners to be obedient to the requirements of the church, and more specifically, the commandments of the god they believe in.

And it doesn't matter if the state funds the schools, so long as they are Catholic religious institutions, the church has every right to put forward the teachings of the church. I don't think the state should be funding the schools directly though, I think the state should be giving whatever per capita tax money is collected for education to the parents of the student for whose benefit it's collected so that the parents can send their children to any school they find suitable, be it religious or secular.

And as to this:

The British Humanist Association said the CES's actions were likely to be in breach of sections 406 and 407 of the 1996 Education Act, which ban the political indoctrination of schoolchildren and require political views to be presented in a balanced way.

It's not a political issue, it's a social issue and the church has a right to indoctrinate students in the church's social and moral belief systems and to encourage them to support that moral agenda.

[Animavore]

The Catholic church wouldn't even try this bullshit in Ireland so timid around the populace they are. Which is not surprising after what they've done. They generally prefer not to anger a people already angry with them. Not that they're doing a great job. The government are on the verge of closing the Vatican embassy until they get their shit together. These kids in Catholic schools in Britain supporting gay people in protest are a further example of how out of touch the dinosaurs are with their parishioners. Gay marriage is soon to be legal here. We already have civil union. I think we're even ahead of most of Europe in this regard. The fear and respect of the church are gone. They've become a laughing stock and the butt of many paedophile jokes down the pub. They may have every right to hold to their values and traditions but they're not doing themselves any favours by doing so.

But, y'know, leave 'em to it. Let the emptying and closing of churches and the dying out of priests continue. I'm happy.

[Rum]

The Catholic church wouldn't even try this bullshit in Ireland so timid around the populace they are. Which is not surprising after what they've done. They generally prefer not to anger a people already angry with them. Not that they're doing a great job. The government are on the verge of closing the Vatican embassy until they get their shit together. These kids in Catholic schools in Britain supporting gay people in protest are a further example of how out of touch the dinosaurs are with their parishioners. Gay marriage is soon to be legal here. We already have civil union. I think we're even ahead of most of Europe in this regard. The fear and respect of the church are gone. They've become a laughing stock and the butt of many paedophile jokes down the pub. They may have every right to hold to their values and traditions but they're not doing themselves any favours by doing so.

But, y'know, leave 'em to it. Let the emptying and closing of churches and the dying out of priests continue. I'm happy.

How the mighty are fallen. Is it only a decade or two since the Catholic Church had Ireland by the balls and squeezed them very tightly indeed!?

[Animavore]

More like four decades. They were already waning in relevance in the 70s/80s before the scandal. I think since around the time Irish women marched across the border in droves in protest to pick up contraception illegally as they were denied them by the government due to bullshit laws influenced by Catholicism. The scandal just fast-tracked them the boot out.

[Traveler]

I know that I tend to be a rather doe-eyed dreamer, but I can't help but imagine what a lovely world we'd have if all these bozos would stop judging everyone, and simply accept people for what they are. No. I will go further. I think we should CELEBRATE what people are. I don't care about sexual orientation, gender, or taste in automobiles. If we could just accept that everyone is different, and celebrate whatever everyone's strengths are, what a beautiful place it'd be. Perhaps I've been over protected, but I completely fail to comprehend why anyone would want to control everyone's last move. Who the bloody CARES who someone loves??? C'mon, aren't there more important things to worry about? You know, like violence and starving children and hatred and stuff. Gah!!! People really piss me off sometimes, and institutions like the Catholic church are high on my list of idiots.