The doctrine most forms of religion teach is not how young people run their lives in this day and age. As the churches see it, there should be no sex before marriage and opposite sex couples should choose a partner, have their marriage sanctified in a church ceremony and regard that as unbreakable for the rest of their lives.
Today, it is common practice for many couples to live together without the necessity of that church wedding and a vast number who did take vows in a church end up having a divorce. Many decades earlier the " Gays " began coming out openly and more recently the population of Australia voted to decide the issue of same sex marriage. We are now a nation of open sexual orientation with laws that forbid discrimination.
The battle to decide the last bastion of religious sex discrimination is being fought in the classrooms of church schools. Some of the churches want to gain the right to refuse teacher employment to those that do not practice the doctrine of the church and there is a degree of pressure to refuse gay students enrolment in church schools.
In many ways, this is a desperate rear guard action. That battle was lost long ago and there are many gay teachers working in church schools and gay students amongst the pupils. The churches tolerate this - as long as they do not openly flaunt their beliefs and orientation. The churches claim they have no intention of expelling gay students or sacking gay teachers, but they demands that right in the event of open confrontation extolling the gay lifestyle.
Unfortunately, schools within a protective moat against other than church teachings have the propensity to create a " them and us " culture. Those same students will engage with people of mixed sexual orientation when they enter the workforce and those indoctrinated with rejection will probably have integration problems. Much of the outlook that decides our relationship with others is learned from our parents and in our school rooms. The last thing Australia needs is a culture that promotes the exclusion of others that do not conform to one narrow view of morality.
In todays world, the churches are promoting a lifestyle that it out of step with public opinion. That became clear when Australia expressed its opinion in that vote on same sex marriage. A church wedding is fast becoming rather " quaint " and the culture of church schools to many people belongs as a holdover from a distant age. An age when the aim of the church was " indoctrination " !
It is encouraging that the alumni of church schools is soundly rejecting handing this power to church school administration. If granted, most fear it would not be used wisely !
No comments:
Post a Comment