Couple Rejected: Will Christians Be Allowed to Provide Foster Care in England?

By Deacon Keith Fournier
3/3/2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The ruling is part of a trend in England since the passage in 2007 of the 'Equality Act Sexual Orientation Regulations'

What happened to Eunice and Owen Johns this past week concerning their participation in foster care is ominous. What is next for Catholics and other Christians if this trend continues? We are in the throes of a Cultural Revolution involving two competing visions of the human person, human flourishing, the true nature of marriage - the family and society founded upon it - and the definition of the common good. These two visions of the human person and human freedom are in conflict.

Eunice and Owen Johns

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NOTTINGHAM, England (Catholic Online) - Christian Concerns, a public interest legal group in England, reported on a disturbing Court ruling in an article entitled "High Court Judgment Suggests Christian beliefs Harmful to Children". A Protestant Pentecostal couple has been disqualified from being foster parents, in effect, because they are Christians. The Catholic News Agency in an article entitled "British court says Christian couple can't adopt due to beliefs." offered this summary of what occurred:

"Eunice and Owen Johns, aged 62 and 65, are Pentecostal Christians from the city of Derby and have cared for 15 foster children in the past. Following the ruling, Eunice Johns said she and her husband were "extremely distressed" at the ruling handed down in Nottingham Crown Court. "All we wanted to do was to offer a loving home to a child in need," Eunice Johns said. "We have a good track record as foster parents, but because we are Christians with mainstream views on sexual ethics, we are apparently unsuitable as foster parents. The judges have suggested that our views might harm children. We have been told by the Equality and Human Rights Commission that our moral views may 'infect' a child. We do not believe that this is so."

The ruling is part of a trend in England since the passage in 2007 of the "Equality Act Sexual Orientation Regulations" The Court ruled that if children were placed with people like Eunice and Owen Johns who hold classical Christian views on morality "there may well be a conflict with the local authority's duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of looked-after children." They gave lip service to religious freedom but held that in foster care "sexual orientation should take precedence." They also insisted that a foster family exhibit "positive attitudes towards homosexuality." Finally, they held that the "Article 9 [of the European Human Rights Act] only provides a 'qualified' right to manifest religious belief and ... this will be particularly so where a person in whose care a child is placed wishes to manifest a belief that is inimical to the interests of children." The Court in essence ruled that classical morality is "inimical to the interests of children."

In 2010 "Catholic Care", a Catholic adoption agency in the Diocese of Leeds, was forced to stop participating in adoptions because they refused to place children with practicing homosexuals. They were the last Catholic Adoption Agency left standing in the wake of the "Equality Act Sexual Orientation Regulations" Eleven other Catholic agencies closed down or severed their ties with the Catholic Church. Catholic Care appealed to the High Court seeking to limit its services to heterosexual married couples. They argued there were 'particularly convincing and weighty reasons' for such "discrimination." That is now the standard for any variation. This is how tyrants work. They make unjust positions sound "just" and then enforce their will with the police power of the State.

The Charity Commission rejected their argument about the best interest of children. They made light of their appeal to a fundamental human right to religious freedom. They worded the opinion in high sounding language but revealed that the Commission has become an apologist for a regime in the United Kingdom which promotes an equivalency between active homosexual relationships and authentic marriage. They also insist that homosexual practices be given protected legal status as a fundamental human right. In other words, unnatural acts between two men or two women are protected by the law in the same way as race, creed or natural origin.

The Commission wrote, "The High Court judgement had found that respect for religious views could not be a justification for discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation in this case, because of the essentially public nature of adoption services... In certain circumstances, it is not against the law for charities to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation. However, because the prohibition on such discrimination is a fundamental principle of human rights law, such discrimination can only be permitted in the most compelling circumstances. We have concluded that in this case the reasons Catholic Care have set out do not justify their wish to discriminate." So, Catholic adoption agencies can no longer participate in ...

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1 - 10 of 38 Comments

Bill
2 years ago
John you have provided some keen insight when you identified our persecutors as those who have introduced themselves as authors of many of the comments we read in this page and in previous articles. These same men and women have followed in the footsteps of Adam and Eve. They do not accept what God defines as good and evil but want to disobey and eat fruit from the tree of knowledge so they will be the equal of God. Satan has told them that now that they have become like God they are perfectly capable of defining good and evil for themselves. They are delusional! Like the Romans who called the Christians "haters of the human race" because they refused to embrace the perversions and bottomless depravity of the Roman society, these modern day Romans villify today's sincere Christians. Brothers and sisters now is not the time to shrink from the fight for the heart and soul of this nation and of the world. To the contrary let us pray the harder that the Holy Spirit will lead these men and women who have been deceived by satan to reject what is evil and accept what God has defined as good and holy!
Bill
2 years ago
I believe that the US is on the same road as the UK only a few vyears behind. We had better wake up - particularly the Bishops before it is too late!
David Carlon
2 years ago
The UK and the USA are atheist nations promoting light as darkness and darkness as light. Both nations are ruled and led by goats.

Good is evil and evil is good.
Andy Holland
2 years ago
As St. Paul said, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." If we truly love homosexuals as people we will encourage them away from those things which will eternally destroy them. To encourage evil is an ultimate form of cold indifferent hatred. It can also be a form of cowardice - true "homophobia." That doesn't mean bashing people either, it means informing with good intentions and kind love. As we don't normally give alcoholics drinks, we shouldn't give homosexuals normalized "marriage." Not standing firm in our Christian beliefs is a form of real hatred.
john
2 years ago
Poor England so blind..so lost like the ignorant hateful fools who attack the Church.The Catholic church has been around longer than most nations and will not be going anywhere soon.Rejoice Christian brothers and sisters for the persecutin is at hand and many of your persecutors are introducing themselves right here..they are full of hatred,envy and they are empty souls..pray for them.We do not need fear anything or anyone...the victory has already been won..whats happening now is all the cockroaches are no longer hidden..but out in the open..waiting to be crushed..their days are getting shorter and they are becomming desperate.The battle lines of the spiritual war are no longer invisible..choose your side now.Remember...do not fear the one who can kill the body..rather fear the one who can kill the soul.Just because immoral laws are passed upon us does not mean we have to abide by them.Reject them..reject this evil world and those who follow it they are on the slope to Hell.
vance
2 years ago
What does anyone expect from the Liberal Establishment? Liberalism has repeatedly shown its ugly anti-Christian hand over and over again. This is just another episode of their war on Christianity. They Hate Christ and Christianity because it tells the Sick and twisted Liberals that their mentality and lifestyle is 'Perverse and Sinful'. The Liberals LOVE everything that is Sick, Gross, Disturbing, and anti-social but HATE everything that is Holy, Wholesome, Decency, Purity, and socially redeeming because these things make them gag. This is why I understand why the Liberals on this website support the British Judges ruling.
Karl
2 years ago
What does this ruling mean for natural parents? If, due to my beliefs, I am not fit to rear foster children, then I am also not fit to rear my own children. Very ominous.
Beth
2 years ago
One can disapprove of a person's behavior and still be compassionate toward that person. True love and eternal truth cannot be separated. But Christian love is not a feeling, it's an action - contrary to what our overly-sentimental societal view of love leads us to believe. Yes, Jesus loves everyone - but His love is not a warm, fuzzy, anything-goes sort of love - it is a perfect love grounded in unchangeable truth, seeking the good for everyone, which is called "holiness". As the late genius Father Richard John Neuhaus wrote, "Spare me a gospel of easy love that makes of my life a thing without consequence." But Catholics and other Christians can speak of hating the sin while loving the sinner until they're blue in the face - unless we approve of everyone's sexual behavior, we will be condemned as "haters". Alas, Jesus pretty much told us it would be so.
Gabriella
2 years ago
Cowards! We are cowards, afraid to spell out what is in our minds and hearts because of the political correctness that has spread, like a cancer, throughout the world. Nothing, but nothing will stop this train of death until we wake up and stand up, openly, for what we believe. God has been patient, waiting - how long?
Our minds have been clouded with nonsense because we allowed it. There is no use calling on the Lord to save us while we are idly standing by, letting this nonsense spread like wildfire. It our fault the world is the way it is for blaming 'the society' is a cliche that has been grossly overused - we are the society! - there is nobody else but us to blame. We elect people to the positions of authority without paying attention to their beliefs, convictions. there is nothing more deadly for the well being of a society than a political correctness - blind lead blind!
PhilipEdmund
2 years ago
The English knew what they were getting when they voted for their politicians, Whats the point in complaining about it?

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