Government Requires Foster Parents to Affirm Homosexuality Rules UK High Court

Country: United Kingdom

Date of incident: February 28, 2011


Experienced foster parents lose rights to foster due to religious beliefs on homosexuality. Appeal to High Court lost.

 

In February 2008, Christian foster couple Eunice and Owen Johns of Derby filed suit against Derby City Council when they were refused for fostering because they said they would not talk to children about homosexuality as though it were an acceptable “lifestyle,” and that they would insist that children in their care accompany the family to church on Sundays. By November 2010, a decision was made in Court as to whether they would be allowed to remain foster parents under the law of religious equality. 

According to the Daily Mail, Lord Justice Munby and Mr. Justice Beatson ruled that laws protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation “should take precedence” over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds.

Representing the couple in court, Andrea Minichiello Williams of the Christian Legal Centre posits that this decision implies that  Christians who hold orthodox Christian views on the family, marriage and sexuality will continue to face difficulties in the fostering and adoption process and the Courts will not intervene to stop this from happening.

 

 

Source:

LifeSiteNews - details view here.

Useful links:

Christian Institute on this case 

Christian Concern on this case



 A couple barred from fostering because of their views about homosexuality have a right to equality
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Michael-Kelly-Courts-decision-is.6727522.jp
 
Christianity isn’t dying, it’s being eradicated
It’s official: Britain is no longer a Christian nation...
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/cristinaodone/100078209/christianity-isn%E2%80%99t-dying-it%E2%80%99s-being-eradicated/

Telegraph View: Why has it been left to judges to decide whose rights trump those of others?
Foster parents defeated by the new Inquisition
Eunice and Owen Johns outside the High Court. They said they held 'normal, mainstream, Christian views' 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/8353180/Foster-parents-defeated-by-the-new-Inquisition.html
 
The judges' atheist inquisition
Melanie Phillips
The secular inquisition against Christians was ratcheted up another notch yesterday in a grotesque judgment in the High Court by two judges, who have upheld the ban against a couple from fostering children simply because they hold traditional Christian views about homosexuality.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6743475/the-judges-atheist-inquisition.thtml
 
 
The Following Video and Radio reports under this link:
http://www.christianconcern.com/media/bishop-michael-nazir-ali-discusses-owen-and-eunice-johns-judgment-on-bbc-radio-5-live