Permanent Exclusion and the Johns

We have had a busy week at Christian Concern, with a huge level of media coverage following the ruling on the Johns case. There has been much mainstream support for the Johns in both the secular media and the Christian press.

I hope that the highlighting of the issue in the press will shatter the misconception that the Equality Act means equality for all. Some are very much more equal than others. We are currently living in ‘Animal Farm’ days; "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". As the Judges said, in a clash between the freedom to manifest ones religious beliefs and homosexual rights, “the equality provisions concerning sexual orientation should take precedence”.

When the media coverage dies down, the Johns will still be left with an empty bedroom. Unless Derby Council changes its mind, they will be left permanently excluded from the system, along with a number of other Christian foster parents who have contacted us recently with their stories.

The Johns have been incredibly gracious in their media appearances. They should have been awarded medals, but instead they have received insults, from the Judiciary and from the EHRC. Even the Prime Minister has waded in.

The Judges suggested that their views might be harmful to small children. The EHRC suggested that their moral views may infect children. The Prime Minister, in Derby this week, backed the decision of the High Court when questioned and said: "I think Christians should be tolerant and welcoming and broad minded."

His implication is that the Johns, and by extension any mainstream Christians, are not tolerant, are not welcoming and are not broad minded. All for holding mainstream Christian views.

His words are remarkable and so deeply unfair to the Johns. The Johns are not unwelcoming. They have previously welcomed 15 vulnerable youngsters into their home as foster children. And they wanted to welcome another child into their home too. Now they can’t, because of the casual prejudice and cowardice of the political and judicial class.

The Johns were also willing to be tolerant. They have gone on record to say that they would love and accept any child, regardless of sexual orientation. They would just not say that the practice of homosexuality was a good thing.

It is not the Johns who have failed to be broad-minded, but the politicians and the judiciary. The Johns base their beliefs on the Bible. The Prime Minister appears to base his beliefs on what Stonewall and the EHRC say is acceptable. And that is a very narrow and very extreme ideology indeed, more akin to Marxist thought.

The message to the Johns from the Prime Minister appears to be - I don’t agree with your views, so I back your exclusion as foster parents.

What is incredible is that this case has nothing to do with actually discriminating against homosexuals. The Johns are being punished for thought crime.

The Big Society is a Big Deception. It pretends to be inclusive but is in fact totally intolerant of those who hold orthodox Christian views. Last month, Christian Dr Hans-Christian Raabe was sacked by the Home office from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, just because he had unfashionable views about sex and homosexuality (see here), a totally unrelated area.

Europe is suffering under the same delusions. A mother in Germany has just been sent to jail because she refuses to let her children take part in permissive ‘sex education’ lessons (see here). Sex education is a huge battleground here in the UK as well.

Judges and politicians want to restrict participation in public life to those who subscribe to their values, yet their values appear to be little more than whatever the prevailing politically correct orthodoxy is; fleeting, malleable and unsustainable.

Secular and humanistic values are, ultimately, based on the total rejection of Jesus Christ. How anybody thinks that this is sustainable in the long term is staggering. Historical precedents are not encouraging.

As Christians, we know that our values are rooted in deep and unchanging truth, revealed in the bible. And yet the Johns, and other Christians, are being asked to subscribe to the current political orthodoxy over and above their Christian beliefs. And unless we agree, all we are being offered is permanent exclusion from society, and flippant insults from the Governing class.

Very slowly, I believe that the Church is coming to recognise this. I know that it causes embarrassment to some. But I also know that the Johns courageous stance will encourage others to put their heads above the parapet and stand for truth. I hope that this case will encourage the church to take a stand. Something has to change. The Johns case is merely a symptom of a much wider malaise.

Andrea