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Same-Sex “Marriage” to “Usher in an Era of Intolerance and Discrimination the Likes of Which We Have Rarely Seen Before,” Writes Bishop

CALGARY, September 29, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Calgary’s Bishop Fred Henry has come out swinging again, this time warning that the normalization of same-sex “marriage” will “usher in an era of intolerance and discrimination the likes of which we have rarely seen before.”

In a pastoral letter published in the Calgary Sun on September 11, Bishop Henry warned that “Same-sex marriage proponents use the language of openness, tolerance and diversity, yet the foreseeable effect of their success will be to usher in an era of intolerance and discrimination the likes of which we have rarely seen before.”

He warned that same-sex “marriage” and relations will be considered the norm, and that any school, for example, that fails to incorporate homosexual relations into their curricula, will be deemed discriminatory. “The impact of the social re-engineering is bound to filter down to school classrooms,” he wrote. “The educational impact of laws on attitudes is undeniable. Ordinary words such as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ will be replaced by ‘partner’ and ‘spouse.’ Children will have to be taught about homosexual acts. Every person and every religion that disagrees will be labelled as bigoted and openly discriminated against and dragged before Human Rights Commissions. Parents who complain will be branded as homophobes and their children will suffer.”

The bishop illustrates his point with the example of a same-sex BC couple who initiated a human rights suit alleging that their provincial ministry of education does not adequately “address issues of sexual orientation,” claiming that “there is systemic discrimination through omission and suppression of queer issues in the whole of the curriculum.” The complainants want the so-called queer studies to be mandatory, stripping parents of the right to pull children from the offending classes.

“Traditionally only those matters on which there was a large measure of consensus in society would be taught in the public school system,” Bishop Henry explained. “The rest was left to the home, to the church or to other institutions. The adoption of a new constitutional norm means that, in respect of homosexuality at least, this strategy is to be abandoned and students are to be confronted on the issues.”

Bishop Henry adds the example of Chamberlain v. Surrey School District No. 36, where the Supreme Court refused a school board’s attempt to deny use of a kindergarten text that included positive portrayals of same-sex families. “The refusal was on the basis that a significant number of parents and others in the school district would consider them to be incompatible or inconsistent with their moral and religious beliefs on same-sex relationships,” the bishop explained. “The case marked a significant moment in the debate about parental rights in education.”

BC Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin wrote in her opinion, “Parental views, however, important, cannot override the imperative placed upon the British Columbia public schools to mirror the diversity of the community and teach tolerance and understanding of difference.”

Read the bishop’s letter in its entirety at:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/sep/050929a.html

See also
“Man and Woman”, “Wife”, “Husband”, “Widow”, “Widower” Banished From all Ontario Law
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05022511.html

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