SYDNEY, Sept 11 (LSN.ca) - Australia’s Minister for Work Place Relations, Mr. Abbott, has backed the rights of the Catholic Church to have its employees uphold Church teaching in matters pertaining to sexuality. Draft guidelines released by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) have been designed to regulate agreements where “faith based” agencies provide employment services on behalf of the Commonwealth Government. The guidelines say that the Church would not be allowed to ensure that employees uphold Church teaching on sexual matters.
Mr Abbott told the Sydney Morning Herald that he will protect Christian agencies from “unreasonable interference in freedom of religion” - including the right of Christians to hire and fire according to their teaching on sex and marriage. “There are serious problems with the guidelines,” he told the Herald. “They show a general lack of sympathy for the principle that a religious organization has a right to maintain its own ethos.”
See the SMH at: http://www.smh.com.au/news/0009/11/national/national4.html