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A school in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has pulled a religious studies worksheet that contained scriptural teaching on immoral behavior after the father of one student complained. The school says they used the worksheet to help students “consider a variety of attitudes.”

The worksheet, part of the Grade 12 Religious Studies curriculum of Hunterhouse College, a school for girls aged 11 to 18, included the passage from 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11 which states, “Do not fool yourselves; people who are immoral or who worship idols or are adulterers or homosexual perverts or who steal or are greedy or are drunkards or who slander others or are thieves – none of these will possess God’s Kingdom.”

The worksheet then asked students to consider:

  • What do these verses tell us about homosexuals?
  • Who else is included with homosexuals?
  • What hope is there for all these people?

However, one complaint about the worksheet, which had been assigned as homework, caused school principal Andrew Gibson to pull the worksheet from the curriculum and apologize to the offended parent.

“This is in the introduction to Christian ethics centered around personal and family issues. As part of this, pupils are encouraged to consider a variety of attitudes to homosexuality,” Gibson said. “We have a very strong pastoral care system at the school and deal with issues around sexuality with great sensitivity.”

Gibson told the Belfast Telegraph that the parent “appreciated” the way the school had dealt with the situation, and that, “The worksheet won’t be used again.”

However, Peter Lynas, director of the Evangelical Alliance of Northern Ireland, said that while the “wording of the question[s] could have been better,” there was nothing wrong with the study and the questions were consistent with Christian teaching.

“They were simply asking questions about the orthodox Christian position,” he said.

“If you can’t do that in a religious ethics class, then you are in danger of pushing religion out of the public square.”

Contact:

Andrew Gibson, Principal
Hunterhouse College
Upper Lisburn Road
Finaghy, Belfast BT10 0LE
N Ireland
Phone: 028 90612293
Fax: 028 90629790
Email: [email protected]