By John-Henry Westen
TORONTO, April 29, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Christian Horizons, one of the largest charities currently operating in the province of Ontario, was recently told by a Human Rights Tribunal that it could no longer require employees to abide by fundamental Christian moral standards as a requirement for employment. Both the Human Rights Commission and the Ontario government have indicated that they give no weight to the claim that a Christian ministry, in order to continue to be a Christian ministry, must hire faithful Christians. (see coverage: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08042905.html)
This mindset is understandable, however, when one considers that the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s “theological expert” who testified in the Christian Horizons case is none other than ‘Rev.’ Brent Hawkes – the homosexual activist minister at the Metropolitan Community Church in Toronto who illegally performed homosexual “marriages” before pushing homosexual “marriage” into Canada through the backdoor of the Ontario courts. The choice of Hawkes as a “theological expert” is a curious one, since Hawke’s theological positions are considered to be on the extreme left, and are hardly representative of the beliefs of the vast majority of Christians in Canada.
Hawkes testified before the Tribunal that Christian Horizons could be expected to compromise on its faith commitment since a Catholic hospital in Toronto abandoned the teachings of the Catholic Church for the “greater good” of serving the community.
Hawkes described how he approached St. Michael’s Catholic Hospital in Toronto with concerns about their treatment of homosexuals. The Catholic hospital, said Hawkes, responded in a way that he did not expect. They immediately “educated their staff on gay and lesbian issues, they started to treat gay and lesbian couples as full couples before the law required them.” He added: “They put a rainbow flag into the foyer, they put signs up for Pride Day.”
Hawkes described St. Michael’s Hospital as “a Roman Catholic institution” which, he said, “set aside the official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church . . . Set that aside to say we have a greater public good here. We are serving the public here and so we have to move past what our priest might teach in the Church.”
If St. Mike’s Hospital could contradict fundamental precepts of their religious belief for the sake of “the greater good”, indicated Hawkes, then certainly Christian Horizons can also similarly compromise on their principles.
Evidently the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal took Hawkes’ testimony into serious consideration, since it is featured prominently and at length in the Tribunal’s decision against Christian Horizons.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage and link to the full ruling here:
Huge Christian Ministry to Disabled Fined $23,000 For Rejecting Homosexual Employee
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08042512.html
Conservatives Refuse to Distance Themselves From Order of Canada Award to Homosexual Activists
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07071206.html
Order of Canada Awarded to Gay Pastor Who Attacked Vatican, Performed Illegal Gay “Marriages” under Conservative Government
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07070304.html