EDINBURGH, November 14, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – All Scottish children in government-funded schools, including Catholic schools, will now be indoctrinated with LGBT “inclusive education” that will be “embedded” throughout the curriculum.
The country’s Catholic bishops say they “welcome” the recommendations, adding that they hope the “impact of these recommendations will be positive for all.”
Last Thursday, Scotland’s Education secretary John Swinney told parliament that his country will become “the first country in the world to have LGBTI [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex] inclusive education embedded within the curriculum”.
All state schools, primary and secondary, will teach a pro-homosexuality, pro-transsexual philosophy to children of all ages under “various themes” including “LGBTI terminology and identities”, so-called homophobia, biphobia and transphobia; and the history of the “LGBTI equalities and movements.”
This is a result of 33 recommendations made by the Scottish Government’s “LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group,” all of which have been accepted by the government.
According to the government’s press release, “Work to implement the recommendations will start immediately.”
“Our education system must support everyone to reach their full potential,” Swinney said. “That is why it is vital the curriculum is as diverse as the young people who learn in our schools.”
The vast majority of Catholic schools in Scotland are now state-funded and state-controlled, thanks to the 1918 Education Act. This means that very few, if any, of Scotland’s Catholic children will be exempt from the LGBT agenda.
A spokesman for the Scottish Catholic bishops indicated to LifeSiteNews that the bishops hoped for “positive” results from the government’s move.
“The Catholic Church welcomes any recommendations that will help to ensure that pupils and school staff are properly equipped to challenge and eradicate prejudice-based bullying within schools and wider society in accordance with the law,” a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland told LifeSiteNews via email.
“The Catholic Education Community have been working to identify professional development opportunities while finding ways to develop appropriate resources for schools which are in line with church teaching,” he continued.
“We hope that the impact of these recommendations will be positive for all and that lessons learned from this process can be transferred to tackling similar issues associated with other areas of equalities and inclusion education,” he added.
The Roman Catholic Church has many doctrines in conflict with contemporary LGBT ideology. For example, she teaches that the sexual act is licit only within the context of a marriage between a man and a woman. Because of this, she teaches that premarital sex (fornication) and extramarital sex (adultery) are grave sins. Moreover, she teaches that homosexual acts are acts of “grave depravity” since they are “contrary to the natural law” in that they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.”
Regarding the dignity of people who experience same-sex attractions, the Church is already clear that “unjust discrimination” is unacceptable. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition [CCC 2358].”
It should be noted that it is the inclination, not the person, that the Church teaches is “objectively disordered.” Meanwhile, like everyone else, people with same-sex attractions are called to a life of chastity according to their state in life. For those not married to a member of the opposite sex, this means refraining from sexual activity.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Scotland’s reformed Christian traditions condemned the new implementations.
Simon Calvert, deputy director of the Christian Institute, told British media that parents don’t want the LGBT agenda taught in schools.
“Parents, pupils and teachers expect schools to do all they can to stop bullying of any kind,” he said. “But they don’t want to see controversial political agendas embedded across the curriculum.”
“Maths lessons should be about maths, not LGBT politics,” he continued.
Calvert pointed out that there is a “diversity of beliefs” about homosexual and transexual issues in Scotland, something the government has ignored.
“The approach adopted by the Scottish Government assumes there is only one acceptable view,” he said.
“What this means is that children from families who do not share this commitment to radical LGBT politics will be made to feel isolated in their schools,” Calvert continued.
“LGBT activists are often highly intolerant of traditional religious views and the people who hold them.”
Meanwhile, at least some of Scotland’s schools have already introduced LGBT philosophy. A 2018 graduate of an Edinburgh secular high school told LifeSiteNews that he had had to watch a film about transgenderism.
“We had to watch a movie about a transgender man who identified himself as a woman, and his way of becoming a ‘woman’,” said Bartosz S. “I was sixteen. It was for Personal and Social Education [class].”
“We were also invited to learn how to put a condom properly on this wooden imitation of a penis,” he continued. “And with regards to this, the teacher was talking about a special kind of condoms for homosexuals and having safe sex. We’d been given also booklets about safe sex with [illustrations] of a lot of stuff, even positions.”
The Scottish Catholic Education Service had not responded to LifeSiteNews’ requests for a comment by publication time.
Contact information for respectful communications:
The Bishops' Conference of Scotland
General Secretariat
64 Aitken Street
Airdrie, ML6 6LT
Tel: 01236 764061
Fax: 01236 762489
President: Archbishop Philip Tartaglia
Tartaglia via his Chancellor Mgr Paul Murray
Email: [email protected]
General Secretary: Monsignor Hugh Bradley
Email: [email protected]
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