We so often hear stories these days of rulings — either legislative or judicial — that are effectively limiting the influence of religion in the public domain. I was reading a story the other day about a girl in the US who had succeeded in having her high school remove a banner that included the words “our Heavenly Father” and “Amen”. The friendly local atheistic society was so proud of the young lady, they’ve pulled together $40,000 to give to her in the form of a university scholarship. Madness.

Well, across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom, a Government minister, against the wishes of many, has ruled that Catholic schools are allowed to teach what the Church says about homosexuality, or homosexual acts at least. It’s a little bit odd that a religious school has to get permission to teach what they religion professes, but that’s the society we live in today in many parts of the world, especially in the West.

Here’s how it played out. A couple of years back, American apologist Jason Evert, whom I listened to a couple of years ago when he visited New Zealand, spoke to some schoolkids in the UK and distributed a book that some union officials said were homophobic. The Education Secretary Michael Gove said he couldn’t interfere with what was taught, but said any behaviour that amounted to harassment of homosexual students would be unlawful.

The Catholic Herald, a top-notch publication in the UK, gives us the specifics:

The Education Secretary Michael Gove has defended the right of Catholic schools to promote Church teaching on homosexuality following a complaint from Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

Mr Barber had written to Mr Gove complaining that the distribution of “homophobic material” in some classrooms in Lancashire undermined equality laws.

In response, Mr Gove said that the content of a curriculum was not covered by the Equality Act, but added that any berating or harassing of gay pupils would be unlawful.

He said: “The education provisions of the Equality Act which prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their protected characteristics (including their sexual orientation) do not extend to the content of the curriculum. Any materials used in sex and relationship education lessons, therefore, will not be subject to the discrimination provisions of the act.”

Mr Gove added: “If a school conveyed its beliefs in a way that involved haranguing, harassing or berating a gay or lesbian pupil or group of pupils then this would be unacceptable in any circumstances and is likely to constitute unlawful discrimination.”

Mr Barber described Mr Gove’s reaction as “alarming” and said that the distribution of “homophobic material” undermines a school’s legal duty to challenge all forms of prejudice.

He told the Observer: “Having written to the Education Secretary to express our worry about the distribution of homophobic literature in faith schools, his lack of concern is very alarming.”

Jason Evert’s book says that homosexual sex, much like contraceptive sex between heterosexuals, is disordered.

He said “Both acts are directed against God’s natural purpose for sex – babies and bonding.”

Lawyers also explain why the Catholic schools are free to do what they’ve been doing, so do read the full story, especially if you want to be completely unsurprised by the views of the union official.