Christian College demands contract on student gender and sexuality...

[mordant]

There's a university here in Oregon called George Fox University.  It's a Christian Quaker college and they're always looking for people to teach the theatre classes but the instuctors and professors all have to sign a paper that they accept Jesus as their savior and homosexuality is a sin and all that shit.  There are a few theatre people I know who are religious but most of them are not and a good portion are gay.   So Geroge Fox university has had a job opening for a theatre director for over a year.    My husband thought about applying but when he read the details he decided against it even though the pay was super good.

Oddly, I had a Quaker friend (he died recently) who was a staunch supporter of gay rights.

Yes.  I have a friend who was raised as a Quaker and is very progressive and liberal in her views.  She's a lovely person and more Christian than most other Christians I know.  George Fox was the founder of the Quaker religion but I think the people who run George Fox University have a control fantasy going on.  I think it's all about power.

Yes here in the US anyway he Quakers are generally quite egalitarian in outlook. There's even an atheistic branch of the sect.

[Cavebear]

I do admire the subtlety of the Cross on the steeple.  I might not have noticed that.

And private colleges have a right to decide who they accept.

But if they get public funding, they have to obey rules about public access free of religious tests.  They can't advance religion and receive public money at the same time.  If their purpose is to teach religion of any kind, they can't demand others to help pay for it.

It's kind of like demanding heads I win, tails you lose...

Here in Australia, private/religious educational institutions actually receive
more taxpayer funding per student than state-run government schools.

The amounts (2019 data) of federal government funding per student per annum were as follows:

Government schools $3,075,  Catholic schools $9,915,  Independent schools $8,272.

[Source: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2021]

•  Government schools remain by far the lowest funded in Australia,
•  Private schools had 70% more recurrent income to spend per student than government schools,
•  Private schools are spending three and a half times more on capital works than government schools.

I support public education.  Where that is not the norm, people grow up with specific religious or political views.  Public education that seeks a general view offers broader education.

I consider that there is value in general public education. Specific education in religious schools is limiting and even negative ("science is bad"). Charter schools are usually a euphemism for "theistic". I do recognize a weakness in public schools. They can be State-controlled to deny reality sometimes.

I attended Virginia public school a few years in the early 60s. They taught "The War Of Northern Aggression". They diminished slavery suggesting it was a good thing "in general". They taught that Gen'l Lee was a hero for defending Virginia (while he refuted his oath to the Constitution).

Coming from the North, I knew better. So public education, mostly neutrally applied, was what we needed then and still need now.

[TinyDave]

Part of the declaration states that "any form of sexual immorality (including
but not limited to; adultery, fornication, homosexual acts, bisexual acts,
bestiality, incest, paedophilia, and pornography) is sinful and offensive
to God and is destructive to human relationships and society".


—Fuck yeah... we don't want to offend a mythical sky daddy.    

Just a small point relating to what has been banned.
If they have banned homosexual acts then why do they need to ban bisexual acts? By implication doesn't that mean they have banned heterosexual acts as sinful and offensive to god...

[Cavebear]

Part of the declaration states that "any form of sexual immorality (including
but not limited to; adultery, fornication, homosexual acts, bisexual acts,
bestiality, incest, paedophilia, and pornography) is sinful and offensive
to God and is destructive to human relationships and society".


—Fuck yeah... we don't want to offend a mythical sky daddy.    

Just a small point relating to what has been banned.
If they have banned homosexual acts then why do they need to ban bisexual acts? By implication doesn't that mean they have banned heterosexual acts as sinful and offensive to god...

OK, in a very practical sense, they are both the same. There is little logical difference between male and female "love of same". The difference may be a male cultural thing. Like guy-on-guy is one thing and lesbianism is "just foreplay". It isn't, but that seems how it is viewed...

[TinyDave]

Part of the declaration states that "any form of sexual immorality (including
but not limited to; adultery, fornication, homosexual acts, bisexual acts,
bestiality, incest, paedophilia, and pornography) is sinful and offensive
to God and is destructive to human relationships and society".


—Fuck yeah... we don't want to offend a mythical sky daddy.    

Just a small point relating to what has been banned.
If they have banned homosexual acts then why do they need to ban bisexual acts? By implication doesn't that mean they have banned heterosexual acts as sinful and offensive to god...

OK, in a very practical sense, they are both the same.  There is little logical difference between male and female "love of same".  The difference may be a male cultural thing.  Like guy-on-guy is one thing and lesbianism is "just foreplay".  It isn't, but that seems how it is viewed...

I was just thinking that if they have explicitly banned the homosexual elements of bisexual acts what else is there left to ban in bisexual acts

[Cavebear]

Just a small point relating to what has been banned.
If they have banned homosexual acts then why do they need to ban bisexual acts? By implication doesn't that mean they have banned heterosexual acts as sinful and offensive to god...

OK, in a very practical sense, they are both the same.  There is little logical difference between male and female "love of same".  The difference may be a male cultural thing.  Like guy-on-guy is one thing and lesbianism is "just foreplay".  It isn't, but that seems how it is viewed...

I was just thinking that if they have explicitly banned the homosexual elements of bisexual acts what else is there left to ban in bisexual acts

I maybe understand what you are getting at. Not much. But "they" will find something. As Heinlein said (I think) "just don't scare the horses"...

[SYZ]

Death threats have been sent to its principal, and vandals have targeted the Citipointe
Christian College in Brisbane,  leading to the lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner pleading for
tolerance.  Schrinner, who's a previous student of the college, and whose children now
attend the college said today, "We’ve had the principal receiving death threats. These
sorts of things aren’t tolerant or inclusive... If we do believe in tolerance and inclusivity
and non-discrimination, then it’s got to go in all directions and that’s my message".

This is another classic example of the hypocrisy of churches.  It's apparently okay for
them  to discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals, but deny the fact that that's
precisely the sort of intolerance and inclusivity that they themselves actively practice—
it's even written in their recently released, documented future program.

Schrinner also said, "But there’s a lot of condemnation going in all directions here. I
don’t think it’s productive".  No, you ignorant bigot... the entire incident and its
repercussions were due entirely to the college's proposed banning of any/all LGBTQ+
applicant teachers, and the sacking of any existing teachers who were LGBTQ.  Plus
the fact that the principal, Brian Mulheran demanded—without exception—that all
parents sign a confirmatory contract.

Had this college been a public company or a commercial enterprise, they'd be in the
federal court now for having breached Australia's anti-discrimination laws:  "It is unlawful
to discriminate on the basis of a number of protected attributes including age, disability,
race, sex, intersex status, gender identity and sexual orientation in certain areas of
public life, including education and employment".

Australia's federal anti-discrimination laws are contained in the following legislation:  
   •  Age Discrimination Act 2004,
   •  Disability Discrimination Act 1992,
   •  Racial Discrimination Act 1975,
   •  Sex Discrimination Act 1984.

Last year—outrageously—Citipointe received AU$13 million in State and Federal funding,
more than any public/government school in the entire country.

[Cavebear]

Death threats have been sent to its principal, and vandals have targeted the Citipointe
Christian College in Brisbane,  leading to the lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner pleading for
tolerance.  Schrinner, who's a previous student of the college, and whose children now
attend the college said today, "We’ve had the principal receiving death threats. These
sorts of things aren’t tolerant or inclusive... If we do believe in tolerance and inclusivity
and non-discrimination, then it’s got to go in all directions and that’s my message".

This is another classic example of the hypocrisy of churches.  It's apparently okay for
them  to discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals, but deny the fact that that's
precisely the sort of intolerance and inclusivity that they themselves actively practice—
it's even written in their recently released, documented future program.

Schrinner also said, "But there’s a lot of condemnation going in all directions here. I
don’t think it’s productive".  No, you ignorant bigot... the entire incident and its
repercussions were due entirely to the college's proposed banning of any/all LGBTQ+
applicant teachers, and the sacking of any existing teachers who were LGBTQ.  Plus
the fact that the principal, Brian Mulheran demanded—without exception—that all
parents sign a confirmatory contract.

Had this college been a public company or a commercial enterprise, they'd be in the
federal court now for having breached Australia's anti-discrimination laws:  "It is unlawful
to discriminate on the basis of a number of protected attributes including age, disability,
race, sex, intersex status, gender identity and sexual orientation in certain areas of
public life, including education and employment".

Australia's federal anti-discrimination laws are contained in the following legislation:  
   •  Age Discrimination Act 2004,
   •  Disability Discrimination Act 1992,
   •  Racial Discrimination Act 1975,
   •  Sex Discrimination Act 1984.

Last year—outrageously—Citipointe received AU$13 million in State and Federal funding,
more than any public/government school in the entire country.

Such threats are entirely inappropriate, wrong, hateful, and actionable.

[SYZ]

The principal of the school at the centre of an ugly discrimination saga in Brisbane
has resigned.

Citipointe Christian College was thrust into the spotlight after a contract emerged
demanding students and families denounce homosexuality and that students identify
by birth gender. The school eventually withdrew the contract, and today, Pastor
Brian Mulheran officially resigned.  



A parent support group has said, "We want to see that LGBTQIA+ students can get
access to counselling at school, that there can be safe spaces for them, that perhaps
there could be a support group for families of LGBTQIA+ students and the students
themselves".