Friday, April 30, 2010

In the wrong job

In the news today, a Christian counsellor who was suing Relate over being fired. He refused to counsel gay couples because he considered it against his religious principles.

In 1988, the Marriage Guidance Council relaunched itself as Relate "in recognition of our widened access to same sex couples, single people, children and young people and families. Today we have evolved into a modern, thriving organisation providing innovative responses to the needs of the communities we serve." Mr McFarlane, the counsellor concerned, started working for Relate in 2003. It was well-established that the services Relate offer include couples and families of which this man might disapprove before he decided to take a job there.

It seems to me that there have quite a few incidents like this lately, and wonder if this is an actual movement in conservative Christianity? They seem to make out that they have a right to discriminate against people, and when they're called on it, claim they're being discriminated against!

Lord Carey commented on the case and said "It is, of course, but a short step from the dismissal of a sincere Christian from employment to a religious bar to any employment by Christians. I believe that further judicial decisions are likely to end up at this point and this is why I believe it is necessary to intervene now." WTF?

A man takes a job with an organisation that has been providing services to gay couples for years, and which deliberately rebranded itself over 20 years ago to reflect the fact that it serves unmarried, gay and other non-traditional couples & families as well as married ones, and he fails to live up to his side of the work contract, and gets fired - and that's supposedly discrimination?! And according to Carey, it's a slippery slope to all Christians being unemployable.

What utter utter bollocks. I'm glad McFarlane lost the case. Good on the judiciary.

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