dunno maybe they can move to Europe which has a less idiotic approach to education. The US seems weirdly polarised by fanatical conservatives and doomsday biblical literalists, if this sponsored and highly financed case is anything to go by >> German home schoolers granted asylum in USA | News | The Christian Institute
I'd imagine there's tough competition for places in Catholic schools and that preference is, rightly, given to children from actual Catholic church-going backgrounds. It'd hardly be fair on Catholic parents otherwise...
If you'd read the article, you would know that the parents of the children in question are practicing, church going catholics. It's also worth noting that there are non catholics attending the school, there are children of single parents attending the school and the school is in reciept of tax payers money.Originally Posted by toxic avenger
discrimination on the basis of the sexual orientation of the parents, leading to the denial of education of the children is putting dogmatism before the right of the child to education. The usual crapology and inherent arrogance that l expect to dominate the referendum debate here too.
It says that the two 'parents' say that, and if they're correct there's a degree of legitimacy in the charge of double-standards. But they themselves are being hypocrites - they can't claim that they are somehow shocked that a Catholic school might have a problem with them claiming to be practising Catholics while completely ignoring/rejecting Catholic teaching. So yes, the school (if that version is correct) should be consistent, but then the 'parents' should be consistent too...
parents.
the degree of shock of the parents doesn't really change anything. There are very few catholics in the world that accept every teaching of the catholic church, just because sexual orientation is a more obvious factor than say, for example, privately not believeing in transubstansiation (which is a widely ignored beliefe of Catholicism) is no excuse for singling out that paticular violation of Church teachings.
That's an issue of double-standards, but that goes both ways. I have limited sympathy in this case because there was no compulsion to send their child to a Catholic school rather than another one, and they must have known that it would be an issue. If not, why did it take three years for the school to find out that they were a gay couple? Often in these cases, schools operate a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy - I wonder what really went on here. I'm sure there's more to this than that article in Pink News says.
perhaps it's the nearest school to their residence, and it's ethos should not conflict with providing education to the state's children.
Perhaps, perhaps not, but I doubt there isn't much more to this story. As to the 'state's children', you can make the argument that there shouldn't be state funding for Catholic schools, but I can't see a legitimate argument for Catholic schools being forced to to go against their ethos, whether state funded or not, without completely invalidating the whole point of Catholic education completely. If the state accepts, and subsidises, Catholic schools, it is inherently recognising their right to operate, and teach, according to their values. If that inherent recognition was a problem for the state they should simply say so and give the Catholic schools the option of finding alternative funding.
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