I usually really enjoy a Saturday morning in front of the paper – even if the first 4 pages were drivel about a local bikie who really doesn’t need any more air time. (Not mentioning his name here either.)
But it was when I got to page 14 and was greeted by the ecstatic grin of Rory Shiner along with the title ‘Elite School Scandal’ that my curiosity began to pique. I had to wonder ‘what have these guys done to raise the ire of the community?’ (And why is Rory so unbelievably happy?!)
Have they been holding ‘gay conversion therapy’ classes in school time? Although I seriously doubt that would be up their alley…
Have they run school seminars and preached some conservative Christianity staples? That’s enough to rile some people up.
Maybe there have been some inappropriate dealings and someone has been exposed. After the RZ scandal and the Carl Lentz debacle you start to wonder who isn’t screwing someone they shouldn’t be…
But the big news behind this headline is that Providence church meet in a Perth Modern School auditorium, where they espouse their own form of fairly mainstream and familiar conservative Christianity. They take a fairly stock, conservative line on homosexuality and a complementarian view of where women belong in the church.
The problem isn’t that they have been interfering with the fragile minds of children, or interfering with children in any way.
They just rent a building.
They rent a building… a public building… and they have gone thru the necessary processes for this to occur. But ‘a concerned (and unnamed) teacher’ who isn’t even part of the school believes allowing it to preach its beliefs on the schools ground was unethical. These views pose a ‘real and unnecessary risk to the health and safety of students, particularly those struggling with their sexual or gender identity’.
Even if none of them attend the church? Really?…
So the noose tightens for those of us who won’t get on board with the ‘inclusivity for all (except Christians)’ mantra. Does anyone else meet in a public building and holds views on sexuality or women that are not sufficiently woke to get a pass mark? I’d say the churches we are part of are every bit as ‘anti-gay’ a Providence – in that we aren’t ‘anti-gay’ people at all. We read the Bible a certain way and that means our conclusions don’t bode well with contemporary thought. While we would disagree with Providence on the role of women, it seems that it just isn’t ok to hold a view that runs counter to the culture.
Except that ‘inclusivity’ must be for all or it isn’t inclusivity at all. There have been some news stories lately where we Christians have had egg on our face and where we really do need to clean up our act. I can wear critique over that. But this stuff…
So – as per my last post re Margaret Court, feel free to argue with me, but about freedom of conscience and freedom of speech – not about sexuality per se.