Not Terrorism, Not Appropriate Either

Not Terrorism, Not Appropriate Either August 4, 2015

Eddie Kouya drew attention to an article in the Daily Telegraph, about plans to use anti-terrorism legislation against teachers who use the classroom to tell students that same-sex marriage is wrong.

I think we need to be careful about over-using the terminology of terrorism, cheapening it in precisely the way some conservative Christians have cheapened the term “persecution,” using it for cases in which someone merely disagrees with them, or even for cases in which all that happened was the loss of their ability to persecute others.

But clearly, even if the application of this specific legislation to these specific cases is questionable, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that it is inappropriate for teachers in schools to say that same-sex marriage is wrong.

Jesus taught us how to evaluate such cases. Put yourself in the other person’s situation and see how you would feel. If someone were to teach in a class that Christianity is wrong, how would you find that?

If the teacher who says this sort of thing is a Christian, they ought to already know not to say such things.

But even if they are not Christians, they should be able to understand why, in a pluralistic society, it is inappropriate for children to have their own identity, or that of their family, denigrated by someone whom they most likely respect and view as an authority figure.

 


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