Being gay 'sickest of sins'

The Sunday Times of Western Australia reports that children have been asked whether homosexuality is “the sickest sin” in a school assignment.

The homework given to 14 and 15-year-olds at Armadale Christian College, Western Australia, also points them to bible quotes describing homosexuality as an “abomination”, and describes “coming out of the closet” as “open sinning”.

Inquiries by the newspaper have prompted Education Minister Liz Constable to order Department of Education Services staff to go to the school to ensure it was “satisfying registration requirements”.

“(This is) to assess the lesson content being used by the school in relation to their Religion and Life syllabus,” Dr Constable said on Friday.

One question in the assignment given to the Year 10 students in June was: “Is homosexuality the sickest sin there is?”

Another question asked what God said about homosexuality and pointed to Bible quotes for the answer, which called it an “abomination”.

The assignment also stated that homosexuality was a “compromise for the need to be loved and accepted”, resulting for many from “low self-esteem (and) gender emptiness”.

Also on the assignment was: “Many people say that homosexuality is an inborn trait. Is a person born greedy, jealous, malicious, gossiper, slanderer, thief, child abuser, serial killer?”

Relatives of children in the Year 10 class expressed “disgust” about what they called “bigotry” in the assignment, which under its heading “Homosexuality”, had the biblical quote: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? … Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites”.

Dani Wright, coordinator of youth support service Freedom Centre, said discrimination through such teaching could lead to mental health issues and even suicide.

She said blanket policies were needed about homophobia in schools because, while the WA Equal Opportunity Act did not allow sexual-orientation discrimination, there were “loopholes” for religious institutions.

One student’s relative, James Notman, praised the Minister’s quick action on the matter, and said such “extremist” teachings could “seriously damage the mental well-being” of some children at a time of life when questions of sexuality were of huge importance.

“I also went to a Christian private school, but what we were taught about homosexuality was that we should all love and accept everyone as the same, because it doesn’t matter whether you’re gay, straight, male, female, we’re all humans and we’re all equal,” he said.