Christian Academy Ordered to Remove “Offensive Scripture” From It’s Statement of Faith

Since the 1970s, there has been a push on mainstream America to accept homosexuality as normal.  Despite the fact a mere 2%-4% of the 312+M people living in this country are estimated to be residing in the United States, Leftist radicals continue to push the agenda of normalization of homosexuality, against the grain and against the faiths of many millions of people in this country.

Canada has had similar Leftist activity.  Some might even say that Canada is decades ahead of us in its brand of squashing freedom of religion and freedom of speech.  Just like the alt-Left jihadists in this country, Canada suffers from a lack of morality and a political class that acts only on behalf of a minuscule minority rather than on the will of the people.

Just last week, Canada passed hate speech laws surrounding the use of pronouns, believe it or not.  According to the Libertarian Republic:

Canada passed a law Thursday making it illegal to use the wrong gender pronouns. Critics say that Canadians who do not subscribe to progressive gender theory could be accused of hate crimes, jailed, fined, and made to take anti-bias training.

Canada’s Senate passed Bill C-16, which puts “gender identity” and “gender expression” into both the country’s Human Rights Code, as well as the hate crime category of its Criminal Code by a vote of 67-11, according to LifeSiteNews. The bill now only needs royal assent from the House of Commons to pass into law.

“Great news,” announced Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister. “Bill C-16 has passed the Senate – making it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity or expression. #LoveisLove.”

Apparently, this surge of anti-religious doctrine has spread throughout Canada and is not affecting even the smallest of the small private schools.  The Cornerstone Christian Academy (CCA) has stood by its teaching curriculum for many years, citing an agreement with the local school board that prohibits the officials of the board from meddling in the message and content of the teachings of any school.

Many schools in the Edmonton area are provided with partial funding in order to present a very diverse atmosphere of education.  The Battle River School Division (BRSD) recently decided on a whim that they no longer felt that the CCA was a quality education organization and ordered the Christian Academy to literally remove the word “quality” from its school descriptors that read, “CCA offers quality educational programming.”  Amazingly, the Academy complied, citing that it wasn’t a big deal that the school board deemed CCA as a sub-standard educational facility.

After complying with the request, they then received another email claiming that they must comply with yet another demand.  This time, it involved what the board termed as “offensive scripture.”  In its school description, the following scripture was listed:

“Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians)

Here, the message was clear.  The board was not going to tolerate the use of this type of language when referencing the LGBTQ community.  Never mind that it showed not an ounce of compassion for the Christians who are deeply offended by the government’s push to force the gay agenda upon faith institutions.

Yet, once more, CCA agreed to remove the scripture quote as well.  I believe there was a fear that, should they refuse, the government’s claws would have clamped down upon them with such force as to completely shut down the Academy for good.  Not that that’s any consolation to the Christian Academy officials who are tiptoeing on eggshells every single day, hoping that the LBGTQ Fascism won’t creep into their small town of 103 people.

At a board meeting on Thursday the BRSD committed to a sit-down discussion with the school after board chair Laurie Skori said CCA had been looking to “create controversy” and had “broken our trust” by talking to the media.

CCA chair Deanna Margel stressed the importance of the school’s right to decide what it gets to teach.

“You can’t just pick and choose those scriptures,” she said. “We need every single word there to challenge us, to call us to greater understanding. It’s just so important.”

We’re talking about freedom of expression

“We’re talking about freedom of religion, but we’re (also) talking about freedom of expression,” she said.

“The specific reference and the word quality were not a big issue,” Margel said. “Out of respect of the relationship we’ve had with them, we can say ‘okay, this isn’t the key point here.’”

But Skori followed up, saying that “any scripture that could be considered offensive to particular individuals should not be read or studied in school.” She clarified in a separate email, “For example: any teachings that denigrate or vilify someone’s sexual orientation.”

“That’s a completely different directive, and it was shocking. Absolutely shocking,” Margel said.

So, here again, it is not really about the “quality” of the teaching, but rather the content.  The quality of an education is subject to the perception of others anyway.  Some might say that Harvard University is the crème-de-la-crème of education, while others might believe that the Liberalism that runs cold through the veins of that Ivy League institution constitute an inferior education, choosing to present a Leftist slant to every single subject matter in the school’s class schedule, rather than an objective view.

When the school board cites “sexual orientation” as the main antagonist in the Academy’s education standards, that’s Leftism talking, not a concern for the well-being of the child.  Also, the fact that the board seemed genuinely perturbed that the CCA official alerted the media to the terse and rude email demands shows what a farce this really is.  If the board was acting out of a general concern for the welfare of the children, this would have been a non-issue.  Instead, the school board made this about social justice and the gay community.

BRSD spokesperson Diane Hutchinson said the board felt compelled to make the request after protections for gender and sexual minorities were added to the Alberta Human Rights Act in late 2015.

“In our province there is a heightened awareness and a heightened sensitivity” around LGBTQ issues, she said, downplaying concerns of censorship.

“It appears that someone who was involved in the conversation had taken a small piece of the conversation and used it to raise an alarm about the potential for interference,” she said.

“The actions of the Society have not only harmed our relationship, but have put our children, our staff, our school and our school division in harm’s way,” she said, adding that the board is now “at the centre of a firestorm” as a result of the coverage. “Hate mail is flowing, misinformation and fear-mongering are widespread. The Cornerstone Society has compromised our reputation, risked our safety and broken our trust.”

The CCA has put on retainer the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom (JCCF) a conservative legal organization dedicated to “defend(ing) the constitutional freedoms of Canadians through litigation and education.”

This issue that is driving a wedge between the children and their education is really the crux of the matter, while government officials will continue to denigrate Christians instead of realizing that their divisive guerilla warfare on the faith will only serve to drive the two sides farther and farther apart.

And so, again, I ask: Why is it not offensive to advocate that homosexuality is normal?

Answer:  Because Christians oppose it.

Source:  National Post / Libertarian Republic