Homosexuality and Religious groups and employment of staff
Religious groups and employment of staff Can a Christian secondary school require that its teachers not openly advocate a sexual lifestyle that is contrary to the Bible’s teaching? Can an Orthodox Jewish preschool ask its teachers to live in accordance with Orthodox moral principles? Can a Protestant church refuse to hire someone to act on its behalf in political advocacy when that person does not share their religious beliefs? These are all issues that have come up in recent months. Two of them are dealt with in decisions in connection with judicial proceedings, one in the UK and one from the European Court of Justice . One has been raised by media reports in Australia . In this post I want to flag these three cases briefly and to comment on the issues they raise for religious freedom, and how they should be resolved. Religious freedom and groups It is worth, however, setting out a few general principles to start with. When the language of “ human rights ” is invoke