I am very worried about news from the Christian Institute concerning a new draft code of conduct and practice by the General Teaching Council. The Christian Institute explains:"The GTC is the professional regulatory body for teaching. No person may teach in a state school unless they are on the GTC’s register of qualified teachers. Those who wish to register must sign the declaration, 'I understand that as a registered teacher I am required to comply with the code of conduct and practice for registered teachers.'"Colin Hart, the Christian Institute's director, has commented:
“Christians would support most of the code, but many are alarmed by the new diversity rules. Under the code, Christian teachers will be required to ‘proactively combat discrimination’ and ‘value diversity’ based on religious belief and sexual orientation. The code rightly requires that teachers should respect their colleagues and those they teach. But respect for people as people is not the same as respecting or valuing every religious belief or sexual lifestyle. Forcing this on Christian teachers is to force them to go against their conscience.”Arguably the greatest pro-life thinker and leader of the 20th and 21st century was Pope John Paul II, as people of all faiths and none have acknowledged.
In Evangelium Vitae paragraph 97, Pope John Paul II taught that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.* Yet the GTC's draft code, according to the Christian Institute, could interfere with that authentic education and formation, in the following hypothetical examples:
- "A university department of education asks all applicants for teacher training courses to affirm their willingness to promote gay rights"
- "A homosexual group writes to schools claiming that [the code] means all schools must use materials designed to promote acceptance of homosexuality."
*The truth of Pope John Paul II's teaching can be understood in moves to recognize marriage between homosexual couples. The achievement of such an objective necessarily involves changing the understanding of sexual intercourse, so that the conception of children through sexual intercourse becomes all the more clearly an optional add-on. In such a social environment unborn children are certain to become all the more disposable.
