Canada: A fundie teacher has had his homophobic rant denied the protection of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by British Columbia's Supreme Court.
Chris Kempling, a teacher and guidance counsellor in a Quesnel high school said the ruling by the B.C. Supreme Court isa significant blow to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, denying Christian teachers the right to speak out on controversial issues. Kempling says he intends to appeal the ruling.
In 2002, the British Columbia College of Teachers suspended Kempling for one month forprofessional misconduct or conduct unbecoming a BCCT member.
It had been investigating a complaint received after Kempling wrote a series of letters to his local newspaper between 1997 and 2000 saying homosexuality was wrong.
One letter said in part:I refuse to be a false teacher saying that promiscuity is acceptable, perversion is normal, and immorality is simply 'cultural diversity' of which we should be proud.
The college said the letters were discriminatory and derogatory, and contrary to its commitment to provide a supportive learning environment for all students.
Anti-gay teacher can't claim charter protection: B.C. court—CBC News, 6th February 2004 (via morons.org).
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As a practicing and faithful Pagan for 13 years, I've tried hard to give your site a shot on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, I leave with a bad taste in my mouth every time.
In this day and age, Pagans should be banding together to educate and grow, not to berate other religions or idividuals (fundamentalist or not).
I understand this may be prevalent due to the style of the writings posted here or the general disdain at the content of the referred news pieces, but how can someone who isn't Pagan come here and learn a new appreciation for our faith, or the fact that we are real, good people, if all there is to be found is negative spewings?
I have run a website and currently have a blog of my own, but I have neglected to post the URL here because I'd rather not have an influx of fundamentalist Christians telling me to go to hell. Comes with the territory. I understand what it must be like to struggle against the masses, especially in this right-winged, conservative time in this nation's history.
However, I have still made it one of my personal goals in my years as a Pagan to combat the perception that we are anti-Christian rebels providing dissident teens "a way to piss off their parents," and I haven't seen anything on this website that has done that.
There are many good Pagan sites that are informational AND provide a way for interested Pagans to network. I'm sure you must know what those sites are. Is it possible that the content of this site might start to lean more to the informational and less to the snarky?
Thanks for reading.
Rose
Hey, RedWolf, do you see any Pagans among the contributers here? No, me neither.
No Pagans here, Feòrag, I think Rose must have overlooked both Prattle and Loony Fundie Nonsense for the Masses that is right up there in the masthead. Rose also seemed to have missed that fundies come in flavours other than Christian, and that Pagans aren't exempt from the fundamentalist fervour that can infect all other religions.
What's most amusing is that after she's assumed we're all Pagans (maybe I should dump the pentagram and replace it with one of my witch-burning woodcuts?), she asks "but how can someone who isn't Pagan come here and learn ... the fact that we are real, good people", as if all real people are good and Pagans particularly immune from unpleasantness.