"According to Victorino Mayoral, a Socialist lawmaker... involved in crafting the course, [says] students will receive a mix of ethics, civics and study of human rights. "[T]he course will cover issues ranging from domestic violence to dangerous driving...But the course will also deal with issues like gender, sexuality and the family, and the church is up in arms.
"Catholic bishops say the new course usurps the family's freedom to shape a child's morality and will impart values that in some instances diverge radically from [Christianity]. The [bishops have] called on parents to protest the new syllabus by any legitimate means, and several bishops have called for a boycott."
In an open letter to his parishioners in July, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, archbishop of Toledo, said the course would force society to accept "a particular vision of man that diverges from the reality of man and from the Christian vision."
Cardinal María Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid, called the course a "serious problem" because it aims to "shape the individual, which is not the remit of the state." Varela also stated, "[t]he course "clashes with the fundamental principles of the Constitution and with the right of parents to choose their children's moral instruction".
Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero countered last month by warning the bishops that "no faith is above the law" and said it was society's job to "teach citizens the values of respect" and harmony.
"There are a lot of people who don't want their children to think there are five types of sexuality, five types of family", said Alfonso Aguiló, a Catholic headmaster and head of the Madrid Association of Private Education Companies.
Aguiló argues that individual morality is being supplanted by secular dogma. "The government cannot say, 'There is no religion, the only religion is my religion: secularism,' " he said.
He and other critics say the course smacks of classes in "formation of the national spirit" that were obligatory school fodder under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
What is at the heart of this new Spanish "national spirit"?
Spain's socialist regime seeks the attainment of an earthly Messianic society which can only be imagined in the minds of those that reject original sin and the need for man's redemption. But this Messianic society can only be achieved when the influence of the Church is eradicated.
The promotion of homosexuality and destruction of traditional marriage is critical to the growth and spread of Secularism. The Secularists sharpen the antagonisms between the Church and the populace through a breakdown of traditional morality. This results in hostility toward the Church since the two cannot coexist--just as lightness and darkness cannot coexist.
Apparently the plan is succeeding: In a July survey by the Center for Sociological Research in Madrid, 77 percent of respondents described themselves as Catholics, but only 16 percent of those said they went to church every week - and 55 percent said they almost never went. Spain is now home to an estimated million Muslims and more than a million Evangelicals and Protestants.
Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, warned Catholicism could soon become a "minority faith", and added, "We live in a society threatened and affected by the loss of hope which suffers from the loss of memory of the Christian inheritance."
Compiled from various news sources
"According to Ferrin, being raised by homosexuals would not allow the children the right to the proper environment to which they were entitled.
“It is understood that (a parent’s) drug addiction, child abuse, prostitution, belonging to a satanic sect or heterosexual affair would negatively affect the children and serve as a reason for a change of custody,” he said. “Well, it’s the same with homosexuality.”
"[Ferrin] who heard the case at a court in the eastern region of Murcia, also said the woman could keep custody of the children if she found another male partner.
"In his ruling, Ferrin criticized recent national laws against domestic violence and in favour of gay marriage, as well as legislation liberalising child custody. He claimed that the laws were “a mistake by the parliament controlled by the ruling party” in reference to the governing Socialists."
[Ferrin] in a separate case...faces a probe into attempts to block the adoption of a girl by her mother's gay partner."
"Homosexuals in Spain benefit from some of Europe's most liberal gay rights legislation following decades of repression, including imprisonment, under conservative dictator Francisco Franco."
"Homosexuality was legalized in 1979 and two years ago the Socialist government made Spain only the third country in the world to legalize gay marriage."
No doubt they will attempt to destroy this man for his brave stand to insulate and protect children from the homosexual lifestyle.
COMPILED FROM EXPATICA & RUETERS.
"We must never allow freedom of religion to be
hijacked and used as a pretext to discriminate
against gay and lesbian teenagers in schools."
Stephen
Desmond, Thames Valley
University
From This is
London:
Academics are calling for teachers to be banned
from promoting marriage in the classroom.
They say homosexuality must be given equal status to
stop the spread of "bigoted" attitudes in schools and
university campuses.
Current Government guidance on sex education says
children must be taught "the importance of marriage
for family life".
Teachers are also permitted to voice their opposition
to homosexuality if it stems from personal or
religious conviction.
This allows faith schools to teach that same- sex
relationships are at odds with their religion.
But members of the University and College Union -
representing 120,000 lecturers - are calling for a
change in the law to stop teachers telling children
that marriage is superior to gay partnerships.
This would apply to all teachers, including staff in
faith schools.
Delegates at the union's annual congress in
Bournemouth were critical of recently-passed gay
rights laws which failed to ban teachers from
expressing personal views on homosexuality.
They said the legislation, which is aimed at banning
discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, did
not go far enough.
Delegates unanimously backed a motion demanding an
end to "negative characterisations" of gay
lifestyles.
Alan Whitaker, from Oxford and Cherwell Valley
College in Oxfordshire, said: "They (the new
regulations) did nothing to stop the negative
characterisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender lifestyles by teachers.
"The regulations actually say that there is nothing
to stop teachers proclaiming the superiority of
heterosexual marriage.
"The regulations say it's unlawful to characterise
same-sex relationships as inferior.
"But to my mind it's rather difficult to see how you
can do the one without implying you are doing the
other."
He added: "Legislation cannot do all the work. It may
remove the injustice but it cannot change attitudes.
"If attitudes are to change that will come about as a
result of education.
"And that makes it vitally important that teachers do
not instil negative images of same-sex relationships
and transgender people in those that they teach.
Absolutely not."
He proposed a motion calling for the laws to be
urgently rewritten to help stop bullying of gay and
lesbian students in schools and universities.
The call is certain to infuriate religious groups.
The Church of England is among faiths which lobbied
the Government for gay rights laws to continue to
allow Anglican schools to teach that the Bible
forbids homosexuality.
But Stephen Desmond, from Thames Valley University,
told delegates: "We
must never allow freedom of religion to be hijacked
and used as a pretext to discriminate against gay and
lesbian teenagers in
schools."
According to Government guidance, "if a faith school
(or indeed any school) teaches that the Christian and
Muslim faiths decree that same- sex sexual activity
is a sin, then the school will not be acting
unlawfully".
It adds: "Similarly, if a pupil asks a teacher his
views on homosexuality and the teacher gives his
view, then again, that teacher will not be acting
unlawfully.
"In both cases, the subject must be dealt with
appropriately in accordance with existing guidance."
Hugh McKinney, chairman of the National Family
Campaign, said: "There are differing views on how
marriage should be taught in schools and this
includes a faithbased and non faith-based position.
This has to be fair all round.
"There should be an opt- out available for
faith-based schools to allow teachers to teach what
has traditionally been the case in the UK, and to
reflect the majority of the population, regardless of
orientation.
"The legislation has only just been passed so we
don't actually know the legality or otherwise of any
set of teaching at the moment."
Gene Robinson, the openly homosexual Episcopal bishop, recently testified before the New Hampshire Senate promoting homosexual civil unions. Robinson had the audacity to declare that homosexual civil unions do not impact families or religion. From Newsday
"What we seek in the civil realm is the equal treatment by the state government in supporting this development of our relationship with the legal, financial and societal underpinnings which are afforded married couples at the very moment they say 'I do,"' he said.
"Robinson suggested families would flourish under civil unions.
"This legislation simply has nothing do to with religious bodies and their affirmation or rejection of such unions in the civil realm," he said."
During his testimony he also stated:
"Would that we could get all heterosexual couples to take these commitments and responsibilities so seriously," he said.
So often the secular left, and those who have lost their faith, point to the failure of heterosexual marriage as an argument for the promotion of homosexual marriage, as if they are morally equivalent. The world has come to believe that the two are morally equivalent precisely because of the rampant use of artificial birth control in marriage.
From the standpoint of the secular left, a heterosexual marriage is indiscernible from a homosexual marriage, where the husband and wife choose not to procreate, and instead use artificial birth control. This moral equivocation is the natural and logical result of divorcing procreation from marriage. Although it is extremely politically incorrect to assert-- the purpose of marriage is to have children and to increase and multiply the human race. Natural law dictates that only a man and woman can procreate. When we choose not to do so, we undermine and participate in the destruction of marriage.
"Marriage itself among all races is for the one
purpose of procreating children, whatever will be
their station and character afterward; marriage was
instituted for this purpose, so that children might
be born properly and decently."
St Augustine