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UK News

School: We "got it wrong" over Bible teaching on homosexuality

by Desmond Busteed

Students at Hunterhouse College, a multidenominational girls' school, were asked questions in relation to 1 Corinthians 6: 9-1, including:

What do these verses tell us about homosexuals?

Who else is included with homosexuals?

What hope is there for all these people?

1 Corinthians 6: 9-11 (as seen on the worksheet)

Surely you know that the wicked will not possess God's Kingdom.

Do not fool yourselves; people who are immoral or who worship idols or are adulterers or homosexual perverts or who steal or are greedy or are drunkards or who slander others or are thieves - none of these will possess God's Kingdom.

Some of you were like that. But you have been purified from sin; you have been dedicated to God; you have been put right with God by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Management withdrew the questions and apologised after a parent reportedly contacted the school and complained.

Andrew Gibson, the headmaster of Hunterhouse College, said: "This is in the introduction to Christian ethics centred around personal and family issues. As part of this, pupils are encouraged to consider a variety of attitudes to homosexuality.

"The questions were set in-house but they were in the context of the CCEA [Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment] specifications. We have a very strong pastoral care system at the school and deal with issues around sexuality with great sensitivity."

Mr Gibson reportedly admitted that the school "got it wrong" by letting pupils take the worksheet home as a standalone text, which should have only been assessed as part of a wider discussion on the topic in class.

Peter Lynas from the Evangelical Alliance said: "It is important Christian values are taught in school, and schools can sometimes feel pushed into a corner over these issues."

He admitted that the "wording of the question could have been better" but added that it was "important to remember that most of the world's main religions are against homosexuality".

Gavin Boyd of the Rainbow Project reportedly suggested that a lack of clarity in the syllabus was to blame in this instance.

He said: "If any LGB child was sitting in that class and asked to list a bunch of people to associate with themselves including drunks and all these licentious people, it's horrible.

"However, I'm confident no malice was intended and I'm impressed that the school have taken steps to quickly rectify the situation."

In a statement, CCEA said: "We do not produce guidelines for schools on question setting."

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