Britain’s House of Commons is set to vote on legislation this week that would introduce a program of sex education to primary school children from as young as 5 years of age.
The “Children, Schools and Families Bill” also contains many other clauses which, critics say, is not so much a denial of Catholic teaching “as a whole uprooting of the natural law relationship between parents, children and the state.”
The bill, which Members of Parliament will vote on Tuesday, is causing widespread concern among United Kingdom priests and laity who see it as further erosion of legitimate freedoms. As most U.K. Catholic schools are state funded or maintained, the bill also threatens to erode the Catholic identity of these schools.
The legislation, which one priest called “terrifying,” would mandate all state schools, including state-funded faith schools, to not only teach sex and relationship education (SRE), but also include signposting and links to abortion and other services opposed to life and the family.
Critics say schools would be forced to teach SRE according to principles of “equality,” “diversity” and “rights,” which are interpreted by the government to include abortion, birth control, homosexuality and “a wide range of sexual practices.” They may also have to prove their SRE programs accord with the bill’s principles and that they had “regard” for the government’s sex education program.
LONDON, FEB. 21, 2010 (Zenit.org)