(Alberta Report / Western Report)
Calgary evangelicals gather against the advance
of the gay school curriculum
Canadian pundits and politicians have long scoffed at the possibility
of a "Christian Right" in Canada, and so far they've been largely
correct. But the promotion of the homosexual agenda--which violates
both Scripture and the traditional family--by Canada's ruling Liberals
has provoked meetings in church halls across the country. In late
August, over 100 Christians from 16 churches met at the Centre Street
Church in Calgary, to discuss a recent public school board resolution
to legitimize homosexuality in the curriculum. These parents decided
to form a Calgary chapter of Citizens United for Responsible Education
(CURE), a Toronto-based network founded in 1992.
"It went better than I'd hoped," says meeting organizer Tom Crites,
an assistant pastor at Centre Street Church. "I'd been praying and
fasting, and when the meeting started, there was no anger or gay bashing.
There was just a serious grasp of the issue and a commitment to change
the school board's policy."
At a trustee meeting last June, the Calgary Board of Education heard
a report from "gender issues adviser" Pat Boyle, suggesting that over
12% of their students are homosexual, lesbian or bisexual. These children
are reportedly the primary victims of juvenile violence. Board chairman
Jennifer Pollock voiced the hope that the schools might become safe
for "six- or 12-year-olds to come out of the closet." So the board
resolved to develop counselling programs, teaching resources and a
curriculum to cultivate "acceptance" of sexual diversity.
"I've seen it before," says Dave Butler, a professional engineer and
business analyst. Before moving to Calgary in 1994, Mr. Butler was
a founding co-chairman of CURE, a largely Protestant association formed
to resist board-sponsored gay propaganda in the Toronto schools. "
It's the same agenda. It has the same rationale--violence against
gay students. The same solutions--curriculum and resource guides to
promote the gay lifestyle. The same people are doing it--gender consultants
and gay activists. And the same purpose--to promote homosexuality
to other peoples' children as normal, healthy and attractive."
In 1988, the Toronto board passed a motion to develop a "sexual orientation
curriculum" and a confidential sexual counselling service for all
ages, free of parental interference. No parent was allowed to sit
on the program's advisory council, although a gay representative was
included. In the summer of 1992, with the curriculum ready, the board
revoked a 10-year-old ban on the proselytization of homosexuality.
That fall, openly gay human sexuality counsellors began classroom
presentations, using lesbian and gay students. AIDS Toronto distributed
pamphlets on "safe" sadomasochism and anal sex. In the summer of 1993,
at the prodding of the Gay and Lesbian Teachers Association, the
board revoked another policy, that all sexual offences be recorded
on a teacher's personnel record.
CURE failed to defeat Toronto's alliance of pro-gay trustees, an ideological
teacher's association, a powerful homosexual lobby and a biased media.
At one school board meeting, they were reduced to gagging themselves
and wearing signs reading, "Whose children are they?" But the association
continues to expand, planting affiliates across the country.
"Those people [gay activists] really believe they're doing what's
best for the kids," says CURE activist Butler. "When the London [Ont.]
school board went through all this last year, they had 600 parents
protesting the policy but they passed it anyway. They committed political
suicide but still passed the gay curriculum, because they truly believe
it's best for the kids." Faced with this challenge, he argues, Christian
parents can't simply pull their own kids from the schools because
that would leave other children at the mercy of the gay agenda.
The Centre Street gathering faced a conundrum: if Christians resist
the adoption of a pro-gay curriculum, their opposition could easily
confirm the reality of "violent homophobia" in the minds of school
trustees and perhaps voters. "We can't forget that there are a lot
of confused kids now," Mr. Butler told the meeting. "We must offer
positive alternatives. There are effective, established therapies
for homosexuality, like the [Christian] 'Desert Stream' program. The
gay lifestyle is dangerous and no kid wants to grow up homosexual.
So they deserve a choice, an alternative to any program that would
lock them into an unhealthy sexual identity."
Meeting organizer Tom Crites took that thought one step further. "
We have to remember that the trustees and the gay activists are not
our enemies," he told the assembled parents. "We do not fight against
flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spiritual
wickedness in high places," he continued, quoting Ephesians. "We won'
t achieve anything without charity and prayer."
Calgary mother-of-four Nan Barron agrees. She is a member of "Mothers
Who Care," a group of Christian mothers who meet weekly to pray for
their children's schools. "I'm confident that we'll be able to find
the dozen people needed to organize a CURE chapter," she says. "But
we're going to need hundreds praying. We won't be able to do anything
without prayer."
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Calgary board chairman Pollock: Six-year-olds
must be let out of the closet.
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): CURE's Butler: We should promote a positive
alternative.
~~~~~~~~ By Joe Woodard
Woodard, Joe, The Protestants
tackle another reformation.. Vol. 23, Alberta Report / Western Report,
09-16-1996, pp 32.