Christian Couple removed from Foster Care List

We have this article from the Daily Mail Foster child to be taken away because Christian couple refuse to teach him about homosexuality

Earlier this year, Somerset County Council's social services department asked them to sign a contract to implement Labour's new Sexual Orientation Regulations, part of the Equality Act 2006, which make discrimination on the grounds of sexuality illegal.

Officials told the couple that under the regulations they would be required to discuss same-sex relationships with children as young as 11 and tell them that gay partnerships were just as acceptable as heterosexual marriages.

They could also be required to take teenagers to gay association meetings.

When the Mathericks objected, they were told they would be taken off the register of foster parents.

The problem social services is trying to address, as I see it, is the question, "What if a foster child placed with this couple is gay?"

We find that about 5% of children are born with a non-heterosexual orientation. That's one child in 20. Doing the math, we find that of the 28 children they looked after, there is a 76% chance that at least one of these children fit into a non-heterosexual category.

So then, what is the potential detrimental effect to such a child's healthy development if he or she is raised in a gay un-friendly environment? For example, as foster care parents typically do, they would take the children in their care to church with them. In the case of the nonconformist South Chard Christian Church this couple favors, they would be subject to the anti-gay rhetoric that comes from the pulpit and the congregations self-righteous disdain for anything homosexual.

Yet, we know that the social ostracism that a church like this and this couple as ministers in this church promote can produce anxiety, depression and self destructive behaviors in gay youngsters. In fact, the suicide rate among gay teens is three times higher than teens in general as a result of the way gays are mistreated by society in general.

It's not possible to tell if a young child is gay or not. Yet should we place any child in such a gay un-friendly environment if there is any chance that he or she is? Social services doesn't want to take this risk. I support their decision.