| About this site |
| About us |
| Our beliefs |
| Your first visit? |
| Contact us |
| External links |
| Good books |
| Visitor essays |
| Our forum |
| New essays |
| Other site features |
| Buy a CD |
| Vital notes |
| Spiritual/ethics |
| Spirituality |
| Morality/ethics |
| Absolute truth |
| Peace/conflict |
| Attaining peace |
| Religious tolerance |
| Religious hatred |
| Religious conflict |
| Religious violence |
| Laws and news |
| Religious laws |
| Religious news |
|
 | Their culture's past, |
| The diversity within their present culture, |
| The ways in which their own culture is evolving, and |
| Differences between their culture's past, present and current trends, when compared with those of other countries. |
As noted in this essay's source menu, homosexuality is a particularly challenging topic to teach.
| Whenever the public holds conflicting and passionately held beliefs, each side will want to have their own viewpoints included in any school course that is offered to their children. |
| Some will want other viewpoints suppressed. |
| Some will want the entire topic to be avoided. They may believe that if their children remain ignorant of homosexuality, they won't be tempted to experiment with it. |
| Some equate teaching about homosexuality with promoting homosexuality. |
| Some want to teach their children at home; they feel that a school
setting is not appropriate for any topic related to human sexuality. |
| Homosexuality involves three very "hot" topics:
| ||||||||
| Many people hold their beliefs about homosexuality and other human
sexuality topics very rigidly. | ||||||||
| People differ greatly on such basic factors as:
| ||||||||
| There seems to be no possibility of a public consensus on homosexuality
anytime soon. | ||||||||
| The stakes are very high:
|
Homosexuality may be the most difficult topic to teach in middle school or high school. Perhaps only the teaching of abortion is as challenging as homosexuality.
Separation of church and state issues in homosexual education:
The drive to preserve the status quo on homosexual rights, -- and perhaps to revert to the pre-2003 situation where homosexual behavior in some states was a criminal act -- is primarily driven by the conservative wings of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and other religions. Thus, it would be ludicrous to attempt to teach students about homosexuality without introducing the topic of the diversity of religious beliefs about human sexuality.
Some educators might be concerned about violating the First Amendment principle of separation of church and state by involving religion in class discussions. However, the U.S. Constitution does not require that public schools be religion-free areas.
In order to meet constitutional requirements, the following might be used as a rough guide for the design of class material involving religion.
It should have:
| A secular purpose, and |
| One religion or faith group as superior to any other. |
| A religiously based life as superior to a secularly based life. |
| A secularly based life as superior to a religiously based life. |
Teaching about homosexuality and other sexual orientations definitely has a secular purpose, just as teaching about gender, race, etc. All are needed to produce a well-rounded education. Students need to learn about human sexuality in general in order to help them avoiding traps that can adversely affect their emotional and physical health. Homosexuality is a major topic within human sexuality.
Describing the teachings of a wide variety of religions should satisfy the second criteria. If the beliefs of both the liberal and conservative wings of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. are taught, then no one religion is being promoted over any other.
Including the findings of sexual researchers, therapists' professional associations, secular philosophies and belief systems like Humanism, Ethical Culture, etc., as well as those of a variety of faith groups, should meet the third and fourth criteria. Neither secular nor religious information sources will be promoted at the expense of the other.
|
Disclaimer: |
|
Site navigation: Home > Conflict > Homosexuality > Religious impact > Teaching > here |
Copyright © 2005 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally posted: 2005-MAY-8
Latest update: 2005-MAY-10
Author: B.A. Robinson
|
|
|
Page Translator: