Anti-gay Christians lose right to foster

A CHRISTIAN couple morally opposed to homosexuality because of their faith lost a landmark High Court battle yesterday over the right to become foster carers.

Eunice and Owen Johns, aged 62 and 65, from Oakwood, Derby, went to court after a social worker expressed concerns when they said they could not tell a child a “homosexual lifestyle” was acceptable.

The Pentecostal Christian couple had applied to Derby City Council to be respite carers but withdrew their application, believing it “doomed to failure” because of the social worker’s attitude to their religious beliefs.

They asked judges yesterday to rule their faith should not be a bar to them becoming carers, and the law should protect their Christian values.

But Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson ruled laws protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation “should take precedence” over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds.

The Johns are considering an appeal.

Outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where the decision was given, Eunice Johns stood alongside her husband as she said: “We are extremely distressed at what the judges have ruled.

“All we wanted was to offer a loving home to a child in need. We have a good track record as foster parents. But because we are Christians, with mainstream Christian views on sexual ethics, we are apparently unsuitable as foster parents.

“We are unsure how we can continue the application process following the court’s ruling,” she said.

“We have been excluded because we have moral opinions based on our faith and we feel sidelined because we are Christians with normal, mainstream, Christian views on sexual ethics.

“The judges have suggested that our views might harm children.

“We have been told by the Equality and Human Rights Commission that our moral views may ‘infect’ a child.”

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, the lesbian, gay and bisexual charity, said: ‘We’re delighted that the High Court’s landmark decision has favoured 21st-century decency above 19th-century prejudice.

“In any fostering case the interests of the 60,000 children in care should override the bias of any prospective parent.”