…says a man who thinks it’s OK to cut bits off boys’ penises.
Gay rights advocates and a Jewish community body have rejected a rabbi’s claims a government funded anti-homophobic bullying scheme is teaching “moral wrong”.
In an article for the Australian Family Association journal, Institute for Judaism and Civilization director Rabbi Dr Shimon Cowen (the son of recently deceased former Governor-General Sir Zelman Cowen) wrote that anti-bullying initiative Safe Schools Coalition Victoria (SSCV) is “unethical” because it teaches children about homosexuality which goes against the word of God.
“As part of its program, [SSCV] requires schools to teach the acceptability of homosexual behaviour as a norm. By so doing, it flies in the face of over 3000 years of religious and cultural tradition since Sinai,” the Melbourne-based rabbi wrote.
“In terms of the world religions and world civilization, it is teaching something which is a moral wrong and fundamentally unethical.” Cowen, also an associate of Monash University’s School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, claims the anti-bullying program breaches religious rights.
“The notion that every child in a school, of which a great many come from religious backgrounds which prohibit homosexual behaviour, … must be taught in the school from infancy that homosexual behaviour is equally normative is coercive,” he said.
“State institutions are being required by it to teach values which override and negate the teachings of the traditional world religions and so infringe religious liberty.”
Religious liberty: My right to make you spend your money on my delusions.
