Hans Rustad 
En britisk domstol avsa denne uken kjennelse for at ekteparet Eunice og Owen Johns ikke kan være fosterforeldre. De har oppdratt flere barn, men nå er det stopp. Ekteparet er konservative kristne og har et konservativt syn på homofili. Det godtas ikke i dagens Storbritannia.
De to højesteretsdommere nåede frem til, «at loven mod diskrimination mod homoseksuelle tæller mere end retten til ikke at blive diskrimineret mod af religiøse grunde».
En afgørelse, som skuffede parret.
«Vi ønskede blot at give et kærligt hjem til et barn, som havde behov for det. Vi har opfostret mange plejebørn. Men fordi vi er kristne med almindelige kristne holdninger om seksualmoral, så er vi tilsyneladende upassende som plejeforældre,» sagde Eunice Johns til pressen efter afgørelsen.
Advokat Andrea Minichiello Williams fra Christian Legal Centre mener, at dommen betyder, at kristne ikke længere kan være plejeforældre.
«Storbritannien er nu førende i Europa i intolerancen mod religiøs tro,» fastslår hun.
Det er ingen tvil om at det er motsetning mellom et konservativt bibelsyn og den ultratolerante rettighetskulturen som mener det ikke er forskjell på homofile og heterofile over hodet. Men den løsningen dommerne tar – å utestenge et kristen par – er å utestenge et tradisjonelt kristent syn, og det mens langt mer intolerante holdninger vinner innpass, uten at man tør gjøre noe med dem.
Christina Odon, som er katolikk, skriver at dommerne skyver hele den kristne tradisjonen til side. Det er å kaste barnet ut med badevannet.
It’s official: Britain is no longer a Christian nation. In banning Eunice and Owen Johns, a devout Christian couple, from fostering children, Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson declared that we live in a secular state, and that the Johns’ religious convictions disqualified them from raising citizens of that state. We’ve outgrown Christianity, the judges professed. Instead, we have graduated to the status of a multicultural nation, blessed by a plurality of faiths.
Ironically, the justices who have pronounced that Britain is no longer Christian did so in a court where witnesses swear on the Bible and invoke God’s help in telling the truth. I do not imagine that these judges leave out the first word in “God Save the Queen” – nor would they shun an invitation to the Royal wedding, which is happening not at a registry office but the centrepiece of official Christendom, Westminster Abbey.
In taking part in these traditions, the judges – and the rest of us – are no different from past generations. For Christianity is not merely a part of life here, a provider of schools, hospitals and orphanages. It is the backbone of our laws, the impetus for the charity, justice and tolerance that have long been characteristic of this country. Its grand principles have inspired citizens to extraordinary actions, such as William Wilberforce’s campaign against slavery, and to ordinary kindnesses, such as reading to hospital patients or delivering meals on wheels. When David Cameron speaks of our moral duty to our Arab brothers, or shares his vision for the Big Society, he taps not into narrow party allegiance, but into our common Christian heritage.
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So it is not just Christians that the ruling in the Johns case will alarm and unsettle. As the judges wagged their fingers about the secularist principles that, they claim, define the nation (and which “ought to be, but seemingly are not, well understood”), they were not describing the status quo: a strong majority of Britons still consider themselves to be Christian. Instead, they were making clear their desire to steer this country in a direction of their own choosing – one that matches the views of an increasingly strident group that is determined to scrub Christianity from public life.
Its efforts to push the majority faith underground are evident everywhere, from our bus stops to our workplaces. The British Humanist Association is campaigning to discourage “cultural Christians” from identifying themselves as believers in the forthcoming census. Jo Johnson, a Tory MP, wants to drop the prayer that traditionally opens Parliamentary sessions. Companies like BA forbid their Christian staff from wearing crosses to work. Schools and offices present Christian holidays as secular breaks. And now devout Christians are to be prevented from becoming foster parents.
According to our learned judges, “the aphorism that ‘Christianity is part of the common law of England’ is now mere rhetoric”. How excruciatingly unjust.
