Catholic School Sued for Anti-Gay Discrimination

Stand Firm by David Fischler 

 

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The creeping assault by gay rights advocates on religious freedom took another step forward last week as a “married” gay man filed a complaint against a Catholic prep school with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. According to the Boston Globe:

Matthew Barrett thought he had found his dream job.
He had worked in the food industry for more than two decades, and when he was offered a job in July as food services director at Fontbonne Academy, a Roman Catholic-based girls’ prep school in Milton, he quickly accepted.
But Barrett, 43, said the offer was rescinded only two days later — once the head of school realized Barrett had listed his husband as his emergency contact, according to a complaint he was set to file Thursday with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
“She said the Catholic religion doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage, and that was her excuse. She said, ‘We cannot hire you,’ ” Barrett said in an interview in the Boston offices of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, which is representing him.

“Excuse”? A Catholic school refusing to hire someone who is engaged in sexual practices that directly contradict Catholic teaching is an “excuse”?

Barrett’s complaint, which may be the first of its kind in the country, comes at a time when religion-based schools in the increasing number of states where gay marriage is legal have been scrutinizing hiring and employment practices to ensure they conform with the pillars of their faiths.

And properly so. If this is indeed the first of its kind in the country, it signals that a new front is being opened in the war on dissent from the New Sexual Orthodoxy™.

He said he was told by school officials that employees recognize church doctrine, but he believed that meant participating in prayers.

This is another way of saying, “I was willfully stupid when they were speaking to me, so that I could claim later I didn’t know what they were talking about.”
Bennett’s lawyer said that he and his buddies get to decide what aspects of a religious institution qualifies for a religious exemption:

Barrett’s attorney and other supporters argue that officials at Fontbonne went too far in rescinding its offer for a job that has nothing to do with the school’s religious mission.
“There is a balance between important values, which are religious liberties, and discriminatory practices,” said Bennett Klein, a senior GLAD attorney. “This is a job that has nothing to do with religion . . . and this weighs toward discrimination.”

So a Catholic school that makes clear its employees have to support Catholic doctrine has to distinguish between those that doing jobs that are “religious” and those that aren’t. Klein goes on to list some of the others that shouldn’t have to support and live according to said doctrine:

Massachusetts lists sexual orientation among other characteristics such as race and gender under the state’s antidiscrimination laws. Klein said the state law grants certain exceptions for things like “ministerial” duties, but he argued that it would cross the line to include the position of food services director.
Likewise, he argued, schools across the country have gone too far in firing teachers, music directors, and sports coaches.
“We’re seeing religion-affiliated entities more and more trying to push the line toward discriminating against gay, lesbian, and transgendered people,” he said.

So pretty much no one except the chaplain at a Catholic school has to accept and live according to Catholic teaching, because for the school to do otherwise might actually give its students the idea that their alma mater takes seriously its mission to uphold Catholic teaching.
It’s getting deeper every day, folks.
(Via Mass Resistance, which, by the way, is listed as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, to MR’s credit.)