A judge in Great Britain has ruled that a Christian couple can no longer serve as foster parents due to their religious views that homosexuality is wrong.

Yes, really.  It's come to this.

The couple, Owen and Eunice Johns have been foster parents to over twenty children, but were banned from the program by social workers in 2007 as a result of interviews associated with the program where they expressed their opposition to homosexuality because of their faith.  Now a British court has upheld that ban.

The Associated Press reported that judges at London’s Royal Courts of Justice determined that laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination take precedence over the couple’s religious beliefs.

Britain, the judges ruled, was a “secular state, not a theocracy.”

Of course they failed to explain just what that has to do with anything.  I don't think it's lost on anyone who knows absolutely anything about history that England is not a theocracy.  But (at least until this point it seems), that hasn't stopped anyone from having their own personal religious beliefs.

“We have been excluded because we have moral opinions based on our faith, and we feel sidelined because we are Christians with normal, mainstream, views on sexual ethics,” Mrs. Johns said. read more »

Every now and then you come across some good news in the ongoing culture war.  Today it comes from Ireland, and their new adoption bill that mandates that only married, heterosexual couples are elligible to adopt children. 

DUBLIN, February 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Newly published adoption legislation introduced by Ireland's Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Barry Andrews, unequivocally states that all aspects of a child's adoption must "take place in the best interests of the child and with respect for his or her fundamental rights as recognized under international law."

In light of this the bill has no provisions for permitting adoption by same-sex couples or other cohabiting individuals, a fact that has homosexual activists up in arms, who are calling on Ireland to follow the example of Britain and Scotland in allowing homosexual adoption.  ...

Under the Bill, adopting parents must be married and living together, will have to show they are of good moral character, are healthy and have adequate financial means to support the child, before their adoption is approved. The couple must also show that they understand and support the child's needs in relation to ethnic, religious and cultural background.  read more »