Education Minister Sue Ellery has told The West Australian she is not concerned that a anti-gay evangelical church is meeting at public school Perth Modern, and running a youth group using the school’s facilities.
The evangelical Providence Church, lead by pastor Dr Rory Shiner, has recently begun hiring the school as a meeting place for it’s Sunday sermons and youth group. The church allegedly advocates against homosexuality, the transgender community, and suggests women should be subservient to men.
The church, which also has branches in Midland and Bayswater, outlines its views on gender and sexuality on their website, saying God created Adam and Eve and the roles of men and women in society are distinct and not interchangeable.
“In God’s wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways.” the group says on its site.
“The use of school facilities by the community only occurs outside school hours.” Ellery told The West Australian, saying that the decision making lies with the school’s principal and the Education department has a sound process.
“The decision about this use rests with the principal and I’m comfortable with that process.” Ellery said.
Taking part in a Q&A in 2019 Pastor Shiner shared his thoughts on how identity has changed over the centuries, noting that religious belief now sits alongside a range of attributes a person may now use to describe themselves.
“One of the big changes we’ve seen in the last little while is that sexual identity has moved to the front, even the word sexuality is relatively new word, and the idea that you would tether who you are against your sexuality, that’s a relatively new phenomena. It’s exploded, especially in the last decade, especially since the 1960’s, in different ways.”
Shiner that people of minority sexual orientations have always existed, but the culture has changed and allowed sexuality to be a source of identity. He said his view was people should base their identity on Christian religion rather than sexuality.
“I don’t want to give this impression that this a silver bullet, easily done straight forward thing, because it’s not. It’s a powerful internal force our sexuality, that is now meeting a powerful external source in a culture that wants to promote and forbid different things.” Shiner said.
OIP Staff, image: Rory Shiner image – Facebook. Sue Ellery, Perth Modern and The Providence Church have been contacted for comment.
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