‘There’s a big difference between protecting students and the promotion of a lifestyle’
A Spruce Grove pastor who oversees two Christian private schools has accused Alberta’s education minister of wielding “dictatorial power” on the issue of LGBTQ rights, and says his board has no intention of complying with the government’s new policy.
“I have a duty as a pastor to protect the flock of God,” said pastor Brian Coldwell, chair of the Independent Baptist Christian Education Society, which runs two schools in rural Parkland County with a total of 200 students. “And there is no way under heaven I’m going to allow gay activists to come in here and basically undermine our ministries and our religious freedoms or confuse and corrupt our children.”
Earlier this year, Education Minister David Eggen instructed boards to submit LGBTQ draft policies by the end of March. Some boards resisted, and in the case of the Edmonton Catholic School Board, Eggen appointed a consultant to help shape its new transgender policy.
“I’m not going to allow the minister of education to appoint anyone to come in here — he does not have that dictatorial power,” said Coldwell, whose board receives between 60 and 70 per cent of its instructional funding from the province.
Read More Here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/two-private-schools-won-t-comply-with-alberta-lgbtq-policy-says-pastor-1.3740138#DVP
