Battle River board cuts ties with school after Bible-verse dispute
A rural Alberta school board said it’s cutting ties with a Christian school that wanted to include a Bible verse condemning “men who have sex with men” in its student handbook.
In a statement issued Friday, the Camrose-based Battle River school board said it will terminate an agreement to operate the Cornerstone Christian Academy in Kingman, Alta., in June 2018.
“This is not a decision we have reached lightly,” school trustee Kendall Severson said in the statement.
The increasingly difficult relationship with the school’s society was not in the best interest of students, and prompted the board to end the agreement, vice-chairwoman Lorrie Sitler said Friday.
The school board wanted Cornerstone’s governing society to sign a communication agreement that amounted to a “gag order,” which it was unwilling to do, it said in a news release.
“We are deeply saddened by the BRSD’s decision to terminate our agreement,” school society chairwoman Deanna Margel said in a statement. “It seems unwise, and completely unnecessary, to throw away years of productive co-operation in mere weeks because we’ve simply hit an unusual bump in the road.”
Since news spread of the disagreement, Battle River school board chairwoman Laurie Skori and division community relations adviser Diane Hutchinson have been bombarded with abusive messages on social media, by email, and phone.
Hutchinson, who was not involved in the board’s decision making, had a caller from England tell her she was going to hell, and she has turned one threatening email over to police.
According to documents released by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which represents Cornerstone, the disagreement arose over a piece of scripture the school wanted to add to its student handbook.
The passage from Corinthians reads: “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Skori said the passage may contravene Alberta’s School Act and human rights legislation that pro- tects sexual orientation as grounds for discrimination.
She said potentially “offensive” scripture couldn’t be taught in school.
The school society called in lawyers, who publicly alleged the board was improperly interfering with the school’s religious beliefs.
The board has never vetted which Bible verses can be taught in the school, Sitler said.
Both parties say they want to reach a new agreement.
Margel said the society aims to keep the school open beyond June 2018. The school could reach a new agreement with Battle River, join a different school board, or operate as an independent school.