Western Isles in new storm over church influence on teaching in schools

THE Western Isles is embroiled in a fresh row over the influence of churches on public policy after councillors voted to endorse a Catholic manual on teaching sex education and relationships in schools.

A large majority of councillors on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (CNES) backed a motion “commending” Roman Catholic teaching materials, which uphold an orthodox Catholic stance against sexual intercourse outside heterosexual marriage.

The vote came after Church of Scotland ministers on Lewis said parents and teachers were unhappy about Scottish Government-backed material on relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP), teaching children about the human body, different gender identities and sexual relationships, pornography and safe sex.

Rev Hugh Stewart, a minister in Lewis presbytery, which lobbied councillors to reject the official materials, said it suggested children as young as three were taught about human genitalia, while the Catholic material said 10 was the earliest age for that.

“It is one thing for a child or young person to be educated and objectively informed, it is another to require them to ‘embrace’, which infers a tacit support for, a view that contradicts their own morality or faith position,” he said.

Councillors angry about the vote denounced the decision as “dark and dangerous”, but council officials insisted the motion did nothing to change policy, since it still allowed teachers to use a variety of guides based on their judgment and local policy.

LGBTQ campaigners in the

Western Isles fear the vote will nonetheless put schools under heavy pressure to shelve or delay more progressive, inclusive lessons about gender and relationship.

Once dominated by conservative and highly orthodox Presbyterian churches, including the Free Church of Scotland, the Western Isles still observes sabbatarianism, which forbids work and play on Sundays.