Kylie Lang: No place at school for hate speech disguised as evangelism

There might be a place in history for hate speech disguised as evangelism, but a modern classroom full of impressionable and impulsive teenagers isn’t it, writes Kylie Lang.

T HERE might be a place in history for hate speech disguised as evangelism but a modern classroom full of impressionable and impulsive 15-year-old boys isn’t it.

It beggars belief that Brisbane’s Moreton Bay Boys’ College considers it appropriate to teach from the inflammatory, discriminatory and potentially dangerous Teen Sex By The Book, written by a Sri-Lankan-raised fundamentalist Christian who is in her 70s and clearly needs to get out into the real world.

Dr Patricia Weerakoon spews out many vile assertions, including that being gay can be a result of poor parenting and childhood sexual abuse, and if only “sexual sinners” and the “homosexually-inclined” turned to Jesus they could avoid having to “end up in the gay/lesbian community”.

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I don’t know if Dr Weerakoon reads the newspaper or bothers much with current affairs, but community sentiment has moved past prejudice.

There was a tiny postal survey back in 2017 about same-sex marriage, and of the 80 per cent of Australians who responded (staggeringly high for a voluntary poll), almost 62 per cent said yes.

Teen Sex By the Book for high school students in years 9 to 12 Moreton Bay Boys College

That put the 38 per cent who thought gay people didn’t deserve to be treated as equals under the law in the minority.

One of them was 21-year-old Wilson Gavin, a Queensland university student who vigorously campaigned against same-sex marriage and earlier this year suicided after protesting against a drag queen reading event for children.

Mr Gavin was gay himself and following his death his heartbroken family reached out to the LGBTIQA+ community, saying “we love and support you”.

I get that Christian teachings go back thousands of years but to suggest in contemporary sex education that “God hates homosexuals” surely should raise red flags with a school that professes to be open-minded.

Moreton Bay Boys’ College’s website states its religious education, while shaped by Uniting Church policy, is “not about promoting one particular faith but is about helping students explore questions of spiritually and life in the world”.

It “encourages students to explore important questions and inform their own views, backed up by a reasonable understanding of the world’s religions and religious practices.”

Reasonable understanding? Life in the world? Informed views?

None of this seems to be afforded to the Year 10 boys whose parents are required to fork out $12 for a 64-page load of rubbish.

A graphic from Teen Sex By the Book, for high school students in years 9 to 12 Moreton Bay Boys College.

The Teen Sex By The Book student handbook, compiled by Belinda Elliott, is a companion to Dr Weerakoon’s paperback of the same name that is used in class.

The paperback was the subject of great controversy in 2015 when it was thought to have been distributed in NSW government schools.

Understandably.

Even the CEO of its publisher Anglican Youthworks, Craig Roberts, tells me the book has “run its course” and won’t be on its 2021 curriculum resources’ list.

To my mind, it should never have been on any curriculum in the first place.

Educators who know anything about boys know that adolescence is a turbulent time. Children are working out who they are, how they fit in the world, and boys are prone to high-risk taking, impulsiveness and expressing strong emotions.

As the Raising Children website confirms, the teenage brain is undergoing immense change and needs help to be “healthy”.

One way to do this is to “encourage empathy” by highlighting “the fact that other people have different perspectives and circumstances” and “many people can be affected by one action”.

Another resource, Grow by WebMD, says 15-year-old boys are “searching for identity” and have higher rates of death than younger children, with suicide and homicide two of the main causes.

Teaching children there is only one way to love, and be loved by God, is alarming and outdated.

That Moreton Bay Boys’ College is the only school in Queensland to use a book that peddles this harsh and hateful line would suggest it needs to take a good hard look at itself and realise why.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail

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