Today, hundreds of thousands of students in Christian schools across Australia have been loved and cared for.
Today, tens of thousands of Christian school staff have laboured to meet not just the academic, but social, emotional and spiritual needs of students in their care.
Today, parents have been able to ensure that their children are receiving an education aligned with their values and beliefs.
Today, in Christian schools located in metropolitan, regional, rural and remote Australia, students have been provided with a sense of meaning, purpose and direction for life and equipped to deal with personal relationships. (Cardus Education Australia Survey, https://carduseducationsurvey.com.au/).
Today, school leaders have worked tirelessly to ensure that their schools are filled with the hope of the Gospel, the message that Christ came, died and was resurrected in order that every single student in their school can have the gift of eternal life.
Unfortunately, not a single column inch or minute of video will be dedicated to recording these facts, or the stories that lie behind them.
Today, as in every other day, no student has been expelled from a Christian school simply on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
‘Christian schools have a vision of human flourishing founded on God’s Word and over 2,000 years of orthodox theology’, said Mark Spencer, Director of Public Policy for Christian Schools Australia, ‘a view of God’s best plan for students grounded in biological realities and standards of moral and sexual conduct held across the centuries and by billions of people across the world today’.
‘Students in Christian schools will make their own decisions on faith and how they want to live their life as they mature’, he said, ‘but they remain loved and valued in word and deed’.
”While it is important that stories like those told tonight on Australian Story are aired, it is equally important to recognise the stories not told’.
‘Hundreds of thousands of Christian school graduates, quietly living out their lives, raising their families and making their contribution to our nation all have a story of their own’, he said, ‘these quiet, everyday Australians are being nurtured and encouraged in Christian schools, today and everyday’.
‘Christian schools have proposed solutions since 2018 to the current legislative impasse’, Mr Spencer said.
‘Parents, families, students and schools deserve a resolution to this issue, they deserve certainty and confidence’.
‘The new Albanese Government needs to reintroduce legislation to protect people of faith from religious freedom urgently and establish a process to see the current exemptions redrafted and anti-discrimination laws clarified to ensure an appropriate balancing of fundamental human rights.
