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I like the Old Testament as much as the next Christian. There’s lots of fabulous stuff in there: the creation story is quite beautiful, Job is an extraordinary vignette of life’s inevitable hardships, and Song of Solomon is racier than Playboy magazine – or so I’m told.
There’s also more than enough content to support the Presbyterian church’s position on sexually active heterosexual and LGBTQ+ student leaders. In a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission the church has argued that: “If this [LGBTQ+] student were in an active same-sex relationship, they would not be able to give appropriate Christian leadership in a Christian school which requires modelling Christian living.”
But whatever the Old Testament might say, those of us who are Christians should always turn first to the teachings of Christ himself.
Jesus was constantly attacked for his love of outcasts: sex workers, adulterers, people with leprosy and tax-collectors, to name just a few. He synthesised his entire doctrine for his followers: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
In ancient Greek there are numerous different terms for our one word: love. Here, love is translated from the Greek word “agape”. This is the highest form of love – a love that is sacrificial and persists regardless of circumstances, or whether it is reciprocated. Thus, Jesus was setting us a very high bar.
Much has been written about the trauma LGBTQ+ students have suffered – and continue to suffer – at many schools, including religious ones. We should not minimise the very significant impact of that mistreatment for a moment.
For there is another path, much truer to the way of Christ, which is already being trodden by some religious schools. On a recent trip to England to tour high-performing schools, I had the pleasure of revisiting Brighton College, where I began my teaching career back in 2008. A Church of England school, Brighton was recently named “UK School of the Decade” by the Sunday Times.
When I first arrived as a 25-year-old starting out in the profession, what struck me most was headmaster Richard Cairns’s myopic focus on kindness. Cairns, who still runs the school, would tell pupils: “Being kind is better than being smart. Being kind is better than being sporty. Being kind is better than being beautiful”. In assemblies and in chapel services he would ask pupils to “look to the boy or girl to your left and your right. If, for one moment, you think you are better than them, that very thought demeans you.”
Cairns is not just all talk. Pupils at his school know they are seen, heard and valued – just as they are. Students and staff have been marching in Brighton’s annual Pride Parade since 2017. Last year the school hired an open-top, doubledecker bus, which pupils duly decorated. Cairns, resplendent in sequined pink shirt, led a large contingent of staff and students through the famously inclusive city.
Clear demonstrations of a school’s commitment to diversity obviously positively impact the wellbeing of LGBTQ+ students. But shouldn’t schools – first and foremost – be about the teaching of key academic skills and content: literacy, numeracy, science and history, for example?
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I suspect Cairns would agree. Brighton College pupils consistently achieve amazing results, topping Britain’s league tables.
The sacred texts of all major religions are complex, in parts problematic, and of their time. Yet there’s more than enough in them that is timeless and inclusive. By expecting teachers to model love and acceptance, while encouraging a strong work ethic in their pupils, Brighton is exhibiting what I would argue is a true Christian ethos. Of course, that will greatly benefit its LGBTQ+ pupils. It’s also what Jesus would do.
Matthew Bach is Victoria’s shadow minister for education and child protection.
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