A Christian couple living in the United Kingdom have had their foster child taken away after they refused to sign papers agreeing to abide by the new Sexual Orientation Regulations. The Equality Act 2006 was drafted by the Labour government, and makes it illegal for anyone providing goods, services, facilities, premises, education or public functions, to discriminate against a person on the grounds of "sexual orientation". The legislation came into effect throughout the British isles at the beginning of this year. The Sexual Orientation Regulations were intended to prevent genuine discrimination against homosexuals, but instead they are criminalizing law-abiding Christians who hold to a Biblical view of morality, which teaches that marriage should be between one man and one woman. In this latest case, a Christian couple that have fostered children for over 30 years and cared for some 28 children, have fallen foul of the new law. Vincent and Pauline Matherick feel they had no option other than to resign, rather than place their children in an environment in which they are exposed to such immoral teaching. 

Quote: "Earlier this year, Somerset County Council's social services department asked them to sign a contract to implement Labour's new Sexual Orientation Regulations, part of the Equality Act 2006, which make discrimination on the grounds of sexuality illegal. Officials told the couple that under the regulations they would be required to discuss same-sex relationships with children as young as 11 and tell them that gay partnerships were just as acceptable as heterosexual marriages. They could also be required to take teenagers to gay association meetings. When the Mathericks objected, they were told they would be taken off the register of foster parents. The Mathericks have decided to resign rather than face the humiliation of being expelled. Mr Matherick, a 65-year-old retired travel agent and a primary school governor, said: "I simply could not agree to do it because it is against my central beliefs. "We have never discriminated against anybody but I cannot preach the benefits of homosexuality when I believe it is against the word of God."

The Mathericks aren't the first Christians to fall foul of this new law. Earlier this year, Judge McClintock of Sheffield requested that he be removed from adoption cases involving homosexual or lesbian couples. He did not want to be involved in placing children with such couples, for he believed that placing a child in such a home was only removing them from "one kind of harm to face another hazard". Research has proven that children placed in such environments are more prone to "low self-esteem, stress, confusion regarding sexual identity, an increase in mental illness, drug use, promiscuity, STD’s, and homosexual behaviour, amongst others". And this opinion is based purely on scientific research on gay adoption, and does not even address the moral or religious aspects of homosexuality. Judge McClintock was told by his employees that he could not request to be excluded from certain cases, and was forced to resign his job after serving Sheffield county for 18 years. Part of the Sexual Orientation Regulations were thrown out by a Northern Ireland Judge earlier in the year, after a decision that they would unfairly discriminate against those who held a moral or religious conviction about homosexuality. In Northern Ireland you cannot be sued for saying that you believe homosexuality is sinful in God's eyes, and you can withhold some goods and services if providing them goes against your own conscience. But as we can see from today's news, Christians in the UK are still facing persecution through these laws.

Some of you have emailed me about the fires in California and the recent SB777 bill passed by Governor Arnold Swarzenegger. As the world continues to pass legislation which is contrary to God's law, there is no doubt we will witness more cataclysms like those of the past week. When thinking about how governments around the world are now passing laws legalizing homosexual marriage and criminalizing those who oppose them, it reminded me of the story of Daniel the prophet. The princes of Babylon were envious of how well the Jewish captive was being treated by King Nebuchadnezzar. The King was planning to make Daniel ruler over the whole province, and so the princes hatched a plot to have him quickly dispatched. But they could find no scandal against him, because Daniel was devoted to following the Lord...

Daniel 6:3-5
Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit [was] in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he [was] faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find [it] against him concerning the law of his God.

The same can be said of Christians today. Our adversary the devil has tried to cause our downfall on numerous occasions, through persecutions, temptations and such like, and he has been successful at times. But the testimony of God remains sure, and he is now seeking to find occasion against us concerning law of our God. What did Daniel do when he heard the King's decree had been issued, and that it was now illegal to petition any god except the King?

Daniel 6:10
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

Daniel obeyed God. And so should we when it comes to the diabolical legislation now being passed in the name of "tolerance". During the tribulation period, the Antichrist is prophesied to change laws and customs (Daniel 7:25), and the Bible states they will be given into his hand for three and a half years. What we may be seeing now is the beginning of this persecution that will be unleashed against the tribulation saints in the not too distant future. As a result of Daniel's faithfulness, the Lord preserved him in the den of lions. May the Lord help us to be like Daniel, and to fear God more than men.

Source Daily Mail