Vincent and Pauline Matherick have been forced out of fostering.
Image © Bristol News and Media
A Christian foster couple have been forced to resign because they will not sign a contract with a local council to promote gay rights.
Vincent and Pauline Matherick have been told by Somerset County Council that all foster carers must sign up to a gay rights pledge because of the Sexual Orientation Regulations.
The regulations came into force in April. They ban, amongst other things, discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of a service.
The Christian couple - who have cared for 28 children in six years - refused to sign the pledge on moral grounds. They say the council threatened to deregister them as foster carers.
Following the couple's resignation an 11-year-old boy who they have been fostering for two years will be removed and placed in a council hostel and no more children will placed with the couple.
According to press reports the Mathericks are considering taking legal action against the council with the support of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship 
.
This case, sadly, fulfils predictions made by The Christian Institute and other Christian groups that the Sexual Orientation Regulations would lead to discrimination against Christians because of their religious beliefs on sexual ethics.
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