

The International Christian School of Hong Kong demands its employees align to a ‘Morality Contract,’ which, among other things, stipulates a heterosexual-only workforce and prohibits unmarried couples who live together from working in the school. These—to put it as lightly as possible—extremely specific guidelines have come under a good deal of criticism from anti-discrimination advocates and generally anti-bigoted onlookers alike.

The “Morality Contract” stipulates that teachers and employees can be confronted in areas of, “sexual orientation and behavior, marital and parental relationships, personal finances, addictive substances, and leisure activities.” It goes on to say that breaks with the school’s contract will be dealt with “in accordance with biblical principles Matthew 18: 15-19.” For those of you who aren’t up to speed on what Matthew’s been up to, that tract reads as follows:

15 If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.

16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’

17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.

19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

Yeah, that sounds like the way an international education organization should manage its employees in the 21st century. It’s worth noting that this company’s employment policies situate cozily between Matthew 17, when “Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Boy” and Matthew 19, in which details the different types of eunuchs one may run into on a daily basis. In other words, the school’s hiring policies probably don’t reflect the most enlightened, modern thinking about its potential employees.

The wonderful Hong Wrong blog has taken this story and run with it, and they report:

In most developed countries, such discriminatory policies would be an affront to equal opportunity laws. However, Hong Kong’s Equal Opportunities Commission‘s rules deal only with disability, gender, ethnicity and family status discrimination. The city’s flimsy ‘Code of Practice‘ legislation for employers advises against homophobic recruitment practices, but it remains only a voluntary code. Employers in Hong Kong may still hire and fire workers simply because of who they love or choose to sleep with.

The China Daily has turned against the school as well, which quoted a local gay rights group representative who said, “Education is intended to train students to be as open-minded and cosmopolitan in their world view as possible, but this type of education closes people’s minds.”

Tuition at the International Christian School of Hong Kong ranges from HK$95,200 to HK$129,300 per year.



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