A couple from Derby were "doomed not to be approved" as foster carers because of their traditional views on homosexuality, a court heard today.

Eunice and Owen Johns, 62 and 65 respectively, said issues were raised over their suitability as foster carers after they told social workers they could not tell a child a homosexual lifestyle was acceptable.

The couple, both Pentecostal Christians, had applied to Derby city council to be respite carers. But two high court judges, sitting at Nottingham crown court, today heard that they withdrew their application after a social worker expressed concerns over their attitudes towards homosexuality.

Their lawyer, Paul Diamond, told the court the couple were "doomed not to be approved", which was why they agreed with the council to seek clarification from the high court.

He said: "The promotion of values is something that the court should be protecting, especially when these religious values are recognised as giving a moral framework to values in our country. No one is disputing that the duty of every public authority is to safeguard and promote the welfare of a child. It is conceivable if there was an extremely vulnerable adolescent practising [homosexual] child, who may be placed in a certain familial relationship that was disapproving, that may not be a sensible placement."

Diamond said the couple, who have fostered 15 children in the past, wanted to be respite carers for short-term placements for a child aged between five and 10. He said: "They say they would offer a secure and loving home relationship to a young child whose family are unable to cope and need a short break." But he told the court that the couple's views on homosexuality did not fit in with the council's standards on valuing diversity.

The court heard that Mrs Johns said she would not compromise her beliefs but did value young people and said she would support them. Diamond said she told the council: "There's got to be other ways of going on without having to compromise my faith."

He told the court the couple believed they were effectively being barred from adopting because of their Christian beliefs. "We just ask a common-sense approach on this term 'valuing diversity'. Mr and Mrs Johns do value diversity; they will take any child. Valuing diversity does not mean that you cannot have a disagreement or do not respect a person while not valuing certain lifestyles. The court must be mindful that these public policy objectives are not used to trump fundamental rights."

The case has been taken up by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), which said it was the first time a court had been asked to decide how local authorities should deal with foster carers who have traditional views on sexual ethics.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, a barrister and director of the CLC, said: ""One of the issues before the court is whether Christian couples, who have traditional views on sexual ethics, are 'fit and proper persons' to foster - and, by implication, adopt."

Stonewall, the lesbian, gay and bisexual rights charity, has previously backed concerns over the Johns' views. Its chief executive, Ben Summerskill, said: "Too often in fostering cases nowadays it's forgotten that it is the interests of a child, and not the prejudices of a parent, that matter. Many Christian parents of gay children will be shocked at Mr and Mrs Johns's views, which are more redolent of the 19th century than the 21st."

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "Social workers must always put the welfare and safety of the children first and not put them into an environment that is unbalanced in any way, whether that is in religious terms or any other."

A spokeswoman for Derby city council said it welcomed applications from people wishing to be foster carers, but added that not everyone who applied was accepted, for a variety of reasons.