The owners of the Phillip Island Adventure Resort have refused to hire their camping facilities to a group called WayOut, which plans a get-together for homosexually-inclined youth.

They refused because promoting homosexual relationships goes against their religion.

Now they must defend their action before a Tribunal.

The WayOut group is seeking a ruling that business-people may not so  discriminate – even if their religious faith condemns promoting homosexuality amongst the young.

WayOut told the media their aim was to allow young rural “gays” a chance to “find support and overcome a sense of isolation” — in other words, to recruit confused young persons into the homosexual subculture and further entrench that mentality in their minds.

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The resort owners, who belong to a non-Catholic Christian denomination, are finding, just as the Catholic Church does, how hard it is to get the message across that opposing homosexual behaviour  isn’t necessarily a sign of hatred, but of love and a desire to reveal truth.

More prudent, sometimes, to change jobs rather than waste the rest of one’s life in kangaroo courts being earbashed about so-called tolerance.

In one case in Canada, a religious couple closed down their bed and breakfast business rather than obey a legal requirement to offer equal accommodation to homosexuals as to traditional couples.

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While visiting the divided island of Cyprus, Pope Benedict recently urged Cypriots to “strive for peace and reconciliation and to build for future generations a society distinguished by respect for the rights of all — including the inalienable rights to freedom of conscience and freedom of worship.”

Notice that he didn’t advocate “freedom of worship” only — few object to groups of believers meeting together for private devotions.

No, he also advocated “freedom of conscience”. That’s what our media and politicians hate. “Freedom of conscience” means practising what you preach.

No matter what tribunals etc. may say, nobody can make a person of well-formed Christian conscience do things that he doesn’t want to do.

With one exception. They can make us dead — something we don’t particularly want – but it would be better than cooperating in public sin.