Very few people will be aware of the Teaching Council of Ireland or its Code of Professional Conduct. The code could have potentially far-reaching and 
worrying implications for the teaching of religion in our schools.
Number four of the code tells teachers that they must “interact” with students in a manner that does not “discriminate” and that “promotes equality” in relation to such categories as “marital status”, “family status”, “sexual orientation” and “religion”.
This gives rise to the possibility that a teacher might be in breach of the code for teaching that the religion of the school contains more of the truth than other religions, or that heterosexual marriage is morally normative.
In the first case the teacher could be accused of treating pupils of other religions (or none) in a discriminatory or unequal fashion compared with pupils who belong to the same religion as the school.
In the second case, teaching that heterosexual marriage is morally normative might be seen as treating children from non-marital families, or gay and lesbian pupils as less ‘equal’ than heterosexual pupils or pupils being raised in marital families.
The Irish Catholic put these scenarios to The Teaching Council and it responded as follows: “If a complaint was made to the Council in relation to the matter you raise, it would be considered under Part 5 of The Teaching Council Act, 2001 which deals with Fitness to Teach.”
To put it mildly, this is not at all reassuring. Essentially it confirms that a teacher could indeed be investigated for teaching that one religion is superior to another or that heterosexual marriage is morally normative.
Obviously were this to happen, and particularly if the teacher was found guilty of breaching the code – that is to say found guilty of professional misconduct – it would represent an extraordinary attack on freedom of religion. If denominational schools are not free to teach all aspects of their religion, then they are not free.
This raises immediate constitutional issues because the Constitution protects freedom of religion and denominational education so it would be very interesting to find out how the code would fare if legally challenged.
However, as it stands, what denominational schools and their teachers are now confronted with is a code of conduct that attempts to impose a relativistic understanding of religion, sexual orientation, the family etc on schools.
The Teaching Council is a statutory body so its code amounts to State-imposed political correctness.
The code as yet has no teeth because Part 5 of the Teaching Council Act, 2001 which would give it teeth, has not yet come into force and will only do so when Education Minister Mary Coughlan signs off on it.
It is extremely doubtful that she is aware of the implications of number 4 of the code for denominational schools. But if she becomes aware, will she be concerned about it, or will she decide it is fair enough that religion can only be taught in the classroom within the very set boundaries of political correctness?
If so, then we have yet another example of the continuing assault on religious freedom in the name of a new moral dispensation, namely moral relativism.