Parliament is dragging some religious leaders to appear before a powerful committee because of concerns about pushing a fundamentalist brand of their religion in schools?

You’re thinking Muslim, right? You know, the extremists of a religion who are blowing stuff up and beheading journalists and civilians. But you’d be wrong.

Roman Catholic bishops are to appear in front of a powerful committee of MPs amid fears that they are pushing their religion in their schools, according to The Guardian. Why? Because Parliament has just discovered that some bishops take their faith seriously.

Bishops like the Bishop of Lancaster, Patrick O’Donoghue, have called on parents, teachers and priests to strengthen the role of religion in education including stopping ‘safe-sex’ education and placing crucifixes in all classrooms. Gasp!!!!

In a 66-page document, O’Donoghue called on teachers to use science to teach about the ‘truths of the faith’, only mention sex within the ‘sacrament of marriage’, insist that contraception was wrong and emphasise natural family planning.

Barry Sheerman, chairman of the parliamentary cross-party committee on children, schools and families, said, “A group of bishops appear to be taking a much firmer line and I think it would be useful to call representatives of the Catholic church in front of the committee to find out what is going on,’ he said. ‘It seems to me that faith education works all right as long as people are not that serious about their faith. But as soon as there is a more doctrinaire attitude questions have to be asked. It does become worrying when you get a new push from more fundamentalist bishops. This is taxpayers’ money after all.’

I know you’re smart and all but I just want to make sure that you pause a second over that line right there in the middle of the quote. “It seems to me that faith education works all right as long as people are not that serious about their faith.”

And I didn’t even make that quote up. Are you kidding me?

O’Donoghue recently wrote of what he expected from Catholic schools: ‘The secular view on sex outside of marriage, artificial contraception, sexually transmitted disease, including HIV and Aids, and abortion, may not be presented as neutral information … parents, schools and colleges must also reject the promotion of so-called “safe sex” or “safer sex”, a dangerous and immoral policy based on the deluded theory that the condom can provide adequate protection against Aids.’

The report has outraged non-religious groups, who accused the bishop of trying to ‘indoctrinate’ pupils. In a letter to Secretary of State Ed Balls, the National Secular Society wrote: ‘What happened to a well-rounded education – which is what British state schools are supposed to provide?’ Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the society, said: ‘I do not think the state should be funding Catholic indoctrination.’

About one third of the 21,000 state schools in England are faith schools, the vast majority Christian. Parliament also funds Muslim schools but the brave Parliamentarian was curiously silent about those. Hmmm. Wonder why?

I wonder what they’ll do when they hear that parents are also “indoctrinating” their children with faith?