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?
January 1, 2008 at 1:39 am
The bishop is right, of course, and the quote about religious schools being OK as long as they don’t take faith too seriously is outrageous.
I don’t know much about how Catholic schools are funded in the UK but it’s my understanding that they receive at least partial funding from the government. That would seem to leave them wide open to this sort of attack, which will no doubt increase in the future.
I hope they are scrambling for alternative funding sources, otherwise the handwriting seems to be on the wall.
January 1, 2008 at 5:56 am
Catholic schools emphasizing Catholic teaching. Who’d a thunk it?
January 1, 2008 at 6:21 am
Hey, Matt, it’s just after midnight on New Year’s Day. How come you’re not out drinking with the rest of the good Catholics? Party on, dude.
January 1, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Two words – Five kids. I can’t even get out to play Bingo in the Parish Hall.
January 1, 2008 at 7:05 pm
These sort of problems will always exist when Catholic schools depend on government funding. The answer, of course, is for the Catholic schools to support themselves. Is that a legal option in the UK? In my mind, if the Catholic community isn’t willing to support Catholic schools, the schools should close and alternatives for Catholic education should be sought. That’s better than the government deciding what the schools are allowed to teach. Now, I say that as a Catholic who never attended Catholic schools and whose children do not attend Catholic schools, so I admit that Catholic schools have not played a role in my or my children’s educations.
Mr. Wood’s statement is the key: “I do not think the state should be funding Catholic indoctrination.” As long as the state controls the purse, the state will control the curriculum. I still can’t believe that there were those only a few years ago who thought the answer to saving the Catholic schools in the US was to have them funded by the government. Perhaps those people are still around. They should read about what’s happening in the UK and in Canada.
Bob Hunt
Knoxville, TN
PS – FYI: AIDS is an acronym for Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome, so it’s spelled with all caps.
January 2, 2008 at 3:26 am
Hi Bob:
I agree with you, but it doesn’t need to be that way. The UK government, which seems to see a need to spend state funds on just about everything, could just as easily issue grants to the schools and take a hands off approach.
However, the UK’s recent controversy over Catholic adoption agencies should tell us that the Church needs to tread carefully when accepting state funds, especially in hostile political environments. You’d think the gov’t would eventually wake up and do the right thing once enough Catholic charities and schools cease doing the good work they do. Then again, we’re talking about a politician using Parliament to investigate Catholics who are too Catholic.