Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Gotta have faith-a-faith-a-faith

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Tony Blair told his monthly press conference faith schools were a "difficult" issue.

Which is odd, because about a year ago two-thirds of the British public polled by ICM/The Guardian told Tony Blair that faith schools were a "difficult" issue - they told him they didn't want any government money in it whatsoever - but our evangelical leader kept on diving headfirst into the God pool.

Faith schools are in the news today because they may be asked to take up to 25% of their intake from other backgrounds, but why the hell has Blair invested so much money and intellectual weight in them in the first place? If a veil is a 'sign of separation' then Christ knows (haha) what a school system where 5 year olds are delineated on the grounds of their parents' religion is.

2 Comments:

Blogger John said...

Speaking as a representative of the Christian Centre I have to say that I completely agree with you.

From an evangelical, fundamentalist perspective, it is great that there are institutions where Godly, heavenly principles are taught to people. However, this is the role of the church, not of schools. It is obvious that in a secular society, with a secular government, that education shouldn't be managed by the church.

Christian education is the responsibility of the church and of paretns in particular, and it shouldn't be a burden to the tax payer. I love the whole concept of teaching intelligent design in schools (face it, creationism is a much happier view of the world), but none of you should have to pay for it happen. It's a secular country, it should have a secular education system, and Christian kids can learn from their parents and in churches.

To call Blair a great Christian is a joke anyway. Decriminalising cannabis, war in Afghanistan, gay marriage, war in Iraq, declassifying pornography, constant support of Israel: I don't see a man following the teachings of Christ there. Don't even start me on "Burning" Bush ...

10:53 AM  
Blogger Stephen Collins said...

Hm. I'm not on the same page as you John, or even the same book to be honest, but I agree that education in a secular country shouldn't be religiously motivated in any respect. there's a muslim school next to a Christian school near here and it's practically bloody apartheid...

9:34 PM  

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