Salaam
I thought this was an interesting comment on Christianity in British society. Interesting to note as secular ideologues become more influential they more they try to restrict peoples ability to practice their faith. In this instance trying to ban ban faith schools.
An Evening with Professor Self
By Peter Hitchens
Here are a few all too brief words about one of the two debates I attended last week – a discussion about the status of Christianity in England, with Will Self, at t Brunel University in Uxbridge. ( Later, I hope to say a few words about a debate I had in Manchester, also about religion, and to say a few things about P.D.James, and her book ‘An Unsuitable Job for a Woman’, and about the recent film ‘Philomena’, and the book on which it is loosely based ‘The Lost Child of Philomena Lee’ by Martin Sixsmith. I have one last debate to do before the end of the year, after which I shall probably be taking on fewer speaking engagements for a while. Enjoyable as they are, they eat time and energy, and are easier to accept, breezily, in June than to fulfil months later when your diary has filled up with other things).
I think the people who attended our Brunel debate largely enjoyed it, as it was a pretty thoughtful exchange between two articulate people. Mr Self (or Professor Self as he is up there) was particularly exercised about ‘Faith Schools’, as modern radicals always are, seeing them as in some way morally wrong. I’m fairly sure that this will be the main front on which the secularists will advance in coming years. The ordinary state schools have over the past 70 years marginalised or removed most traces of Christianity *as a faith* rather than as one of a number of bizarre anthropological curiosities.
This is in fact a breach of an agreement made at the time, but it goes completely unpunished, even though it quite often involves direct defiance of statute law. I suspect that many of the church schools have reduced it to the very minimum, as they come under increasing pressure to dilute their religious nature. That pressure, dressed up as a war on privilege, and combined with a supposed concern to prevent ‘indoctrination’ of the young in ancient follies, will now increase. The Church of England will probably not fight it that hard. I suspect it sees its formal bureaucratic grip on a large minority of schools as being more important than the actual religious upbringing of the young. Some of its prelates have made remarkably weak and confused statements on this lately. The Roman Catholics may possibly be tougher. But in the end, a confrontation is certain between Christian teaching on such things as marriage, and the equality and diversity agenda promoted by the National Curriculum through personal Health and Social Education.
I said that I was quite happy to see state-backed schools of any faith, if there was a demand for them. Professor Self claimed to doubt my sincerity on Islamic schools, which he is welcome to do, but I assure him that it is genuine. I would very much favour the setting up of actively atheist schools as well, if there is sufficient demand. I would very much like to see this strange, shy, reticent yet aggressive creed taught as a belief and celebrated with Godless singing at morning assembly. We would see how they got on. Perhaps parents from all over the neighbourhood would clamour for places, and the egalitarians would complain that Atheist schools had too low a proportion of pupils receiving free school meals.
An experiment on these lines would test the other question I couldn’t ( as I recall) get Professor Self to answer – namely – what is the source of authority in schools, or anywhere else, once you have abandoned adherence to Christianity? In schools this is particularly important, as the question arises of where the individual teacher’s authority comes from, how the subjects for instruction are selected and how they are approached, as well as the purpose for which education is intended. Most people never think about this, and I suspect this is one of the reasons why secularised British state schools are often so bad, whereas their private rivals, which (so far) retain quite a lot of the character given to them by their largely religious founders, are not.
Despite this, Professor Self alleged that I was ‘intolerant’. I repeatedly challenged him to justify this accusation, but it’s my recollection that he never did. I also teased him for his position of ‘radical agnosticism’, saying that it was an oxymoron much like ‘razor-sharp sponge’, which did not go down well. I would have liked to stay behind and hammer it out at the bar, but alas, I had a pressing engagement elsewhere – as I do now.
http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/
