Have Faith?

[jambutty]

Alan Johnson, the government Education Secretary, has performed the fasted U turn in political history by announcing that the plan to make all new faith schools reserve 25% of the places to other faith students, has been scrapped and a voluntary scheme is being adopted instead.

Good! Whilst you are at it Alan Johnson, scrap faith schools altogether and free young children from being brain washed into one particular faith before they are old enough to really understand what it is all about.

I would even go one step further and that is that if a religious order wishes to supply a general education to their followers’ children that includes religious instructions, prayers at assembly etc. they should fund the school from their own resources.

In a nutshell I take the view that education in the UK should be secular. If the parents want to force their children into a particular religious belief then their church/mosque/synagogue etc. should provide that education outside of normal school hours. If a particular religious order does not have its own faith school it could hire a local school for evening or Saturday morning religious education.

However in secondary secular schools there should be one period a week where a tutor from a particular religious order would come along and present his/her case about his/her religion. So instead of a school having religious INSTRUCTIONS it would be the study of various religions in the same way that geography or maths is taught. Having received this information, secondary school children could make an informed choice if they want to become a Muslim or Christian or whatever or remain secular.

Dons flack jacket, steel helmet and sits in an armoured personnel carrier to await the flack.

[AccyJay]

I was talking to my neice a couple of week ago about this. She's 15 years old, & she told me that she is taught "Religious Studies", instead of "Religious Education". "Studies" looks at all faiths, whereas, "Education" is only Christianity.

[Less]

Originally Posted by jambutty

Dons flack jacket, steel helmet and sits in an armoured personnel carrier to await the flack.

The only criticism I can come up with in this thread is that if you had paid a few more pounds for that flack jacket you could have got one with the extra ammunition pouches built in, they are excellent for keeping your spare fag packets in!

[bullseyebarb]

The British didn't used to be so uptight about religion. Having been through several Church of England schools myself, I don't think the religious instruction I received there did me any harm at all. My personal opinion is that as long as taxpayers fund public education, then let the money follow the child. This way, parents can choose the most appropriate school.

[kash]

UK should be secular

One minute people say this country is built on Christian foundations and should remain that way, then say it should be a secular society. make up your mind.

If the parents want to force their children into a particular religious belief then their church/mosque/synagogue etc. should provide that education outside of normal school hours

I cant comment on other religions, but mosques do provide classes outside school hours.

[jambutty]

I didn’t say that the UK should be secular kash. I stated that EDUCATION in the UK should be secular.

If you made your point from the true facts then there would be a chance that Muslims and non-Muslims could learn to live in harmony. It is this sort of mis-quoting that furthers misunderstanding between faiths.

[SamF]

12 years of education and I know about 2 faiths, neither of which I beleive in and both are very similar.

I am now at college and have a friend taking religous studies at AS level, going onto the A level next year, and 90% of the work they will do on the course is on Christianity and Islam.

Why not teach about other faiths such as Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism etc, what makes Christianity and Islam more prominent in an evermore non-religous society?

If you do not believe in one of these faiths then finding information on others is left to you and when, in over 12 ( 14 if you carried on at college etc ) years they can only teach you about 2 faiths, well I think that is quite disgraceful.

Note:

Originally Posted by kash

I cant comment on other religions, but mosques do provide classes outside school hours.

Many churches provide sunday schools however it is not nearly as in-depth as the Madrasah ( I'm sorry if that isn't the correct name for when the islamic children get taught about their religion at the Mosque, or spelling, but I'm 99% sure it begins with Ma and the rest of the letters are half guesses..... at least I've tried )

[WillowTheWhisp]

I'd replied in this thread but it appears to have done a bunk.

I can't think what I might have said that could have offended anyone, if I did then I apologise for having done so, but I do wish that people would inform me and then I can perhaps clarify because what you think I said may not necessarily have been what I intended to mean. All I was doing was asking that people not make the common mistake of classing everyone under the same umbrella and assuming that we all want the same thing.

Those who advocate one thing will not be the same peopl as those who advocate another so what may appear to be contradictory is not actually so because the two different opinions come from different people or different sections of society.

I hope that is better worded now and that no-one takes offense this time.

[kash]

at least I've tried

nothing wrong with trying

It is this sort of mis-quoting that furthers misunderstanding between faiths

statements such as 'muslims want to take over uk' only add to the misunderstanding and increase hosilities.

[jambutty]

I notice kash that you seem to have carefully avoiding acknowledging that you misquoted me although you have, just as carefully, brought back into focus a previous statement of mine where I opined that “Islam is taking over the UK”.

Fifty, sixty years ago there were few Muslims in the UK. Today there are an estimated 1.5 million. Most of those congregate in enclaves although there are many who live amongst the rest of us – amicably I might add. However fifty years ago the Muslim immigrants lived amongst the rest of us but slowly but surely those areas became enclaves and so the same is likely to happen in the areas where Muslim and non-Muslim live side by side.

It is the sworn DUTY of all followers of Islam to spread the word of Islam until there is no one else to convert. There is no misunderstanding there. I’ll grant you that many Muslims only want to live in peace with their neighbours but Islam has such a strong hold over its followers that few will not answer the call if required to.

Let me put it another way. A house owner, out of the goodness of his heart, offers a room to a virtual stranger who is homeless. As time goes by a friend of the ‘lodger’ visits him for an afternoon. The house owner doesn’t mind because they stay in the lodger’s room. Again time goes by and now the friend is staying overnight from time to time. The house owner, although not too happy with the situation, feels it might be churlish to deny the lodger the overnight company of a friend. After all what real harm is it doing?

Over time the friend moves in on a more or less permanent basis as the lodger explains when challenged that the friend’s own lodging have been denied her. But now, as a couple, they want more access to the kitchen to cook meals that are traditional to them. So now the house owner is sharing a kitchen with the “guest”. It was bad enough sharing the bathroom and all the problems that brought but all the residents got round that problem more or less amicably.

Eventually the “guest” couple have saved enough money to be able to offer to buy the house and do so. The house owner has two options, accept the offer and sell or throw the “guests” out to regain control of his own house. The house owner has bent over backwards to help someone and is now faced with a dilemma. But the offer is too good to refuse so the deal goes through and the original house owner moves away.

[garinda]

A different ending for that little fable, is that the wicked householder's home was in Morecambe, and the guests were sent out everyday picking cockles.