Hard on the heels of last week’s blog, which raised questions about the over-looked value of a distinctive Christian education and the right of parents to choose one, came Living with Difference, a report from the self-appointed Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life. To read the report, you might be forgiven for thinking that Christianity is done for; all that remains is to neutralise collective worship, place RE in central control and close faith schools. Et voila, neutralism becomes the new social orthodoxy. Job done.
Except, of course, it isn’t that easy, because as Malcolm Brown, Director of Mission and Public Affairs for the Church of England pointed out, ‘nobody comes from nowhere’. The neutral public space so often advocated by liberal secularists and espoused by this Commission as a fair solution to pluralism cannot exist. We all believe something and, in doing so, necessarily reject everything else. But liberal orthodoxy is mistaken to assume that in rejecting everything else, we are implicitly rejecting and disrespecting all those people who believe differently. The opposite, I would suggest, is often nearer to the truth.
The route to a fair and just society is not to do God less, but to do God more. The report, in fairness, does suggest doing God more in the context of RE teaching. But it also simultaneously argues for an inter-faith amalgam in which every belief system loses its distinctiveness. Everyone gets a bit of something. Uniformity masquerades as unity. Conformity poses as cohesion. A little bit of God does you good. Too much God does not.
And when it comes to faith schools, the report really does reflect how conflicted society is about religious belief. Rolling out the tired old argument about faith schools being socially divisive, it recommends their closure not because there is proof that they actually are divisive, but because there is no proof that they are not. Ponder on the double think in that statement. Not innocent until proven guilty. Just guilty due to absence of proof of guilt.
And when it comes to faith schools, the report really does reflect how conflicted society is about religious belief. Rolling out the tired old argument about faith schools being socially divisive, it recommends their closure not because there is proof that they actually are divisive, but because there is no proof that they are not. Ponder on the double think in that statement. Not innocent until proven guilty. Just guilty due to absence of proof of guilt.