Is Christianity being squeezed out of schools?

Having grown up in a Christian home and split my scholastic career between three ‘Christian’ schools, you might think I would have been overwhelmed by Bible teaching and endless faith-based discussions. 

However, while God was very real to me outside of school, the way religion was presented within the school walls was somewhat lacking. Assemblies were boring, RE lessons were lacklustre and the general feeling was that no-one really believed what they were teaching us anyway, so why should we?

Interestingly, Ofsted seems to have come to a similar conclusion when it comes to the portrayal of Christianity – and religion in general – in schools. According to the schools inspection body, the Christian faith is being “squeezed out” of schools and pupils deserve “much better”.

I actually remember what we were taught about other faiths much more distinctly than about Christianity at school. I was fascinated by the appearance of Vishnu and Shiva, and intrigued to learn what was eaten during the Passover Festival. But apart from some very dry discussion about sacraments and God’s judgement, I don’t remember very much of what we learnt about my own faith. I’m pretty sure Jesus was barely mentioned.

One of the criticisms Ofsted has levelled at schools is that they are focused on “superficial” observations and bringing discussions about Christianity to a “happy end” rather than engaging in genuine debate. I wanted to know how all the animals fitted into Noah’s ark, or at least whether my pets would go to heaven (I'm told not, but am still holding out hope). But back in my day controversy was strictly avoided, and Ofsted claims this is still the case today.

After inspecting 185 schools, Ofsted found that 60% of primary schools and just over 50% of secondary schools failed to realise the subject's full potential. Its 'Religious education: realising the potential' report identified low standards, weak teachings, a confused sense of purpose, training gaps and weaknesses in the way religious education is examined. 

RE is compulsory in all state schools at present, but weirdly it is not part of the national curriculum. Instead, individual schools and councils are responsible for drawing up their own syllabuses.

Ofsted’s director of schools, Michael Cladingbowl, said: "At its best, religious education encourages children and young people to extend their natural curiosity and prepares them for life in modern society.

"We saw some great examples of this during the survey, but too often we found religious education lessons being squeezed out by other subjects and children and young people leaving school with little knowledge or understanding of different religions.

"This just isn’t good enough when religion and belief are playing such a profound part in today’s world. Pupils deserve much better."

It’s hardly surprising that the number of pupils opting to study RE at GCSE level has dropped sharply. But on reflection, should schools be held responsible for teaching children about Christianity and other religions? Or do parents and local churches/religious centres also have a part to play?

I know for a fact I’d never have encountered God for myself through our boring RE lessons, but fortunately my parents walked out their faith and took me to church where I could ask the questions I had (and there were many) and pursue my own faith. So what about those who aren’t given this opportunity?

 

Well I guess that’s where we come in. Some Christians are accused of indoctrinating their children, but I believe it is our responsibility to present people with the basics and then allow them to make their own decisions. And that doesn’t just apply to children.

Sorted and Liberti magazines aren’t the answer to our schools’ lack of conviction when it comes to religion, but they certainly engage with Christianity in a real and unforceful way. I’m happy to have swapped the dusty lessons for the glossy magazines and I hope you will feel the same way should you choose to have a read.

Buy your copies here today.

A ‘poor’ excuse

Guest blog by Tim Childs

We have seen in the last few months that the present coalition government has initiated cuts of all kinds, often to the detriment of the poorest and even the most vulnerable in society, and astonishingly at the same time introduced a tax break for millionaires who, if we’re honest, really don’t need any more.  

If you’re a Christian, what is the position you are supposed to take on these matters?  What if you are someone who is suffering as a result of these ideological cuts?  Should we accept what the ‘powers-that-be’ do and say, or should we challenge what we perceive to be injustice?  

These are tough questions, and who really has the answers anyway?  Have we gone too far in providing welfare, and has it become a lifestyle choice rather than a safety net? Is it only a problem when it’s poor, disabled and working class people who receive it, and not a problem when royals and peers in the House of Lords receive all kinds of benefits, subsidies and perks? Where do you stand on this?

As a Christian, and as someone who myself comes from a poor background, my view is that we should all be very careful how we judge other people, especially when those people are seen to be a problem in the way the poor and unemployed have recently been portrayed.  

If we’re honest, Jesus had more time for the ordinary people than He did for the great and the good; or for that matter, the particularly religious. 

Some Christian denominations have recently criticised the government for its attacks on the poor and also for the rhetoric and cruelty that often goes along with such attacks; certainly for its old trick of setting one group against another: in this case the working against those not working.  

Are these alarm bells to warn Christians that something isn’t right, or what exactly?  Is British society basically fair but occasionally unjust, or is it badly out of kilter?  

I believe that we live in a fallen world, and often even the supposedly ‘best’ societies reflect that fallen status; people are fallen and make mistakes and can even be downright evil. Systems are fallen and can be abused; democracy itself, although a very good idea in principle and sometimes even in practice, can be ignored and abused.  

No human or human system is ever going to be perfect. But what happens when people wilfully and even cruelly attack others, making them scapegoats for problems that the scapegoated didn’t create?

I have believed for a while that some of what passes for Christianity in Britain is more of a social religion than real Christianity; more about being a glorified social club for those who think they are better than everybody else, rather than a life-affirming, life-transforming and ultimately personal relationship with our Creator.  

I don’t say this lightly, and I don’t say it is the case with all Christians, but I think many use their faith as a mask of respectability or hide behind it to control and ruthlessly exploit other people, sometimes even in the name of religion.  

This is not the reason Jesus came to earth, nor is it Christianity as it should be practised. There is religion and the world ‘out there’ and there is an ‘inner reality’, the truth we hold in our hearts and the relationship we have – or should at least be working on – with Jesus.  

If a person is truly a Christian, and not using religion for their own ends or selfish agenda, sooner or later we will know them simply by what they do, as opposed to what they might say. It is up to us, then, as simple Christians who merely want to serve the Lord each day with a whole heart, to understand that sometimes our faith can be used by the ‘great and the good’ for their own purposes. Often these purposes have nothing to do with Christianity and nothing at all to do with God.

Click here to read more blog entries by Tim Childs.

A real, living faith

Guest blog 
from
Tim Childs

Life is made up of ordinary moments and occasional magical ones; but mostly ordinary ones. 


We demand from God a faith that moves mountains, but perhaps it’s just enough that we have faith enough to get us through today, and not worry about tomorrow. We worry about where we are going in life, what’s going to happen to us, and of course – in this deeply uncertain economic and political climate – we perhaps worry most of all for our futures and how we’ll make ends meet.

Modern society and its values of modern society seem to show us that to be happy we must be rich, successful, accomplish all our dreams and to be able to sit and have lunch by our expensive swimming pools in a huge back garden attached to our expensive properties. Anything less just wouldn’t do, would it?  Who makes up all these ‘rules’? Are wealthy people happier than poor people? 

There is, of course, a greater truth that begs to be looked at, a truth that might at times be staring us in the face. Christianity is about more than wealth, more than power, more than acceptable social standing; in fact it goes beyond all these things. The greater truth is that we can be happy, content and have wellbeing without being wealthy; without scheming against or exploiting other people and find meaning and purpose to life without being ‘important’ in life.

If God has called us to serve Him, He Himself has the power to bring us true meaning and purpose in an often meaningless and purposeless world. He can bring happiness and contentment in a world that is often chaotic and disordered and filled with discontented people.

I know what it’s like to be unhappy; I have had depression on and off throughout my adult life. But this reality had little to do with money, or the lack of it. Some of the best times of my life as a kid were going on caravan holidays to Wales. My family weren’t particularly wealthy; we were poor by most standards in fact. If we’re told that to be happy we must be wealthy, is it any wonder people are so dissatisfied with their lives?

We need to find ourselves through God and through living out our faith. Faith is an adventure, a journey, as well as a destination. God will supply all our needs if we ask Him. He might not make you wealthy, and you won’t necessarily win the lottery (I haven’t yet!) but you will find hope, a purpose and find a life worth living.

Wealth, to some extent, is illusory, although most of us would rather be affluent than live in poverty. It’s illusory because it seems to offer happiness, but I don’t think it really does. It might buy friends, but what sort of friends? It can’t bring real happiness, because real happiness is more a spiritual condition not really dependent on the acquisition of material things; and although it might cushion us from certain things, it can’t stop real life from happening around us. In short, it is better to be moderately comfortable and happy, than wealthy and cut off from God.

Please don’t misunderstand me; I’m not saying you have to be poor to be spiritual and neither am I a rich person telling poor people to be happy being poor, far from it. I aspire to be a success in my own life, but it isn’t just about money! 

Success for the Christian is about serving God with a whole heart first, and then focusing on other considerations after that. There’s no reason why a Christian can’t aspire to be successful or get a better job or start a business; we should even pray about this. But, in all we do, we should put God first and never unfairly exploit or harm others in an attempt to ‘better’ ourselves. Like so many things, it’s a fine balance that can only be found if we put our faith in God; a faith that is more than ritual and religion; a daily and intimate walk with our creator. 

Read more about faith in the upcoming issue of Sorted magazine. It's your last chance to take advantage of our Father's Day special offer of 50 copies for just £75!

God bless this bunch as they munch their Big Lunch

We all know it’s the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and that we get a day off to officially mark it (June 5), but in a society that doesn’t really rate the royals, are we really ‘bovvered’?

Well, I spoke to HOPE Together’s executive director Roy Crowne and he seemed to have some pretty good arguments in favour of a big celebration.

“This is a once in a lifetime moment; 60 years of serving our country,” he says. “This is a community festival and will become a significant date in the calendar, and Christians need to be right at the heart of it.”

HOPE’s aim is to bring people and churches together; to serve God and the local community at the same time. Each year it supports the ‘Big Lunch’ initiative, which will be extra special this year (June 3) as it coincides with the Jubilee weekend.

The Big Jubilee Lunch is part of the main programme of events over the central weekend of Jubilee celebrations. These lunches will take place across the UK, wherever there is enough space to have one. According to Roy, the key ingredients are food and people.

“The Big Lunch idea came from a project called Eden and they’ve been running these Big Lunches for the last three years but they’ve always been seeking to partner with the church,” he explains.  

“HOPE provided that partnership with the church and our dream would be six million people having lunch together; to move the church out of its building onto the street, to meet friends and neighbours, be shown to be salt and light and show that the Kingdom of God is a party!”

HOPE is all about taking Christianity beyond the four walls of church buildings; of meeting people of other faiths and no faith; of supporting people who are in need; and of breaking down barriers within communities.

“Christianity and community: that link is key,” Roy continues. “It has been shown that any church that grows is integrated with the community. So, we should be communities; but not communities that exclude, let’s create communities that include others.

“It’s clear that any effective outreach that happens starts with building relationship. This is a great outreach opportunity as after the grace is said you can discuss across the table; with friends and neighbours: ‘why do we say grace, what do we think about grace and how important is that?’ We have the opportunity to have a faith conversation.”

So how does the Queen’s faith and her social outlook fit with this? Well Roy thinks they’re a good match: “I think the Queen’s faith journey over 60 years makes her a great, great role model.  She’s lived with all the challenges and all the issues. 

“I am convinced this occasion, not building off the Queen, but recognising Christ and Christianity, makes this a great moment for us to acknowledge what happened at the Coronation as an anointing for service for the whole Commonwealth.

“In exactly the same way we need to be able to serve and represent Christ.  The Queen does it in one way and we need to do it where we are, in our way.”

HOPE Together has put together a range of resources including quizzes, games and information for schools. And if that’s not enough, it has produced a special Diamond Jubilee New Testament that people can buy to give away. I heard from Roy a week or so ago that half a million copies have already been sold!

So how will he be celebrating the Jubilee himself? “I certainly will be having lunch with a group of people and we’ll see what happens on this amazing occasion,” he says. “I want the whole country to party and I want Christianity and the Christian faith to be right at the heart of it.”

Read more from Joy in the next issue of Sorted magazine.

Am I offending you?

Picture credit: Acapeloahddub/Wikipedia

We live in a society in which freedom of speech is expected and respected… 

Or do we? 

How many of us have been told “You can’t say that!” by people who have different beliefs or values? And how often have we wanted to stop the mouths of those who say things that offend our own sensibilities?

There has recently been tension between members of the English Defence League (EDL) and groups protesting against what the far-right organisation stands for. Police have stopped the EDL from marching, but they cannot stop them from getting together and making their views clear. This has led to clashes with protesters who feel the EDL’s anti-Islamic views should not be indulged.

But however wrong the EDL’s ethos is, freedom of speech laws cannot be applied only to people whose views we agree with. If that was the case, we would end up being controlled by the state like China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Is that really what we want? 

Belief grief 

To my mind, there is no more divisive issue than ‘religion’. I put this in inverted commas because I happen to think that a lot of ‘religious’ disagreements are, in fact, political ones.

There’s the ongoing tension between Catholics and Protestants in the north of Ireland, the disharmony between Israel and Lebanon (among others) and the violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Pakistan.

So-called Christians have also courted controversy. Take the Koran-burning pastor in the US whose actions shocked people of all faiths around the world. Then there’s the outrageous Westboro Baptist Church, as shown on Louis Theroux’s The Most Hated Family in America documentary. Members of this ‘church’ spoke openly about their hatred of Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, soldiers, the Americans, the Chinese and more or less anyone else that doesn’t belong to their cult. 

Controversial cartoons 

You probably remember the Danish cartoon depictions of Mohammed in 2006, which led to outbreaks of violence in many regions. Well, a similar campaign recently caused offence in the UK (although, true to form, the English reaction was extremely reserved).

I’m referring to a banned mobile phone advert featuring a winking image of Jesus who gives the thumbs up to one of the company’s “miraculous” deals. The advert was banned because of written complaints from Christians who felt the advert was “disrespectful” to the Christian faith.

Now I’m not saying I disagree with these complaints – I haven’t seen the advert and I reject anything that belittles the amazing things Jesus has done. But if we, as Christians, want to be able to tell people what we believe, don’t we have to accept that other people might say or do things that may offend us?

The advert makers claim they were trying to portray a “lighthearted, positive and contemporary image of Christianity”. Surely that is what we are trying to do. So shouldn’t we be concentrating our efforts on doing this rather than focusing on shutting other people up? 

Picking our battles 

Imagine if spent all of our time trying to ban people from denying the existence of God. The Richard Dawkinses of this world would have a field day! It would be like bailing water out of a sinking boat with a teaspoon.

In my opinion, we need to respect that other people – even other Christians – will have different views from us. Rather than shutting ourselves away from other belief (or unbelief) groups, we should engage with people, be passionate about what we believe and refuse to become offended by triviality.

I’m not saying we should be doormats or that we should accept racism and hatred; Jesus certainly didn’t mince his words when he encountered people with warped views.

But he caused outrage during his time on earth by accepting and showing compassion to ‘sinners’ rather than condemning them, and upsetting the social order by expressing his unconditional love for ALL people (yes, even Westboro and the EDL).

So let’s follow his example.

Feel free to leave comments! You can read more from Joy in the upcoming issue of Sorted magazine.

"It is to one’s glory to overlook an offense" (Proverbs 19:11).