That Old Time Religion: It is probable that many parents are entirely unaware that every week their local school is formally closed so that God-Knows-Who can spend 60 minutes filling their children’s heads with God-Knows-What.
THAT NEW ZEALAND’S primary schools are permitted by law to
close for the purposes of religious instruction is outrageous. With fewer than
half of the New Zealand population now identifying themselves as Christian, the
whole concept should long ago have been relegated to the educational scrap-heap,
along with the strap and the cane. That New Zealand children continue to
provide untrained religious enthusiasts with captive audiences for ideas that foster
judgemental and intolerant behaviour is a state-of-affairs that should be
brought to an end immediately.
It is probable that many parents are entirely unaware of
what is being conveyed to their children during the hour that the school is
formally closed. They may not even realise that the religious instruction which
the school’s Board of Trustees has authorised is not being delivered to their
offspring by the qualified teaching professional who usually stands in front of
them.
Under the Education Act, teaching staff are forbidden from
imparting religious dogma to their pupils. Why? Because New Zealand’s primary
education system is legally required to be “free, compulsory and secular” – and
has been ever since 1877. Hence the need for the legal workaround of the school
being closed while God-Knows-Who spends 60 minutes filling their children’s
heads with God-Knows-What.
But, surely, the information being imparted about the moral teachings
of Jesus and his disciples is unlikely to do these young ones any harm. “Do
unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Does that sound so bad?
Christianity is supposed to be a religion of love and forgiveness. What’s not
to like?
If the moral precepts of Jesus and his disciples – as
generally understood – were all New Zealand’s children were being taught by
their religious instructors, then there would, indeed, be little to complain
about. Unfortunately, the sort of Christians who feel sufficiently motivated to
spend an hour every week instructing the children of complete strangers, have slightly
more than “love thy neighbour as thyself” on their minds.
Even in 1964, when the present arrangements for religious
instruction in schools were originally set in place, the liberal Christianity
which took its marching orders from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount was in rapid
retreat before the fire and brimstone of Christian fundamentalism. Fifty-four
years later, liberal Christian congregations are few and far between and most
of their members would shy away from instructing other people’s children in the
very adult choices of religious faith. Overwhelmingly, the protestant Christian
churches of Aotearoa New Zealand (the Catholics have their own, separate,
system of religious education) are evangelical in their intent and profoundly
conservative in their theology.
The religious instructors sallying forth from these churches
are minded to save the tender souls of young New Zealanders from the
temptations of a sinful and ultimately doomed world. Children have returned
home from these encounters convinced that if they fail to accept Jesus into
their heart as Lord and Saviour, then they are bound to burn in Hell for all
eternity.
Parents have the right to take their children out of these emotionally
fraught situations. There is, however, no guarantee that the child will not
then be stigmatised for her subsequent non-attendance. After permitting such potentially
dangerous instruction to take place in its classrooms, the school’s Board of
Trustees may be reluctant to acknowledge that it is guilty of inflicting
psychological harm on youngsters to whom it owes a duty of care. Such an
unfortunate outcome is much more likely if a percentage of the board are
themselves evangelical and/or fundamentalist Christians: men and women who have
stood for election to ensure that God’s word reaches the children of “godless”
parents at least once a week.
Though they would almost certainly inflict less harm than
some Christian instructors, it is easy to imagine the outcry that would follow
the revelation that a group of Wiccans had taken over the Board of Trustees of
the local school and for one hour every week were allowing witches and warlocks
to instruct its pupils in the beliefs and practices of the “Old Religion”.
That New Zealand’s parents have not objected with equal
force to the intolerant and dangerously judgemental version of Christianity
currently being imparted to their impressionable sons and daughters in our
supposedly secular education system is a sin of omission difficult to forgive.
This essay was
originally published in The Otago Daily Times and The Greymouth Star of Friday, 11 May 2018.
