Leaders of the Hindu and Muslim communities have urged the Church of Scotland to make a greater push for religious teaching in schools in a bid to counter Britain’s secular society.
According to The Scotsman, senior clerics from non-Christian faiths have approached the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Rt. Rev. David Lacy, telling him to adopt a more “strident” view of Christian beliefs, in order to provide young people with more moral teaching.The clerics also criticised the Kirk for being “too concerned” with being inclusive at the expense of putting forward its own beliefs in schools.
The unusual appeal to the Church of Scotland coincides with Scottish Inter Faith Week, with religious communities across Scotland holding events to promote interfaith dialogue until Sunday.
The leaders’ appeal also follows on from the attack on multiculturalism made by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, last week.
Dr Sentamu said that multiculturalism has “seemed to imply, wrongly for me, that other cultures be allowed to express themselves but do not let the majority culture at all tell us its glories, its struggles, its joys, its pains”.
Lacy responded to Sentamu’s comments with the insistence that greater multiculturalism in Scotland had led to more people in Scotland abandoning hostilities to one another.
The Church of Scotland Moderator said, however, that other faiths were now pressuring him to be push Christianity in Scotland, following an interfaith meeting earlier in the month.
Rev. Lacy was quoted in The Scotsman as saying: “This is a Christian country, they told us, and others are happy to live within a Christian country.”
He added: “They wanted us to be demanding more Christian education in schools and that we were far too quick to make room for other religions.
"Their point was that youngsters often came away from school with nothing at all and that we should be pushing our own beliefs more. That surprised me. I am not sure that they are right.
"We want to be inclusive but I hadn't previously considered that we might want to be far more stridently Christian for their sakes.
"I am not sure about it. Multiculturalism is at least encouraging people to come out of their shells and I wouldn't want that momentum to stop."
Hindu and Muslim leaders said they supported the teaching of Christian values in schools because of what they see as the need to promote all religions.
“We want people to know about all kinds of faiths because they have lots in common.,” said Salah Beltagui, a prominent Scottish Muslim who works for in the Scottish Inter Faith Council. “It all adds to the aim of teaching more morals and values about life.”
Mohan Sharma, a spokesman for the Hindu community, added: “Everyone should try and teach their own religion but also respect all other religions.”
Leaders from across the major faiths in Scotland will be celebrating the Inter Faith Week, including Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Imam Mustaqeem Shah from the UK Islamic Mission, and Rabbi David Rose.
