Proposals by the government’s favourite think tank could lead to the devaluing of Christianity in the RE syllabus, according to the worst fears of conservative politicians and church leaders.

The present law guarantees that religious education is ‘mainly Christian? but the advice of the Institute For Public Policy Research is to give non-religious belief systems a equal prominence in the syllabus.

Gary Streeter of the Conservative Christian Fellowship saw it as a step in the wrong direction which could lead to jettisoning Christianity after the National Census last year revealed that 75 per cent of British people described themselves as Christian.

The IPPR proposals would require a change in the law if equal weight is given to agnosticism and humanism as to Christianity. Paganism, environmentalism and small religious cults would also be taught if the proposals were accepted by the government.

“From the age of five, children should learn that there are people who do not believe in God, the afterlife or the power of prayer or that the Universe was created,?the report says. The think tank believes that RE lessons should be used to question the beliefs of pupils of strong religious faith. “Pupils would be actively encouraged to question the religious beliefs they bring with them into the classroom, not so they are better able to defend or rationalise them, but so they are genuinely free to adopt whatever position on religious matters they judge to be best supported by the evidence.?

IPPR thinking has a habit of becoming government policy, but it was the churches that first requested a rethink on RE teaching when they called for a national syllabus last year. Behind their call were concerns that local councils were determining the teaching of RE and not giving a proper weight to the Christian faith.

In some councils most of the teaching time is given to Islam or other faiths, and many children are leaving school without even the most basic knowledge of Christianity. A survey last year by Exeter University found that half of 12-year-olds were not even aware that Easter celebrates the Resurrection of Christ.

Tim Collins MP, the Shadow Education secretary, has let it be known that he deplores the trend towards turning “RE into an extension of sociology.?

Church leaders involved in consultation on a new National Curriculum this week expressed concerns about the proposals from the think tank. But a Church of England spokesman said that there were no signs that the government wanted to change the requirement from mainly Christian teaching. He said that the Church had no objection to beliefs like atheism and agnosticism being discussed in RE but not to the detriment of teaching about religious belief.


-Church of England Newspaper