Secular Education Forum
The Secular Education Forum (SEF) provides expert and professional advice and opinion to the National Secular Society (NSS) on issues related to education and provides a forum for anyone with expertise in the intersection of education and secularism.
The SEF's main objective is to advocate the value of secularism/religious neutrality as a professional standard in education. The SEF welcomes supporters of all faiths and none. It provides expert support for the NSS working towards a secular education system free from religious privilege, proselytization, partisanship or discrimination.
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Education blogs and commentary
A selection of blogs and comment pieces on education and secularism. For education news from the NSS, please click here.
Ireland's mother and baby homes scandal shows the necessity of separating church and state
Posted: Fri, 5th Feb 2021
The misery which women and children faced for decades highlights the damage that can be done when states leave religious authority unchecked, says NSS president Keith Porteous Wood.
"The chance of survival of an illegitimate infant born in the slums and placed with a foster-mother in the slums a few days after birth is greater than that of an infant born in one of our special homes for unmarried mothers."
That was a line from a report on Ireland's mother and baby homes, which were largely run by the Catholic Church. At the time a bishop, perhaps better at misogynist slights than actual childcare, described the inspector who wrote this as "a troublesome spinster who thought she knew everything about what was best for babies". That was written in 1939, and several such homes were operating even in the 1990s.
Despite pressure from the UN – and even ultimately from its Committee Against Torture – it took until last month for a state sponsored report to be published. Being so much later, greater candour could reasonably be expected even than that shown by the brave Alice Litster, the author of the 1939 report.
Instead, the 2021 report has been branded a "whitewash", "cold" and "legalistic" as a result of some of its conclusions, such as: "However, it must be acknowledged that the institutions under investigation provided a refuge - a harsh refuge in some cases - when the families provided no refuge at all". There's no suggestion here that failures to provide refuge were more than likely prompted by opprobrium preached to the pews.
This line comes despite the grotesque level of infant mortality in the homes, which the report acknowledges elsewhere. It notes that "9,000 children died in the institutions under investigation - approximately 15% of all the children who were in the institutions" and "75% of the children born in a home in Bessborough (a suburb of Cork) in 1943 died within the first year of life". Also, one of these 'homes', run by the Sisters of Bon Secours, was Tuam - notorious worldwide for the hundreds of babies and children "buried inappropriately in the grounds of the institution" without even being recorded (site of mass grave pictured). The mortality rate was a greater scandal.
But what are the root causes? Everything possible went against these poor women, and their children. The report acknowledges that "there was a considerable lack of knowledge regarding contraception, menstrual cycle and sex education in general". Sex education had to be in accordance with the (Catholic) ethos of the school. Yet even by 2010 "almost 74 per cent of young people [were] receiving little or no sex education".
DUP leader Arlene Foster expressed the problems starkly in response to an equivalent report on Northern Ireland that was simultaneously released. "Children were raped or victims of incest then they were victimised again by being put into these homes. It was not their fault that they were raped or the victims of incest yet they were the ones who suffered." She also noted a key reason: "Those who perpetrated the crime went scot-free."
A further reason – I believe a very significant and largely unacknowledged reason – is the proscription of contraception, one of several puritan provisions of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 1935, in line with a papal encyclical of 1930. The report describes the act as "arguably the legislation that came closest to enforcing Catholic moral teaching. … The proportion of Irish unmarried mothers who were admitted to mother and baby homes or county [run] homes in the twentieth century was probably the highest in the world. … No country complied with Catholic teaching on birth control in as dedicated a fashion as Ireland … but this rearguard action to preserve Ireland's distinct moral and legislative culture coincided with a steady rise in the number of unmarried mothers."
There were no "unmarried fathers", of course; most got off scot free, and that is another key contributory factor. Less than 15% of cases of sexual crimes against children were prosecuted. Sexual crime was seen as "an ideological as well as a law enforcement issue in a newly emerging [Irish] state sensitive to the views of its enemies and the outside world and insecure about its place in it, a nation that legitimised itself, in no small part, as a beacon of Celtic Catholic purity in a world otherwise sullied by sin… the overwhelming majority of sexual crime prosecutions were never reported in the nation's press and that those that were, were reported in ways that obscured the actual nature of the offence".
But we need to ask "why?", at least one more time, the state failed to uphold its duty of care to vulnerable women and children in these publicly funded institutions. The largest single underlying factor, implied in much of the above, was the absence of church-state separation, of secularism. The church behaved like a department of the state; it sometimes even looked to be the other way around. So it is no wonder that "some survivors are convinced that the blame lies primarily with the Catholic Church and a craven Irish state tugging the forelock to the hierarchy".
Some of these factors and associated societal attitudes, especially the callous and contemptuous dismissal of unmarried mothers and their offspring, may also have been contributory to another type of criminal behaviour where, sadly, Ireland appears to have been in a class of its own: clerical sexual abuse of minors. So many poor, unvalued children were dragooned into the industrial schools (set up specifically for "neglected, orphaned and abandoned children"), many run by the Christian Brothers, and notorious for the scale of abuse. If the state's record is anything to go by, the reluctance to prosecute for sexual offences will have been even greater for clerics than others.
And the far-reaching and unintended implications of the lack of contraception have led me to ponder something on a far greater scale. Could the church's encouragement of large families and the lack of contraception have contributed to many hungry mouths and fuelled the astonishingly large diaspora from the tiny state of Ireland of which it is so justly proud?
On an optimistic note, tribute was paid to that "troublesome spinster" in the Irish parliament: "Ms Alice Litster… one of the heroes of the report… is mentioned 440 times". She is also to be remembered through the establishment of a scholarship. And let us not forget that Ireland's transition to a socially liberal and more caring society has been at a meteoric pace probably unseen anywhere else in the world, as has been its decline in church attendance.
These homes were a shameful episode in Ireland's history that demonstrates the necessity of a clear separation between church and state. Ireland has made huge strides towards this, but lapses are frequent and, as even the lamentable state of sex education in recent times reveals, it has not thrown off those shackles altogether.
We must hope it resolves to do better. And the world should note the damage that can be done when states leave religious authority unchecked.
Also read: letter from Keith Porteous Wood on Ireland's mother and baby home scandal, published in The Tablet [also available here].
Image: View of the mass grave at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, Tuam; via Wikimedia Commons, © AugusteBlanqui [CC BY-SA 4.0]
Religious censorship is about ownership
Posted: Tue, 2nd Feb 2021
Theocratic demands for censorship in India and Pakistan reflect attempts to grab power which undermine everyone's religious freedom, says Megan Manson.
Recent news suggests Hindu extremism is putting freedom of expression in India in deep danger.
Last month the makers of the Amazon Prime series Tandav (pictured) offered an "unconditional" apology after certain Hindu nationalist politicians took offence at the show's depiction of Hindu deities.
In the 'offending' scene, one of the actors plays a student, who in turn plays the role of the god Shiva in a college play. He talks about his involvement in a social media popularity contest with another god, Ram. That's it.
Cue outrage from members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The chief minister of the state of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, tweeted: "Nobody has the right to disrespect our gods and goddesses."
A key aide to Uttar Pradesh's chief minister Yogi Adityanath tweeted that the makers of the show should "be prepared to pay the price".
And Ram Kadam, local legislator in the state of Maharashtra, tweeted that he'd filed a police complaint about the show.
The apology from Tandav's crew was not enough to appease the extremists. After the statement was issued, a hashtag which translated to "we want arrest not apology" gained over 70,000 tweets. And so the director agreed to remove the Shiva scene.
And that was still not enough. India's Supreme Court has indicated it will not protect Tandav's creators from arrest, saying: "Your right to freedom of speech is not absolute. You cannot play the role of [a] character that hurts the sentiments of a community."
Tandav is but one of many victims of increasingly aggressive attempts by Hindu fundamentalists to censor any representation of Hinduism they don't like. Indian stand-up comic Munawar Faruqui has spent weeks in prison after allegedly making offensive jokes about Hindu deities (reports suggest he didn't even tell them). And many other Indian comedians have been attacked by Hindu nationalists for 'hurting religious sentiments' in recent years.
This Hindu fundamentalism isn't solely an issue for India, either. Last year a Lancashire farm apologised for holding yoga sessions in fields of cows because self-appointed Hindu 'spokesperson' Rajan Zed complained it 'trivialised' Hindu concepts. In recent years, the same Rajan Zed has also held international crusades against the use of Hindu imagery on beermats, doormats, drinks, jewellery, clothes, towels, pillows, kitchen utensils, roads, video games, and children's toys, to name but a few.
Even when Hindu deities are depicted in a positive light and in situations poking fun at other religions too, the Hindu nationalists are poised and ready to take offence. A rather sweet Australian commercial depicting deities from various religions enjoying a dinner party together and cracking jokes was taken off air in 2017 after Hindu fundamentalists complained about the depiction of the god Ganesha (who, incidentally, was played by a practicing Hindu).
So why are Hindu nationalists spending so much time and energy defending their gods from perceived slights? It may be partly about 'hurt sentiments' – but perhaps more importantly, it's also about ownership.
When religious leaders demand everyone, members of the religion or not, follow narrow rules for how they talk about or depict religion, they are demanding greater power for themselves. It is a very effective way of ensuring only an elite few are licensed to talk about religion, in an approved manner. The more obscure and draconian the rules, the better, because attempts to depict religion in a neutral or even positive manner still risk breaking one of those rules. As a result, those who are not in the elite inner circle of religious leaders avoid talking about religion at all. They must rely on approaching religious leaders for comment, and in doing so they give those leaders complete control over the conversation about religion.
Surrendering free speech about religion to fundamentalists is a key factor in the emergence of religious and sectarian persecution. Consider the Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan. Their interpretation of Islam is somewhat different to the majority Sunni denomination, and as a result Pakistan's state has declared them non-Muslims. In other words, it has declared ownership of Islam. Any Ahmadi Muslim who claims to be a Muslim is subject to Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws. And scarily, last month Pakistani authorities tried to enforce this on an Ahmadi group based in the United States.
Islam is a diverse religious tradition. But censoring minority sects because their interpretation conflicts with that of the majority corrodes this diversity, leading to religious homogenisation. Similar processes are at work in other Muslim-majority countries, where radical Islamists are replacing unique regional forms of Islam with a fundamentalist monoculture.
The same process is underway in India. India is renowned as a nation of many religions and beliefs. Its constitution establishes the nation as a secular democracy in recognition of this diversity, and that no religion or belief is valued more or less than another.
And there is huge diversity within India's largest religion, Hinduism, itself. Being considerably older, Hinduism is perhaps even more diverse than Islam. In fact, the very concept of "Hinduism" as a single religion is a relatively modern invention, used as a convenient label to describe the huge variety of regional folk traditions, practices and beliefs that have persisted throughout India across thousands of years.
The Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) ideology embraced by the BJP is proving toxic towards this diversity – both diversity of religions and beliefs, and diversity within religions. Hindutva seeks to define India as a Hindu nation. It is no coincidence that those who find themselves accused of 'offending religious feelings' in India are frequently Muslims.
But Hindutva is also corrosive even to the Hindu traditions it claims to protect. It seeks to take ownership of one particular form of Hinduism – a fundamentalist, intolerant form – and impose it on all Indians as the Hinduism. And because of the BJP's moves to tie this form of Hinduism to the state, it will result in a Hinduism designed to serve political goals rather than the spiritual and cultural needs of India's people.
To that end, Hindu nationalists are robbing Indians, including Hindus, of the ability to use shared cultural heritage to express themselves. They are creating a culture in which people are fearful to invoke the names and images of India's ancient and ubiquitous deities lest they find themselves threatened, bullied, or even imprisoned.
And as we sadly learned from Tandav's example, attempting to appease extremists with apologies and self-censorship merely adds fuel to the fire, spurring them on to seek and destroy other 'blasphemers'.
We must not be persuaded by accusations of 'offence' and 'hurt feelings' and allow religious elitists with their own political and personal agendas to take exclusive ownership of religion. Religion and its symbols and traditions belong to all of humanity to use as we wish – to revere, or to ridicule. Letting extremists dictate who can talk about religion, and how, ultimately erodes everyone's freedom of religion, belief and expression.
Christian nationalism is a key part of Trump’s legacy
Posted: Thu, 21st Jan 2021
As the US presidency changes hands, Alastair Lichten argues that understanding Christian nationalism is essential to understanding Donald Trump's legacy and its consequences for the world.
This article is available in audio format, as part of our Opinion Out Loud series.
Over 1,200 books have been written about the Trump presidency, so far. It will take some time and distance to fully understand Trump's reshaping of US and global politics. But as I predicted four years ago, Christian nationalism has been at the heart of his policy agenda.
Christian nationalism
Until recently (outside secularist and nonreligious focused media) journalists have shied away from this phrase. In the US case perhaps they're wary of offending a still overwhelmingly Christian audience.
Since the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January there has been more widespread recognition of this trend. As The Atlantic said of the Jericho March (a set of the protests who march beseeching god to overturn the election): "Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on Wednesday claimed to be enacting God's will." The Religion News Service quoted an historian: "For decades now, evangelical devotional life, evangelical preaching and evangelical teaching has found a space to promote this kind of militancy." The New York Times noted: "This potent mix of grievance and religious fervour has turbocharged the support among a wide swath of Trump loyalists, many of whom describe themselves as participants in a kind of holy war."
There's plenty of conservative fantasy and liberal horror stories about a Christian revolution overthrowing the US government. But the events of 6 January made these feel all too real. With gallows erected and armed zip cuff carrying participants intent on taking hostages, comparisons to the President's Day Massacre – the fictional inciting incident which launches the theocratic Gilead regime in the world of the Handmaid's Tale – write themselves.
The weaponisation of 'religious freedom'
Secularists admire America's clear constitutional commitment to the separation of religion and government. But it would be hard to find another four years in US history when such jurisprudence has changed more dramatically. Decades of precedent have been overturned and a new understanding of 'religious freedom' more accommodating to Christian nationalism has replaced it. With a full third of the federal judiciary appointed to life terms by Trump, this is likely to be a particularly enduring policy legacy.
It's (not) the economy stupid
In 2016 significant parts of the commentariat insisted that beyond the blustery cultural war rhetoric Trumpism was really about economic anxiety. A similar bias motivates those who insist Islamism can only be explained in terms of reaction to economic grievances.
In Western democracies, voters sorting themselves around economic issues seems so natural that any other ideological or cultural sorting is often dismissed as an aberration or mere rhetoric. Economics play their part in Trumpism, but do not fully explain it.
In his recent discussion with me on the National Secular Society's podcast, Andrew Seidel highlighted Christian nationalism's move from the fringe to the centre of American political power. Understanding this is necessary to understand how, under Trump, US partisan identity has sorted along cultural, rather than economic lines, to an unparalleled extent.
We should be particularly wary of political sorting along religious lines, given the almost inevitable politicisation of religion it brings. Indeed, political, rather than theological or even social-economic differences are becoming the biggest denominational divides in the US. And it is cultural, not economic, forces transforming non-religious Americans into a voting bloc which may soon be as reliably Democratic voting as African Americans, and twice as numerous.
When America sneezes, the world catches a cold
It is not impossible to see such a dynamic emerging in UK politics. Our increasing polarisation between urban and suburban voters has little religious dimension, but similar divides have been exploited before. Christian nationalist movements in most of Europe may be less developed than their American counterparts. But there are deep financial and institutional links.
While parallels between US and UK politics can be overstated, our politicians have a long history of looking across the pond for inspiration. Few frontline UK politicians are seeking to be labelled 'Britain's Trump'. But there are many in Britain – and not all on the political right – who see a potential realignment of politics along 'culture war' issues as a path to political power.
It remains to be seen if Christian nationalism will remain a dominant ideology of the US political right. But it's hard to see it retreating back to the fringes overnight after four years in power. And the threat that it could become more mainstream in the UK can't be dismissed either. We need to be vigilant and willing to challenge the weaponisation of religious identity.
Our school – and community – were severely disadvantaged by our C of E status
Posted: Wed, 20th Jan 2021
Former headteacher John Mapperley says the school he ran was given a vastly reduced range of options when considering academy status – and he believes the church puts its own interests above those of pupils.
I recently retired as the head of a voluntary controlled Church of England school near Nottingham.
During my time the local diocesan board of education (DBE), which oversaw Church of England schools in the area, had a strict policy of only allowing schools to become academies if they joined majority church-led multi academy trusts. This vastly increased the diocesan influence in VC schools at governance level and simultaneously held back the development of these schools.
Our governing body had three foundation governors (governors appointed by the local diocese) out of 15 governors in total. Bearing in mind that the school was entirely maintained by taxpayers' money via the local authority and served a village community whereby no other schools were within reasonable walking distance, there was never any good argument for a 'distinctively Christian education'. However, the rules laid down by the local diocese meant that, if the school became an academy, the proportion of church appointees among its governors would increase from 20% to 50%.
Furthermore, the diocese was not prepared to stretch its resources beyond the MATs that had already been set up. So in practice our school had a choice of four MATs to choose from – all with church majority boards of directors and members.
It is widely understood that in order to change the hostile stance of the Church of England in the early days of academy policy roll out, Michael Gove negotiated a protocol whereby DBEs would have the right to veto any church school's application to join a multi academy trust. The vast majority of dioceses have used this power to construct policies which only allow schools to join MATs which are dominated by church appointees at both director and member level. This vastly increases the church's influence over schools and their governing bodies. This has massively reduced the options open to church schools when compared to other maintained schools and blocked many schools from continuing previously productive collaborations with non-church schools.
We were severely disadvantaged by this restriction – opportunities to join MATs set up by local schools that we had enjoyed fruitful partnerships with came and went. Furthermore, because our feeder infant school was not a church school and nor was the secondary school we fed into, the opportunity to work more closely with these vital stakeholders was closed to us. The diocese pointed out that the infant school could always join the diocesan MAT alongside us – but not surprisingly the governors of the infant school didn't feel this option would be beneficial.
We spoke to the DBE on several occasions about this and were asked to prepare a document for discussion at one of its board meetings – we called this a request for 'self-determination'. Our request was turned down but no explanation was offered and the arguments raised in support of our request were not answered. I followed this up a year later with a suggestion that I attend a DBE meeting both to put our case in person and to better understand the diocesan position – my request was denied.
It is important to note that academisation cannot be reversed and it is very rare for schools to have the option to swap these associations. We were limited to four multi academy trust options. We were happy to seriously consider them all but we also knew that we had a duty to our current and future stakeholders to consider all options in order to find the best for our pupils and community. When we put this to the director of the DBE she pointed out (repeatedly) that we were a church school, as if this fact in itself made further discussion unnecessary. The diocese made very little attempt to justify its refusal to consider non-church collaborations beyond this and insistence that the church family of schools was worth preserving (for whose benefit, you may ask?).
It appears that our local DBE could not justify its hardline position and was either not able to or unwilling to justify it. As a result long standing and natural collaborations have had to be disbanded or dismissed as maintained schools without church school restrictions have forged ahead with their trusts and other structures. To hinder church schools in this way is in my view a gross dereliction of the DBE's duty to do the best it can for our children.
It appears that the desire to increase the church's power and influence in 'its' schools is stronger than the desire to provide the best possible education and life chances for pupils.
A shortened version of this story appeared in our 2020 report Power grab: Academisation and the threat to secular education.
Religious conversion isn’t a charitable endeavour
Posted: Thu, 14th Jan 2021
Some registered charities exist primarily to convert members of one religion to another. Megan Manson says such activity is harmful to community cohesion – and shouldn't be treated as a valid charitable purpose.
This article is available in audio format, as part of our Opinion Out Loud series.
In the UK's increasingly diverse society, community cohesion is essential to ensure all people from all walks of life can get along. At the NSS we see secularism as the best means of fostering social cohesion, because it ensures all people, regardless of religion or belief, are treated equally in public policy and equally before the law.
Some religious activities are divisive in nature and pose a threat to community cohesion. Public proselytism in particular can be contentious. Unwanted evangelism can be annoying, alienating and sometimes distressing if suggests non-believers and 'transgressors' are sinners deserving of eternal punishment. Yet many organisations that exist primarily to proselytise are registered charities.
And some of those charities may even target specific religious groups for conversion, as highlighted in a recent report in The Jewish Chronicle.
In the report, Jewish community consultant Steven Jaffe revealed that approximately 15 registered charities "exist exclusively to convert Jews to Christianity", or as a significant part of their purpose. These charities have raised more than £35m in the past five years.
One such charity identified in the report is Messianic Testimony. According to the Charity Commission, it exists for "the advancement of the Christian faith" through "the evangelisation and discipleship of Jewish people" and "by the teaching of biblical truth with specific regard to the purposes of God for Israel and the Jewish people".
Another is Eurovision Mission to Europe, a member of the Evangelical Alliance. Its most recent annual report says that in 2016 its focus was on "evangelism in Israel amongst Holocaust Survivors".
And then there is The Vincent Society, which operates under the name CMJ UK. Its charitable objects include "undertaking evangelism which is appropriate for but not exclusive to Jewish people". Its activities include "Jewish Evangelism" training for "Christians and Church groups" and youth evangelism training in partnership with Scripture Union.
The reason for this apparent fixation on converting Jews is, as Jaffe identifies, largely theological. Some Christian traditions teach that the world's salvation lies in converting Jews, while others point to biblical pronouncements about taking Christianity's message "to the Jew first".
But many in Jewish communities, understandably, do not welcome these evangelists' attempts to convince them to turn to Jesus in order to fulfil perceived religious duties. As Jaffe says, such evangelism "does poison Jewish-Christian relations" and "targeted and at times aggressive or underhand proselytism cannot co-exist with friendship".
Jews aren't the only group who find themselves targeted by Christian charities. The massive evangelical charity Samaritan's Purse uses its deeply unethical Operation Christmas Child scheme to try and convert children in countries with large Muslim populations.
And as recently as September, an organisation called Two:Nineteen registered with the Charity Commission. Its purpose: "to advance the Christian religion by providing training resources to churches to enable non-speaking (sic) members of the local community to participate in the activities of the local church, including by providing instruction in English language". In other words, it exists to evangelise to immigrants through English lessons.
It's fairly clear that its mission of "stimulating gospel outreach and cultural integration" is a one-way street. One blog on Two:Nineteen's website says that when a Muslim asked to give out literature promoting Islam at one of the English classes, she was told that this "was not appropriate for a church-based group" and "there have been opportunities for the church to bless her family in turn since then". Another blog on the website about "Understanding the Chinese Worldview" says that "misguided religious practices", i.e. traditional Chinese beliefs, "need to be confronted".
There is little doubt that those who support or work for these charities sincerely believe they are doing good. Their desire to convert people to Christianity comes not from malice or spite, but from a deep conviction that the Christian way to live brings happiness in this life and thereafter.
But good intentions are not enough when it comes to charity. A charity must serve a public benefit and must not cause harm – that's why the state grants charities such generous tax breaks and other financial benefits. It is hard to recognise how a charity that exists primarily to convert members of one religion to another serves a benefit to anyone except the religion of the charity. Conversely, it is easy to argue that such a charity may be harmful because it can foster division, intolerance and mistrust between communities.
So why are such organisations able to become charities? It is because 'the advancement of religion' is one of the recognised 'charitable purposes' in law. Although in theory there is a requirement for religious charities to pass the 'public benefit test', our 2019 report found that in practice a huge number of religious charities appear to do nothing but benefit themselves, sometimes to the detriment of the public.
A liberal society should allow religious organisations to try and convert others, provided such activity does not exploit the vulnerable. That is a basic necessity of freedom of religion and freedom of speech. But should a liberal society encourage and facilitate such behaviour, particularly when it undermines community cohesion, by granting charitable status to organisations that engage in it?
There are many religious charities, just as there are many secular charities, which genuinely provide a tangible public benefit. But every one of those charities can classify its activities under charitable purposes other than 'the advancement of religion', for example 'the prevention or relief of poverty', 'the advancement of education' or 'the promotion of religious or racial harmony'.
While 'the advancement of religion' remains on the list of charitable purposes in law, we will continue to see the emergence of charities that do little or nothing but pit religious communities against each other in the name of spiritual salvation. And this should cause us to question whether 'the advancement of religion' belongs on the list of charitable purposes at all.
This article is available in audio format, as part of our Opinion Out Loud series.
Image by Robert Koorenny from Pixabay (cropped to fit).
