My, but Satan is getting feisty. It’s unlike him to let his horns show so boldly. From CWN:
Apr. 5, 2007 (CWNews.com) – The leader of Scotland’s Green Party, Robin Harper, has called for the abolition of Catholic schools.
“State education should be secular,” Harper said, promising that the Green Party would work to end government support for the parochial schools.
The existence of separate religious schools “tends to divide communities,” Harper said. He argued that Catholics should receive their religious instruction through their parents and pastors, so that religious education in schools is unnecessary.
The existence of separate secular schools tends to divide communities as well, Mr. Harper. I live in a city with two major secular high schools and they get along, well, just like any group of high school kids who are routinely set up to compete against each other.
Now, I would love for it to be the case that his last assertion were true, but it simply is not and has not been for a long time. Quite frequently, frankly, parents simply do not have the education in their faith to be able to educate their children, and taking only an hour in CCD a week simply cannot delve into the depths of the Catholic faith. Then again, maybe that’s what Mr. Harper wants.
A commenter on the story makes a very eloquent and important point. Forcing all state schools to be purely secular would be to renege on the promises of the 1916 Education Act wherein the Bishops agreed to allow all the schools to be incorporated into the state system. But then, that is how Satan is working these days – no frontal assaults. First, create a crack in the surface that seems innocuous enough. Then, wait until that change has been forgotten. Then barge through that crack at top speed screeching about diversity, inclusivity or some such drivel. Then finally portray your position as one of “human rights” and the majority of people devoid of knowledge of history succumb to the “loudest voice wins” theorem and *poof* victory is yours. Without firing a single shot. As was once said, a dictator who rules “for the good of the people” is the most tyrannical of them all.
