Who do they think they are, the theocrats? Who do they think made them boss?
At least 200 Anglican primaries and secondaries could be established within the next five years as part of a major expansion plan outlined by the Church.
A report – to be published later this week – will also recommend rebranding existing Anglican schools to “reinvigorate” them in the face of competition from new academies and free schools.
So these will all be state schools, taxpayer-funded schools, run for the benefit of churches and their priests. Why?
The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev John Pritchard, chairman of the Church’s board of education, said major reform was needed to tackle “the level of religious illiteracy in our society”.
He also said the changes – to be formally outlined in a report released on Friday – would allow faith leaders to confront the growing influence of secularism.
But why should they be confronting the influence of secularism at all? Especially at taxpayer expense? Secularism doesn’t mean the bulldozing of churches, it means No Theocracy Thank You.
Bishop Pritchard said: “The whole national context is one in which secularist debates, whether it be on equality, gay marriage, employment in schools, a whole range of things, are bringing up the issues of secularist versus [religious] approaches to society’s life.”
Yes it does, and why should the Anglican church be helped to push its approach to society’s life by indoctrinating children at taxpayer expense?
Currently, the CofE runs 4,800 out of 23,000 state schools in England.
But the Church is keen to expand its influence on the back of the academies and free schools programme, which takes schools out of direct local authority control and places them in the hands of charities, entrepreneurs and faith groups.
Grab grab grab.
Depressing, isn’t it?
Faith groups should be allowed run exactly as many schools as they are willing to pay for…
so probably two will be plenty.
Yes it does. One thing I’ve noticed is the religious approaches to society are predominantly anti-humanist.
● Equality – The religious assume they are superior and non-believers, quite often non-believers in a particular sect, are untermenschen whose only hope for equality is joining that sect.
● Gay Marriage – The religious, led by folks like the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope, the Grand Poohbah of the Mormon Cult, et al, are the ones who would deny gays (and other non cis-heterosexuals) the right to marry whomever they wish.
● Employment in Schools – Many church-run schools have religious tests for employees. These schools prefer not to hire GLBTQs, divorcees, evolutionists, etc.
Religious bigots often use their religion to excuse their bigotry. When this bigotry is exposed, the bigots demand respect for their particular flavors of bigotry because “that’s what God wants.”
Oh. Someone let her back out of her box again? I guess it is fitting for the situation.
J’accuse, lol.
So I take it the CofE still commands revenue from the Empire?
One might also ask, if “secularism” means what they think it means, and if it is “growing”, where are all the atheist schools?
An atheist school would not be secular. It would be a mistake to open even one. Schools should be secular, not atheist, or catholic, or wiccan.
The UK is not the US: the Church of England is a state church, and the Crown is the Head of the Church of England. One has freedom of conscience in the United Kingdom, not freedom of religion. Until things change on a more basic level in that country, public education there will by and large remain religious education.
@Gordon #6 – I believe that is the point that David was making. The CoE seems to be equating “secular” with “atheist,” even though they are different things entirely.
Gregory – what you say doesn’t make sense, at least not to me. (Maybe there’s a step missing.) The fact that the C of E is a state church and the monarchy is at the top of it doesn’t mean that state schools have to be religious. There’s a specific law mandating RE, but that doesn’t just flow inevitably from the fact that the C of E is a state church and the monarchy is at the top of it. In any case RE is not the same thing as state-funded “faith” schools.
There is also a law requiring daily religious observance.
I wonder if the Right Reverend is related to Dr. J. Evans Pritchard, PhD.