Johann Hari: "Dear God, stop brainwashing children"

[ciphergoth]

Johann Hari, The Independent, 2009-05-08

Dear God, stop brainwashing children

Why is worship forced on 99 per cent of children without their own consent or even asking what they think?

Let us now put our hands together and pray. O God, we gather here today to ask you to free our schoolchildren from being forced to go through this charade every day. As you know, O Lord, because You see all, British law requires every schoolchild to participate in "an act of collective worship" every 24 hours. Irrespective of what the child thinks or believes, they are shepherded into a hall, silenced, and forced to pray – or pretend to.

If they refuse to bow their heads to You, they are punished. This happened to me, because I protested that there is no evidence whatsoever that You exist, and plenty of proof that shows the texts describing You are filled with falsehoods. When I pointed this out, I was told to stop being "blasphemous" and threatened with detention. "Shut up and pray," a teacher told me on one occasion. Are you proud, O Lord?

[...] I am genuinely surprised that no moderate religious people have, to my knowledge, joined the campaign to stop this compelled prayer. What pleasure or pride can you possibly feel in knowing that children are compelled to worship your God? Why are you silent?

[...]

Are there prominent religious campaigners on this issue in particular or State secularism in general that he's not taking into account? Are they getting articles in the national press, or trying to? Pointers welcome!

Comments

[emarkienna.livejournal.com]

This is one of my pet hates, and I find it surprising how it seems to be supported - not so much from an argument that it's necessary for children, but that "It doesn't really matter" or "Few schools enforce it anyway". As I commented above, it does happen in some state schools. Being excluded should be offered as a choice for the child and not just the parents - but I agree with the article that this is still problematic. Being excluded from their fellow pupils (who, as young children, may not understand the reasons) marks them out as being different, and it means they miss out on important or useful aspects of assemblies. I have memories from my primary school of other children who didn't go to assembly, but stood around waiting outside, and I had no understanding of why this was.

Imagine if atheism was preached at schools (in the "strong" sense of "There is no God, and Christianity is a bunch of fairy tales")? There'd be an outrage - arguments such as "But your child can be excluded" or "It doesn't happen in practice" or "There are worse laws to worry about" would never fly. Indeed, people would (rightly) be outraged at the fact that it was being taught to other children - as with Christian worship, it's not just about ourselves or our own children, there is the wider issue of trying to coerce children into believing religious beliefs.

In some sense I'd have more respect for someone who at least tried to give a direct argument in favour of why prayers in school was necessary, but it frustrates me that instead we get all these side arguments from people who don't admit to being in favour of it, but still spend effort trying to dismiss those who criticise the law.

I don't know if you read about one head's failed attempt to set up a secular school? The point is that the rule does have an exemption for "faith" schools - it's not even a consistent argument: "It's absolutely important that everyone worships Christianity because we're a Christian country ... except for when they don't have to".

I was surprised to learn that the law was only recently changed in England (in 2007) to even allow 16 year olds to opt out, and this is only now being changed in Wales (thankfully at my sixth form no one cared if we didn't go to assembly anyway, so I didn't have any experience of this myself). Interestingly the Catholic Church in England and Wales "has welcomed the decision" (although I guess there's the difference between welcoming a decision once it's made, and actively joining the campaign to change the law).

[blackmetalbaz.livejournal.com]

In Sixth Form, we were actively made to run assmeblies once a term, and religious material was still required. I seem to remember I even got to play the "Voice of God" in one effort. I can't really recall, but I suspect it was more Monty Python than King James Only.