Sir, – Joe Humphreys takes issue with my criticism of the proposed "Education about Religions and Beliefs (ERB) and Ethics" course for primary schools ("Church has no reason to fear secularism", Rite & Reason, February 23rd). He accepts my point that the proposed course is "an inherently secularist approach to the study of faiths". He is right to do so, as the course both assumes and implies that no particular religion is true and that individual moral autonomy is considered an ultimate end in itself. However, he then claims that such a course "would complement" existing faith-formation programmes in primary schools. He does not explain how, and I cannot imagine how he could.
Your columnist goes on to reject a related point I make about secularism generally, namely that it seeks to banish expressions of religious faith from the public life of the state. Ironically, he then argues that faith formation should be removed from all publicly funded schools, even those owned and run by church patrons.
His proposal is far less liberal than it might appear. It seeks to impose one belief system, namely that of secular liberalism, on all primary schools in the State, regardless of how this would impact on the rights of parents of various faiths to educate their children in accordance with the tenets and spirit of their religious convictions.
His other argument against the place of religious faith in the classroom is that it is a waste of taxpayers’ money. Yet he is content for the tenets of secular liberalism to be taught at taxpayers’ expense.
In effect, Joe Humphreys suggests that Christian parents and other believers would have to pay on the double. They would have to pay privately to have their children educated according to their authentic and reasonable religious views while also unavoidably paying for their children to be educated in beliefs that contradicts these views.
The rights of secularist parents should be vindicated, but not in this way. This proposal in no way accords with the true and original meaning of the separation of church and state. – Yours, etc,
Fr EAMONN CONWAY, DD
Head of Theology and
Religious Studies,
Mary Immaculate College,
Limerick.