Sir, – In their anxiety to express disagreement with John Waters’s opinion article (April 13th), some of your correspondents have allowed their enthusiasm to override the necessity for accuracy in the “facts” to which they have alluded.
Geraldine Moorkens Byrne (April 17th) seems to believe that the abuse perpetrated by some members of some religious orders was carried out in the name of religion. What is such an outrageous claim based upon? The same lady, as well as Maureen Rowan and Bernard Delaney (also April 17th) resent and apparently refute the statement that all life on earth, including human life, originated in primordial slime. But surely that is exactly what Charles Darwin and all evolutionists believe?
The major concern of those who wish to retain a religious ethos in their children’s schools, is that the present or some future minister for education, will take away their constitutionally guaranteed right to educate their children as they see fit. The parents who support Educate Together are in the course of being catered for and those who remain would appreciate the same consideration. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I wonder if it is families and churches that should have primary responsibility for educating children in Christian faith rather than schools? Teaching children about faith is more than lessons and information; it is nurture in a way of life.
Schools have neither the time nor resources for this and should not be expected to make it. Families who want to raise their children as Christians might be better finding a Christian church to belong to which will help them to do that.
I am thankful for the Educate Together system for its part in my becoming a Christian. As a child of open-minded, liberal, non-Christian Dubliners, I was sent to one of the first Educate Together schools where I was exposed to people and the worldviews of many faiths and none.
In an environment where I was free to inquire and investigate, I was won over by the ideas and lives of my two or three Christian friends. Secularism could be the best thing to happen to Christianity for centuries. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – It seems this drive to establish non-denominational schools is yet another attempt to accommodate minorities at the expense of our own culture and tradition.
If I go to Egypt, Nigeria or Iran I wouldn’t and shouldn’t expect the ethos to change in order to respect my Christian tradition.
Full integration into Irish society is the only way to deal with immigration – multiculturalism has failed in the UK and further afield. – Yours, etc,