| I can't
believe this: just been chatting to a friend who is trying to get
her child into the nearest good state school.
That school happens to be a Church of
England school. Remember that it is paid for by taxpayers.
(The state pays 85% of costs*).
Our friends can't send their child
there because they are unable to obtain a letter from their vicar
confirming that they have been to church on average once every two
weeks over the last year.
I'm not making this up. In 2007, in
Britain, you can still be discriminated against because of your
creed.
I asked her what would happen if she
and her husband were, say, Jewish or Muslim. Then, she tells me,
they would get points under section whatever of the questionnaire
for "being of a different faith".
So if you have never thought about
religion, gone along with what your parents taught you and never
questioned it, then you'd be fine (you'd be favoured if you were a
Christian in this case). But if, say, you were plagued with
questions about how we came to be, read books on it, asked religious
leaders, visited various churches and found that actually things
just didn't stack up and worshipping an intangible is not for you
then, not you, but your child (how can a 5-year-old know what
it believes?) will be forced to go somewhere else for her three Rs.
In our friends' case, that is an inner city school - a bus ride as
opposed to a walk away - where standards are much lower. The
absolute slap in the face being that it's a Roman Catholic school!
Do you get a tax rebate for being
atheist? I mean you pay for these schools but you aren't allowed to
use them.
I welcome, and will publish, any
debate on this.
*http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,593365,00.html
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