"To hell with order, ecclesiastical and civil. To hell with miracles. Miracles? But miracles subverted order, did they not? Nonsense, no: they confirmed it: they kept the people on their knees."
Anthony Burgess, M/F
I know, I quote him, but it is through secular writers that I find words that I now consider holy. I love England. That said, there are elements of English life that I could easily do without. One is the presence, even in the public educational system, of elements that have to be called confessional. We had one of those assemblies today, where the principal/head teacher talks about the school, some ethical or intellectual aims we have to follow, and all this is fine. But sometimes, like today, a vicar is entitled to speak about God. So the whole school got a little bit of preaching about the Resurrection, Christ's Passion, Judas, and so on and so forth. Fair enough, what the vicar said was not all wrong, some of it was moral enough, Hell I have heard much worse preaching, but it was still tainted with a religious bias, therefore uncritical. It reminded me of when I was growing up in the then still confessional and Catholic school system of Québec. Then, I understood it, I thought praying at school and worshipping Jesus when we should have get some education were the things to do. Yes it is going to be Easter soon and it is all right and only fair that one tells the students where the holiday comes from. But this should be from a cultural, non-religious, neutral perspective, not an ideological one. Watching these children bowing their heads in prayer, I had an awful feeling of twenty something years old déjà vu: I could see myself at their age, looking at my own feet. I grew out of it and I hope they will go the same way, but I am still angry that indoctrination is still in fashion in publi schools.
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