Secular? Yeah, right!

"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 quoted it before, and for the same topic. Maybe it is because I blogged about a similar topic in French recently, I don't know. I was just checking about the school I used to work for two years ago, something I do from time to time about old working places, and they labelled themselves as secular. I would have choked myself in my drink had I been drinking. Secular? What a joke! Sure it was not an obscurantist, religious fundamentalist school, but in all honesty there was nothing secular about it. I am not writing this to settle old scores, heck the people I didn't like there don't read this blog and if they ever do, I cannot care less. I had some happy moments there, but I also have many reasons to be bitter about it. I guess I am still bitter and this is why I get irritated when I read something like this.

I mean, how many states schools in this country (and maybe in mine) label themselves as "secular" yet have prayers in assembly? Is there something even remotely secular about it? It didn't give the pupils much of a religious culture, mind you, but that's not the point: when prayer and worship is encouraged, when a vicar o the Church of England can show up and has constitutional right to give speech to the kids, you cannot label your school secular.