Post
by leedsquietman » Thu Sep 23, 2010 6:53 pm
Faith schools are not divisive in my experience Russ, and remember I attended public and Catholic schools in the U.K. and taught in the Catholic School Board for 8 years and let me tell you we do not teach anything divisive at all. In fact, through the Family Life course, we teach diversity and tolerance of all. Religion (which is a tiny part of what we teach) sticks to the What Would Jesus Do ? and is designed to teach about kindness, love and helping others less fortunate.
The funding issue for transport is odd. When I lived in the UK, no schools got transport from my education authority, we had to take a regular buss to the middle school I attended (public school as the Catholic school was too far away) and pay the same child fares as for taking a bus into the town centre etc. It's a local issue you're mentioning and I don't know the circumstances, so won't comment any further on it, but you could be sure that if that was a public school and they changed the policy, there'd be an outcry about it too. Is the right to protest restricted to atheists ?
Russ, it should be patently obvious by now that I am not a big fan of Pope Benedict himself, but then again, I wasn't a fan of Neil Kinnock or Gordon Brown (or Blair in his second term) but am still pretty much a supporter of The Labour Party politically. Of their manifesto if it listed 30 points, there would probably be at least a few points I would side with the Lib Dems or Tories on.
As for The Pope embracing progression, it doesn't matter so much whether he does or not. What matters is that a huge portion of the people who attend Church and give him a living embraces it, and they are becoming increasingly progressive on the issues. He is a figurehead only. Do we follow the Queen's speech to the letter of the law and would you take direction from the Queen in your personal life and belief systems? Some older people who fear being hanged in the Tower Of London for treason might, but 90% would tell her to stuff her corgis up her butt and go away ! The age of being submissive to a figurehead is something that has lost it's influence since World War 2. However, don't misunderstand me - The current Pope has helped to heal a lot of things and much of what he says and does is good. He stands for a lot more good than bad, but there are things which he is out of touch on and which he holds a minority view on within his own church.
And keep up the protests and the shoe throwing because it might help accelerate change. Just don't label all Catholics under the same umbrella, because while undoubtedly a minority will agree with the Pope on homosexuality, birth control, ordaining women *even many Catholic women, especially older ones, believe he is right on that issue* - as Donnie says even within a religion you can have your own ideas and interpretations and are still an individual who chooses to be part
of a group.
