Faith Schools and Politics

The Lib Dems want to remove faith schools’ ability to protect their ethos by selecting teachers who share a school’s faith position. The party also says in its manifesto that faith schools should take children from families who may not support a school’s religious ethos.

The Lib Dem manifesto says the party would “ensure that all faith schools develop an inclusive admissions policy and end unfair discrimination on grounds of faith when recruiting staff, except for those principally responsible for optional religious instruction”. Critics fear that the policy would threaten thousands of high-achieving faith schools across the country.

Last month the Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks said that faith schools encourage the attributes children need. He said “faith schools tend to have a strong ethos that emphasises respect for authority, the virtues of hard work, discipline and a sense of duty, a commitment to high ideals, a willingness to learn, a sense of social responsibility, a preference for earned self-respect rather than unearned self-esteem, and the idea of an objective moral order that transcends subjective personal preference”. And Lord Sacks concluded in his article for The Times newspaper: “One way or another, the critics should reflect on this simple question. If faith schools are so bad, why do thoughtful, often secular, parents think they are so good?”

Nick Clegg, a self confessed atheist, has claimed that Christian values are “central” to his policies in an article for a leading church newspaper. 

However, a Daily Telegraph report of the article, headlined ‘Atheist Nick Clegg discovers religion in time for polling day’, appears to cast doubt on Mr Clegg’s sincerity.

I don't know about you, but I am confused! The top part of the above press release seems to suggest that the Lib Dems (and therefore the leader, Nick Clegg) want to make changes to Faith Schools, and remove the choice of the schools to employ teachers who believe, and the children of those who also believe in that faith. Then, in the last part, I learn that Nick Clegg does not have a faith, since he is atheist, but claims that 'Christian values are central to his policies'.

Are you confused now like me? Try to read the top part in italics again, and see the obvious contradiction. How can an atheist have the heart of a faith school, especially a Christian faith, with its values, as central to his thinking? If it was indeed central, he would therefore be a believer of some kind, and in one of the faiths. For me, the two don't go together, so I think he has shot himself in the foot. Yes, he had a good first leader's debate, as they traded insults along with their policies, and he had some good one liners, but I expect a deeper character in my leader, and a contradiction in stated values says a lot about Nick Clegg. 

I want a strong leader I can trust, and have some faith in, and it would help if that leader also had a faith of his own. I don't like the smell of deception in the pursuit of power!