Faith on the small screen 

Transforming Lives has made the big time on the small screen. Well nearly! Our Director, Trevor Cooling, took part in Teachers' TV programme The Big Debate: Religion in Schools - a Question Time style programme chaired by Jonathan Dimbleby. Trevor is on camera for about the last 60 seconds!

The programme will leave viewers in no doubt that things can get pretty heated in discussions of religion in school. Staunch atheist Professor Richard Dawkins was head to head with an Anglican bishop and a leader of Islamic schools in England. Dawkins was adamant that bringing up a child in a religious faith is wicked. The well known Sikh broadcaster, Dr Indarjit Singh, thought that the exclusivist, Abrahamic faiths are the problem. An ex-Muslim from Iran condemned Islamic schools outright. No doubt all the conflicting opinions make great entertainment; not quite Big Brother, but not far off.

Interestingly, a view emerged in the programme which can be summed up in the suggestion that ‘benign Anglicanism' might offer an appropriate model for handling religion in schools. Even Dawkins seemed happy with this; describing himself as a cultural Christian at heart. This inoffensive version of Christianity seemed to be associated with the concept ‘spiritual Humanism' and was suggested as a counter to the divisive tendencies of over-passionate Christians.

I recently had an email from a student RE teacher; she had been shocked at how antagonistic her year 9 students were towards Christianity. Had she seen this programme she might not have been so surprised. The programme demonstrates that out there, in the wider world, there is a lot of negative feeling about Christianity, unless, that is, it conforms to benign Anglicanism! This is something Christians in general need to understand. The world of education is not as gospel friendly as they seem to assume.

Christians coming in to teaching need to be aware that their faith may not be as welcome as they might assume. Like missionaries working in non-Christian cultures in other parts of the world, we need to learn how to share our faith appropriately. That's why in Transforming Lives, we take Daniel as a model for the Christian teachers.

The Jonathan Dimbleby Big Debate - Religion in Schools can be viewed online at http://www.teachers.tv/video/24057.