I read an interesting article by Fr. Raymond J. de Souza on the attack from various quarters (or thirds in this case) on religion. The article was written in response to Elton John’s desire to have religion banned, the recently released book by Richard Dawkins The God Delusion, and the Mother Teresa bashing Christopher Hitchens. The one quote that I think really sums up his response to these attacks on religion is “it is no more possible to eliminate the religious dimension from human nature than it is to abolish politics, or economics, or literature or music. You can’t abolish the things men do without abolishing man altogether.” When we attack religion we attack our humanity.

Well it is that time of year again and my senior students have made their applications to the universities and they are all very anxious about their marks. Some want an accounting of every percentage point they’ve earned to date. Most of them know the programs they want to get in to and are keenly aware of the marks required by these programs for admission. The marks of their three or four courses are averaged out and this is what the universities base their acceptances on. It is when the students start talking to me about their religious education mark and how it affects their average that I hear an all too familiar mantra, a mantra that has steadily chipped away at the patience that I am supposed to have as a Catholic educator. That mantra is “I need this course to boost my average.”

The assumption is the “religion” is, or should be, an easy course and that I will automatically get an A+. Well to the shock and horror of some of my students this is not the case. One student actually said “religion is supposed to be easy.” Well as someone who earned his degree in religious studies I find this somewhat insulting. Furthermore, the study of theology is a serious academic discipline and IT IS NOT EASY!!!

Why do the students think this way? First of all, the curriculum in the earlier grades, especially in grade nine, is somewhat airy fairy and this develops an attitude towards religious education early on that is difficult to overcome. Secondly, often times a teacher who does not want to teach religion gets dumped into religion because there is one or two extra sections and the only real qualification that seems to be required to teach religion is a pulse. I once had a colleague who was “dumped” into a section of religious education teacher say to me “well religion is really all just about opinion, isn’t it?”I can’t say I blame this teacher for his thinking, his background is not in theology or religious studies but in the sciences, and he is used to dealing with objective truth (whatever that means to you!). I don’t believe we should be giving our students in the Catholic system an advantage over their public school counterparts by offering a course that universities will accept for admittance that guarantees them an automatic A. That would be immoral, unCatholic even!