How should religion be taught in state schools?

Doctrines of faith belong to the family and to the religious communities, not to the responsibility of the state. Schools should remain impartial and just, and teach the moral principles on which all religions agree.

If the state takes responsibility for teaching the doctrines of one religion, it opens a Pandora’s box that can never be shut again. Whatever is granted to one group must be granted to all the others too, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and many more. And within each religion there are denominations that do not recognise one another as genuine representatives.

As soon as the state writes curricula on doctrine, every denomination will complain that it has been misrepresented or given too little space. Disputes about law usually stay calm. Disputes about doctrine, however, make the blood boil, and in history they have often led to division and violence. Schools must not become places where hatred is spread in the name of God.

Doctrines of faith therefore belong in the family. Parents have the right to raise their children in their faith, and religious communities can fund their own teaching. Schools, on the other hand, should be neutral, teach reason and justice, and so enable children to think for themselves.

There is, however, one area of religion that belongs in every school, and that is morality. Being honest, respecting parents and elders, not harming others. The religions largely agree on this, and here conscience is the measure. This is exactly what many children lack today. Whoever grows up without any moral education easily comes to believe they owe nothing to God or to society. Japan shows that morality can be taught in the name of humanity from the very first school years.