Viva La France! Just Say "Non" To Religious
Displays in Public Schools--Everywhere!
"What really bothers me about all this absurdity about "freedom fries" and all the other anti-French hoo-ha is that there wouldn't be an America if it weren't for the French. People get all up in arms about "the French being ungrateful for all we did for them in World War II." Well, first, gratitude does not mean slaving your will to someone else. Also, I bet if you asked most people they wouldn't even realize that France seriously bailed our asses out in the revolutionary war and there was no way we would have beaten the British otherwise. On top of that they sold us a large tract of land and gave us a big ass statue too."
France is leading the way for secular democracies in taking steps to ban religious emblems in state schools. While doing so has created holy howls from Muslim and Christian fundamentalists, it seems that French President Jacques Chirac, a French government advisory commission and the French National Assembly are doing the rest of us (e.g., Canadians, Australians, Americans, British, etc.) a huge service. A pity our president did not listen to these sensible folks when they made it clear a year ago that going to war in Iraq was a really bad idea.
To bring you up to date on the fact situation, France's National Assembly, on the advice of their president, has voted to ban Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses from state schools. Students who violate the ban can be expelled.
The Muslim dress and attendant militant Islam is the key target of the ban, as Islamic enthusiasts have become a divisive, separatist movement in France. The speaker of the National Assembly, Jean-Louis Debre, remarked, ``What is at issue here is the clear affirmation that public school is a place for learning and not for militant activity or proselytism.'' (New York Times, February 10, 2004) Like America and most other Western democracies, France is a secular state that historically, for the most part, has managed to keep religion out of state schools and services to ensure no religion dominates or suffers discrimination. Like George Bush, those who prefer a "faith-based" society find this an affront to their religious agenda to spread one gospel or another.
The education minister in France (Luc Ferry) endorses the ban as a way to combat a ``spectacular rise in racism and anti-Semitism in the last three years, including the division of classes into militant religious communities.'' Other problems that prompted the effort to curtail religious activism in French schools include demands by male and female Muslim students for prayer breaks, bans on pork in school cafeterias and a host of other controversies surrounding accommodations for religious rituals and preferences affecting public education. Accommodate for faith-based piety might be the stuff of wet dreams for people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, but they give most Americans enamored of keeping separate church and state--and public schools, the creeps. In the spirit of tolerance for dissent for which they are infamous, Muslims have objected to the French initiative in some countries with chants at French embassies of "Crush the infidels.'' Which, of course, has many of us infidels a bit nervous.
Fortunately, the French move has broad public support amongst the French people. Of particular interest in this brouhaha is the fact that the French may go beyond controlling religious symbols in schools--some supporters of the effort to safeguard secularism want total equality that would entail requiring all students to attend physical education classes, to be exposed to the history of the Holocaust and to learn about human reproduction. As in this country, the religious extremists currently resist or block such basic educational features due to varied religious prejudices, all part of revealed dogma. "Abstinence only" sex education, anyone?
The French supporters of secularism believe the schools are the best tool for planting the roots of the republican idea. For children with religious fundamentalist parents, schools might be the only exposure to such an idea, and other compatible ideas, such as tolerance, respect for diversity, freedom of choice and the common decencies found only in secular, not theocratic states.
To summarize to this point, I support the proposed ban on religious garb in public schools, along with the even more significant policies that would halt the spread of religious influences at odds with France’s Republican ideals. It seems religious militants insist upon divided classes, anti-Semitism and assorted school changes based upon religious dogma (e.g., prayer breaks, elimination of pork in school cafeterias, exclusion of Muslims from physical fitness and sex education classes). All seem instances of anti-democratic pressures likely to arise in other Western societies if unchallenged. We should be grateful to and supportive of this French initiative. After all, public schools might be the only source for many students from religious families to learn about democratic values, such as tolerance for minority viewpoints, the values of free expression, individual choices and the common decencies we associate with secular states, not militant religious fundamentalism.
The bottom line, as I see it, is that France is seeking to protect and advance nothing less than what in an earlier essay I described as rational social wellness. (See http://www.seekwellness.com/wellness/reports/2004-01-07.htm.) This entails promoting freedoms, discouraging totalitarian mindsets and advancing basic rights. Viva La France, indeed! That country’s president is defending such American ideals as freedom of thought, freedom of and freedom from religion, freedom to change one's religion, freedom of speech and freedom of action. In doing so, they are resisting religious attempts to diminish the role and power of qualities that inhibit human potentials, particularly a cultural-based hostility to modernity. This struggle in France, which will surely come to America and the other democracies, is not really about religious garb—it’s really about the following rights:
* Right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
* Right to speak out and otherwise resist forces, institutions and individuals
that seek to deny human rights.
* Right to have one's conscience as the guide to ethics and morality.
* Right to expect tolerance for dissent and differences.
* Right to challenge information that seems nonsensical or misinformed.
* Right to a sense of cosmic modesty--a view that guards against taking oneself
or humanity's place in the universe too seriously.
* Right and a willingness to question those in charge.
I asked a sample of three wellness enthusiasts what they thought about the French ban on religious garb. Here are excerpts from their responses—space limits prevent the full richness of the commentaries I received.
Grant Donovan, Perth, Australia: I'm not certain the headscarves, scullcaps and crosses are the real problem. It seems to me that the kids are smart enough to spot the other tribes, with or without insignia. The authorities can ban the kids from wearing such apparel but they can't ban the insane thought processes and dogmas behind each religion. And therein lies the problem-it's the thought processes. The indoctrination from birth that leaves children powerless to think critically about the absolute fiction of gods. The fact that so many millions (probably billions) operate on blind religious faith suggests the world is in for an extended period of religious turmoil and violence (way beyond our lifetimes). Proof once again that life is meaningless (save what we invent).
Steve Jonas, Stonybrook, NY: I applaud the French government's move. France, although nominally Catholic, has a strong anti-clerical tradition and is a very good role model for the separation of church and state. If parents feel so strongly about religious identification and religious training for their children, they should send them to parochial schools---and pay for it. There is no justification for taxpayers having to subsidize the display of religious symbols which these days have much more to do with intimidation of others than they do with simple expression of belief. In addition, schools should be places
for developing tolerance and understanding, not separateness.
Robert Ludlow, Canton, NC: Among the myriad problems inflicted by religion is denial and distortion of established facts that happen to conflict with "revealed" dogma. Hence, when religion is taken too seriously and begins to influence public-education policy and curriculum, knowledge and truth suffer and education loses credibility and effectiveness. Just look at what's going on across this country (e.g., in the state of Georgia) with respect to the teaching of evolution in the public schools. (Consider: A large percentage of the right-wing religious zealots in education want to eliminate references to the age of the earth, based on their divinely-inspired certainty that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. Sheesh!)
Public education has the task of imparting accurate and useful knowledge to young citizens. In doing so, it will inevitably come into conflict with an array of prejudices, superstitions, dogma, and other sheer nonsense, fervently believed and practiced. But schools need to set and enforce the highest, most accurate standards based on sound scholarship and widely accepted research findings. There is simply no place for revealed biblical dogma and other unsubstantiated nonsense, however fervently believed and practiced by however many people. (Rhetorical question: How supportive would right-wing religious fanatics be if some religion other than theirs had a dominant role in determining policy and instructional content?) A major problem is that every religion has its own interpretations of scripture based on "faith," and no agreement is possible because they don't accept any objective tests or standards by which to assess the accuracy of their beliefs. In fact, questioning of dogma is considered heretical by many, if not most, religions. Which shows that "revelation" is the biggest intellectual sham there is, opening the door to ANY belief and practice, such as the idea that some god wants women to wear veils over their faces and other utter nonsense.
(Editorial digression: Most people in this country consider "faith" -- i.e., believing totally in something without a shred of objective evidence -- to be a virtue. And back when humanity had no clue about anything, faith must have had its place, probably even contributing to survival; but now I see it as the greatest intellectual and moral weakness of contemporary society. People can simply assert what pleases them and declare it to be absolute truth because it came from god. How is progress possible in such an environment? Answer: It’s not—just look at the countries of the Middle East.)
Mr. Ludlow continued, but I’m out of space and besides, you get the idea by now why I (and a few others) think France is doing the right thing from every important perspective, including safeguarding and promoting individual freedoms and advancing the prospects of national well being by preventing religious zealots from damaging public education. Now the challenge in this country is to persuade George Bush and the Republicans to honor our own traditions of church/state separation, and back off faith-based public education using taxpayer dollars.
Be well and look on the bright side of life.